Tudor Brown says at the age of
53 he thought it was "time to move aside for some younger people"
When Tudor Brown stepped down as
president of ARM Holdings earlier this month, he left behind one of Britain's
and indeed the world's, most successful technology companies.
The designs it produces have been licensed and used to build processors at
the heart of many of today's bestselling gadgets.
Samsung's Galaxy phones and tablets, Amazon's Kindle e-readers, Nintendo's
3DS hand-held games consoles and Canon's cameras are just some some of the
products to use its chip architecture.
October's release of an ARM-compatible Windows system and new super-low
powered microprocessors point to further growth.
But looking back, Mr Brown is first to admit that his time at ARM was not all
rosy.
"All of ARM's early products failed commercially," he tells the BBC.
"There's a long list of them: the Acorn machine, the Apple Newton, the 3DO
multi-player - the world's first CD-based games console - there were a whole
bunch of things like that."
From Archimedes to
Apple
Mr Brown's involvement with ARM predates its existence to 1983 when he was
employed as an engineer at Acorn Computers. The firm was riding high off the
launch of the BBC Micro and had asked him to help evaluate processors from Intel
and Motorola for follow-up products.
He recommended it develop its own RISC-based processors - what were to become
the first ARM (Acorn RISC Machines) chips.
But the project was hamstrung by the fact it took four years to develop the
computer that ran them, the Acorn Archimedes.
The Acorn Archimedes featuring
the ARM2 chip launched in June 1987
"By that time Acorn wasn't able to aim at industry because the PC was getting
a foothold, so it was forced into the education market again," Mr Brown
says.
"It just wasn't big enough to sustain Acorn as a company, which is why it
kept on going bust."
Mr Brown says it was around this time Apple first started showing interest in
the ARM technology. The US firm initially rejected it because it viewed Acorn as
a competitor.
But after an aborted effort to use a product from the telecoms firm AT&T,
it returned in 1990 seeking help to build the Newton, the world's first PDA
(personal digital assistant).
The two companies agreed to create a joint venture - ARM Holdings - but once
again success proved elusive.
"Newton launched in 1992 and it was another commercial flop," says Mr
Brown.
"It was way ahead of its time, it was too big, it was too slow, its
handwriting technology didn't work. The sort of vision of what it was supposed
to be was remarkably close to what the iPhone is today... but the technology
wasn't fast enough for the time."
Rise of the
mobile
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
The profit margin we make out of every chip that is sold is
tiny, but our business model allows our partners to ship an awful lot of
chips”
End Quote Tudor Brown Former
president, ARM Holdings
Mr Brown notes that the device may have failed, but the
cash Apple later made from selling its shares in the firm proved useful.
"[It] sort of rescued Apple financially, and a few years later Apple started
using ARM technology in the iPod, and eventually that same technology got
transferred into the iPhone and iPad."
ARM itself was also shaped by the failed project in ways that would serve it
well later: a focus on low-power usage which forced it engineers to aim for a
"simplicity and elegance" of design.
Its fortunes turned when designs based on those principles were used by Texas
Instruments to build chips powering Nokia's GSM phones.
Their popularity helped propel ARM to a successful stock market flotation in
1998, linking its fortunes to those of the mobile industry. But it always had
wider ambitions.
"If you look at our marketing material right back to the IPO days we were
saying that ARM technology is applicable to a wide range of products - TVs, disk
drives and cars," says Mr Brown.
Internet of
things
Those products may have accounted for a smaller proportion of ARM's business
than expected, but the firm now believes that much of its future growth will
come from microprocessors based on its new super-energy "Flycatcher"
designs.
Apple helped create ARM
Holdings to build a chip for its ill-fated Newton
These are targeted at connecting things like fridges, medical equipment and
energy meters to the net.
"The internet of things will start to see appreciable volumes in about 2015,"
says Mr Brown.
"It's starting to get there because ARM technology is getting so small and so
cheap at the bottom end of the scale.
"A few months ago we brought out our smallest ever product, the
Cortex-M0+.
"I did a quick sum on the numbers being presented and it told me it could run
at a reasonable speed for 20 years on a single AA battery. That enables a whole
bunch of things that wouldn't otherwise be possible."
Avoiding factories
There is an obvious temptation for ARM to want to make such devices rather
than rely on royalty and licence fees, but Mr Brown says it would be wise to
resist.
"It's often discussed, but dismissed in the same vein fairly quickly," he
says.
"I've always said it's not the technology that's driving this company
forward, it's the business model that's put ARM where it is today.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
There's no question right now we are living through a
patent bubble and the valuations that are being paid for these patent portfolios
don't really bear sense”
End Quote
Tudor Brown Former president, ARM Holdings
"Yes, the profit margin we make out of every chip that
is sold is tiny, but our business model allows our partners to ship an awful lot
of chips."
He adds that he thinks Britain's days as a "strong" manufacturer are behind
it, but admits the picture becomes more complicated when it comes to trying to
map ARM's success to the wider economy.
"There is manufacturing in this country, but the psyche of the British people
with its chaos and flair means we are quite good at inventing things but not so
good at doing things repetitively," he says.
"If I look at wealth creation, then the UK should be doing the kind of things
we're doing - the high-end high-value stuff.
"But if I look at employment, it's a rather more difficult story, because
obviously a company as successful as ARM only employs about 1,000 people in this
country."
'Patent bubble'
As a business that does not physically produce any goods, ARM relies on its
intellectual property rights. But Mr Brown sounds dismayed by the rising number
of patent lawsuits and portfolio sales.
"There's no question right now we are living through a patent bubble and the
valuations that are being paid for these patent portfolios don't really bear
sense," he says.
"It doesn't seem sort of fair and it's hurting people.
"ARM has spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing technology, and we
should be able to protect it... so in that sense patents are essential and
sometimes you have to fight in court.
ARM only charges a 13-20p fee
for each microcontroller based on its Flycatcher design, but believes billions
may be built
"But that's quite different from some of the perceived values of these
portfolios being sold around."
Some analysts have suggested that ARM's rich patent portfolio could make
ultimately make it a takeover target.
After Hewlett Packard's acquisition of another UK tech giant, software firm
Autonomy, last year there has been speculation that the chip designer could be
bought by one of its clients.
But as he walks away from the firm, Mr Brown says he is hopeful it will
remain independent.
"ARM is a completely unusual company, it relies on being at the hub of this
complex ecosystem that we've built," he says.
"We'll happily license any company our technology for a few million dollars
while it would cost them several billion dollars to buy us. We can't really see
the industrial logic of why anyone would want to buy us.
"But you can never say never, some wild things can happen."
Like its closest competitor in the console market, the 
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