手機芯片霸主ARM公司瞄準物聯網

ARM, the British company that makes instruction set architectures for computer processors, is certainly not a household name—not the way Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android are, anyway. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less ubiquitous. If you’ve got a smartphone in your pocket, there’s a good—no, make that very good—chance that it’s ARM-powered.

作爲一家爲計算機處理器生產指令集構架的英國公司，ARM絕對算不上家喻戶曉，至少沒有蘋果（Apple）的iPhone和谷歌（Google）的Android那麼出名。但是，ARM與iPhone和Android一樣無處不在。如果你兜裏揣着一部智能手機，很有可能——不對，是極有可能——它的芯片是ARM出品。

The company’s microprocessor technology can now be found in more than 95 percent of the world’s smart handsets, it said, not to mention a sizable proportion of the smart TVs, wearables, gaming consoles, and automotive gadgetry. More than 50 billion ARM-based chips are out in the world right now, quietly powering much of the technological world.

ARM表示，目前全球95％以上的智能手機都在採用該公司的微處理器技術，更不用提相當比例的智能電視、可穿戴設備、遊戲機和汽車配件了。目前，500多億塊基於ARM設計的芯片在默默地爲大半個科技界提供動力。

So what does a highly successful company do once it has reached the top? Find another mountain to climb. The frontier known as the “Internet of Things,” or IoT for short, continues to grow as more appliances, vehicles, machines, and objects gain wireless Internet access. The field is getting bigger every year, and ARM has already begun making inroads.

在某個領域登峯造極後，一家極度成功的公司該何去何從？自然是另找一座高峯去攀登。隨着更多的家電、汽車、機器和其它物品連入無線網，“物聯網”的疆域越來越大。這個領域年年都在擴張，而ARM已經開始出擊。

“There’s a real opportunity here,” said Ian Ferguson, ARM’s vice president of segment marketing. “If we have technology embedded in a bunch of things, clearly there’s an opportunity to be more efficient. But the question also becomes how to improve quality of life.”

ARM公司負責細分市場營銷的副總裁伊恩o弗格森表示：“這一領域確實有大把機會。如果我們將技術廣泛應用到各類設備中，顯然就有機會提高效率。但問題也變成了如何提高生活質量。”

There are now roughly 13 billion wirelessly connected devices in the world, according to Cisco estimates. By 2020, there will be more than 30 billion, ABI Research predicts. Revenue for technology and services pertaining to the Internet of Things is expected to reach $7.3 trillion by 2017. The future of the global technology market, it seems, is at stake.

據思科公司（Cisco）估算，目前全球約有130億部無線聯網設備。ABI Research預測，到2020年，這個數字將超過300億。到2017年，與物聯網相關的技術和服務收入預計將達到7.3萬億美元。這似乎關係到全球科技市場的未來。

‘It might be controversial’

‘這可能具有爭議性’

It can be difficult to describe ARM’s efforts for the Internet of Things because the company does not actually manufacture the chips for which it is known. Rather, it licenses its designs to a number of semiconductor companies, which in turn build chips based on them.

要描述ARM在物聯網方面的努力有些困難，因爲這家舉世聞名的芯片公司本身並不製造芯片，而是將自己的設計授權給一些半導體公司，由它們來生產基於ARM設計的芯片。

AMD , Broadcom , and Qualcomm are among many licensees of ARM’s technology, which makes its way into consumers’ hands when original equipment manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, or Sony use those companies’ chips to create new phones, tablets and other devices.

獲得授權使用ARM技術的公司包括AMD、博通（Broadcom）和高通（Qualcomm）等。三星（Samsung）、宏達電（HTC）、索尼（Sony）等原始設備製造商（OEM）則使用上述公司的芯片製造新手機、平板以及其他設備，ARM的技術就是通過這種途徑進入消費者的手中。

“You need a very different chip in a phone, a smart watch and a connected microwave oven,” Ferguson said. “We provide the core building blocks, and partners take the technology and harness it to connected things. It’s really that customization that’s key.”

弗格森表示：“手機、智能手錶和聯網微波爐所需的芯片極爲不同。我們提供核心模塊，合作伙伴採取我們的技術，並將其用於聯網設備。關鍵在於定製。”

With such a strong presence on phones—consumers’ preferred gateway to the Internet today—ARM believes it is in a natural position to enable further connectivity.

鑑於ARM在手機市場佔據主導地位，而手機又是消費者首選的聯網設備，該公司認爲它在推動互聯互通方面處於有利地位。

“Using the phone as a conduit for information about yourself and your surroundings will be a big area in the Internet of Things,” Ferguson said. Some examples? Apps or services for monitoring asthma and heart health.

弗格森說道：“把手機用作獲得自身和周邊信息的管道，將成爲物聯網的一大應用領域。”用於監測哮喘和心臟健康的應用程序或服務就是很好的例子。

ARM’s technology is also finding its way into wearables such as headgear and smart bands, he noted. “That whole area is going to move forward—you’ll see those wearables become a more integrated part of the experience.”

弗格森表示，ARM的技術也開始被應用於可穿戴設備，比如頭戴式設備以及智能手環等。“整個領域都將向前推進——可穿戴設備將成爲整個體驗中協調性更高的一部分。”

A larger opportunity lies in business, where connected devices are used to reduce cost and improve efficiency. Manufacturing and oil and gas exploration are two examples of applications with strong potential, Ferguson said. “You’ve got highly valued assets, so preventative mechanical services can help improve efficiency by detecting problems before they break down,” he added.

更大的商機在於企業——聯網設備可以被用來降低成本，提高效率。弗格森稱，製造和油氣勘探是兩項極具潛力的應用範例。他表示：“許多企業都有價值極高的資產，而預防性機械服務能在機械發生故障前就檢測到問題，從而提高效率。”

In cities, public lighting and trash collection are functions that can be more effective through the use of embedded sensor technology. Ferguson cited the success of BigBelly Solar‘s intelligent trash receptacles as one example.

在城市，採用嵌入式傳感器技術有望提升公共照明和垃圾收集的效率。弗格森還特意列舉了BigBelly Solar公司研製智能垃圾箱的成功範例。

Even street parking is covered. “In San Francisco, some areas have parking spaces that can detect if they’re empty or not, and you can book them on the phone—that’s an efficiency sort of play,” Ferguson said. “But if the city knows some areas are getting booked up more frequently, there might be new valuable services they could sell there. You might even see the pricing change based on availability. It might be controversial.”

就連街邊停車問題也有望通過物聯網予以解決。弗格森表示：“在舊金山，有些區域的停車位可以檢測出車位上是否有車，而且人們可以電話預訂停車位，這很有效率。但是，如果城市有關部門得知某些地區的停車位常常被預訂一空，它們或許可以在這些地區銷售有價值的新服務。你甚至可能看到基於火爆程度做出的定價調整。這樣做可能會引發爭議。”

That technology is already under evaluation in several cities including Los Angeles and Berkeley, both in California.

同在加州的洛杉磯和伯克利等城市已經開始評估這項技術。

Narrower than a human hair

比人的頭髮絲還要細

ARM’s answer for all of this is its Cortex-M microprocessor series, which is notable for its energy efficiency and miniaturization and targets wearable technology and embedded applications. (The Cortex-M0+ processor, for instance, can fit within the width of the average human hair.)

針對這些問題，ARM推出了Cortex-M微處理器系列，這些以節能和微型著稱的微處理器主要面向可穿戴技術和嵌入式應用。（舉例來說，Cortex-M0+處理器就比人類頭髮絲的平均寬度還小。）

In June, the company announced the establishment of new CPU Design Center in Hsinchu, Taiwan—its first such center in Asia—which will be dedicated to the series. It also held an IoT Tech Seminar in Singapore this month.

今年六月，ARM宣佈在臺灣新竹成立一座專門研發這款微處理器的CPU設計中心。這也是該公司在亞洲成立的首個CPU設計中心。此外，ARM本月還在新加坡舉辦了一場物聯網技術研討會。

Working in the company’s favor: a wide array of partners. “This being a new market, it will require a lot of innovation to get started,” Gwennap said. “ARM and its partners have a leg up.”

林利集團（The Linley Group）首席分析師林利o葛文那普表示：“我認爲ARM將在物聯網中扮演重要角色。該公司已經爲低成本、低功率的應用提供了很多好技術。”

Still, ARM may confront challenges that it wouldn’t otherwise face in the smartphone market it dominates. “All smartphones want to run pretty much the same software,” Gwennap said. Internet of Things devices may not work the same way. “In the IoT, I don’t think we’ll see apps running on a lightbulb, for example. There will be more diversity there, and more opportunity for other companies to play a role.”

對ARM有利的是，該公司擁有大量合作伙伴。葛文那普表示：“這是一個需要大量創新才能撬開的新市場。ARM及其合作伙伴在這方面有優勢。”

One of those companies: Intel. The leading microprocessor company has been ramping up its efforts for the Internet of Things, including establishing an IoT subgroup with sectors devoted to retail, transportation, manufacturing and industrial applications, and smart homes and buildings.

不過，ARM也可能面臨它在自己主宰的智能手機市場不曾遇到的挑戰。葛文那普指出，“所有智能手機想要運行的軟件都大同小異。”而物聯網設備可能不一樣。“舉例來說，在物聯網中，我認爲我們不會看到在燈泡上運行的應用。這一領域將更具多樣性，其它公司將有更多機會參與其中。”

“We believe the IoT is a huge transformational opportunity,” said Eric Free, a vice president within Intel’s Internet of Things subgroup. “We expect there will be billions and billions of intelligent connected devices that will essentially bring data from a variety of business and industrial environments into the cloud and unlock a ton of business transformations.”

這些公司中就包括英特爾（Intel）。作爲領先的微處理器公司，英特爾加大物聯網技術的研發力度，專門成立物聯網事業部，下設部門分別致力於零售、運輸、製造和工業應用，以及智能家居和建築等行業的研發工作。

Intel’s Quark, Atom, Core, and Xeon lines of microprocessors are each playing a role in the Internet of Things, Free said. The company is also working to promote security and standards—it helped found the Industrial Internet Consortium—and shape public policy around the topic, he added.

英特爾物聯網部門副總裁埃裏克o弗裏表示：“我們認爲物聯網是一個巨大的轉型機遇。根據我們的預測，未來將出現數以十億計的智能聯網設備，究其根本，這些設備將把各種企業和工業環境的數據帶入雲端，從而將啓動大量的業務轉型。”

‘We’re only just scratching the surface’

弗裏稱，英特爾的夸克（Quark）、凌動（Atom）、酷睿（Core）和至強（Xeon）等微處理器系列都將在物聯網中發揮各自的作用。他補充道，英特爾還在努力提升安全和標準——該公司策劃建立了工業互聯網聯盟（Industrial Internet Consortium）——並塑造圍繞這項主題的公共政策。

ARM is also concerned about standardization, of course. The company pitches its chip designs as a way not only to enable Internet of Things devices, but also as a way to avoid what it calls the “Internet of Silos,” where data is created but not shared among service providers.

“我們才觸及表面”

“Clearly what we need to do as an industry across verticals is look at how all these things connect together and communicate information in a sensible way,” Ferguson said. “Besides security, we have to work on standards.”

當然，ARM也非常想確定行業標準。該公司宣稱，其芯片設計不僅能啓動物聯網設備，還能避免它所說的“筒倉網（Internet of Silos）”，即產生的數據無法由各家服務供應商共享。

Toward that end, ARM has been heavily involved in efforts such as 6LoWPAN, which concerns the interoperability of networks of low-power devices and today’s dominant Internet protocol, and the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), an Internet protocol tailored to simple electronics, he said.

弗格森表示：“顯然，我們整個行業需要上下一心，審視所有設備是如何互聯，併合理地傳達信息。除安全性外，我們還必須制定標準。”

“I think they are being a fantastic enabler to all the semiconductor companies,” said Alfonso Velosa III, a research director with Gartner. “The Internet of Things requires low power and an ability to enable a broad variety of programmers. ARM has provided a common language.”

出於這一目的，ARM一直深度參與6LoWPAN等技術規範的確定，後者涉及低功率設備網絡、如今盛行的互聯網協議以及約束應用協議（CoAP，一項專門針對簡單電子設備的互聯網協議）之間的互操作性，他說。

With a three-pronged approach—microchips, software, and “a very good ecosystem,” Velosa said—ARM will continue to shape the evolving standards and architecture of the Internet of Things.

高德納公司（Gartner）調研總監阿方索o韋羅薩稱：“我認爲他們對所有半導體公司而言都是一大助力。物聯網需要低功率以及調動各種程序員的能力。ARM提供了一門公用語言。”

“A lot of people think the Internet of Things is just smart refrigerators and toasters,” Ferguson said. “The bigger opportunity is, how do you improve people’s lives? We’re only just scratching the surface on what technology for good can do.”

韋羅薩稱，微芯片、軟件和“很好的生態系統”三管齊下，ARM將繼續打造物聯網不斷提升的標準和架構。