Article by: Gary Campbell
Arm’s Gary Campbell looks back at some of the key trends for 2022 and provides insights into emerging technologies to expect in 2023.
This was the year of the developer. In recent years, Arm has laid the groundwork for developers through our Armv9 architecture and new solutions. In 2022, we’ve seen what developers can build on this technological foundation.
With silicon consumption slowing, developers are scrambling to deliver enhanced experiences across a wide range of technologies, from automotive to mobile to IoT devices, to the data centers that handle the massive amounts of data generated by all of them Connectivity can be generated.
Of course, new technology eras don’t come overnight, but 2022 was a watershed moment because of all the standards that have grown together to make the development of innovative solutions for Arm faster and more efficient. This has been particularly evident in sectors such as automotive, as software is on the rise in all aspects of the vehicle, further emphasizing the need for standardization to reduce software complexity for developers. Initiatives such as SOAFEE, for example, have made great strides in facilitating automotive developers’ experience with reference implementations and enabling software reuse.
For users, applications are a central part of the overall device experience. For example, looking at cellular, in 2022 real-world performance based on application experience, and no longer synthetic benchmarks, has come of age. This means a combination of efficiency and performance, rather than just performance alone, to define the best possible user experience. The need for power efficiency also applies to the computer infrastructure sector. The rise in energy prices and the importance of climate change have really thrown the spotlight on the traditional approach to deploying more computing power in the data center, emphasizing the need for power efficiency more than ever.
The mobile gaming landscape has also never been brighter and is an area where profound technical innovation took place in 2022. We’ve seen new flagship chipsets, smartphones, and features like ray tracing for ultra-realistic and immersive mobile gaming experiences. Arm even launched a brand new flagship GPU called Immortalis to meet the high demand for outstanding visual experiences.
Predictions for 2023
In the coming year we will see a renewed focus on computing power, power and thermal efficiency. We are already seeing this shift toward power and energy savings in infrastructure markets, particularly in data centers, and expect it to continue in 2023 with increasing momentum behind power efficiency.
The role of applications in redefining the user experience will also accelerate as performance metrics are built around the application experience as part of a broader industry push for “real-world performance.” The combination of efficiency and performance, not just performance alone, will set future standards.
While 2022 was a year of consolidation, I expect 2023 to be a year of innovation. The foundation has been laid over the past few years by providing the ecosystem with the tools to get creative and provide even more compelling experiences with current and future technologies. Mobile gaming is a great example, as ray tracing capabilities on mobile devices aim to enable ultra-realistic gaming experiences.
Additionally, the global demand for data to unlock autonomy, information access, and human connection remains insatiable. We believe the future is software defined – from IoT and mobile devices to the automotive industry and the broader computing infrastructure. This development underscores the importance of the relationship between hardware and software and underscores the growing need to enable developers to do their best work by minimizing the complexity that a software-defined future brings. It also means that there is a strong need for more computing power to handle all the software and data from these devices. Now more than ever, with rising energy costs and increasing focus on climate change, processing needs to be efficient – which is why the computing foundations for all these markets are being built on Arm.
As we have established with the impact of a global pandemic, the technology industry is vital to the future of society. Now is the time to define the future of computing, and 2023 holds a lot of potential for this industry to continue changing the world for the better.
About the author
Gary Campbell is Executive Vice President, Central Engineering at Arm.
