ARM and DARPA sign three-year collaboration agreement for ERI

ARM has signed a three-year agreement to allow researchers at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to use all of its intellectual property and tools.

The ARM deal specifically targets DARPA’s Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI), which was established in 2017 to protect U.S. capabilities in the electronics sector. Partners in the ERI program must ensure that the benefits of ERI’s more than 20 DARPA-funded projects benefit U.S. commercial and defense programs.

The deal enables DARPA employees to quickly and easily leverage ARM’s IP, tools and support, including AI accelerator and GPU cores and ultra-low-power microcontroller cores.

DARPA’s research activities provide a wealth of opportunities for future technological innovation. “DARPA will work with the world’s largest computing tool providers to develop ecosystem solutions.”

ERI stressed that the deal would also help negotiations on the sale of ARM.

With more than 170 billion ARM-based chips shipped worldwide to date, the deal provides researchers with flexibility to access vertical market designs and tools, from small embedded zero-power sensors to high-performance systems.

“DARPA programs within the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) focus on the most advanced challenges in microelectronics, which are not only key to breakthrough scientific and engineering advances, but are also critical to better transition to military and commercial applications by equipping them with best-in-class technologies,” said Serge Leef, director of the MTO Design Automation and Secure Hardware program.