Arm Unveils Lumex Chips Optimised for AI on Mobile Devices
Arm Holdings announced on Tuesday the launch of its next-generation Lumex chip designs, built to power artificial intelligence directly on mobile devices. The new designs aim to handle advanced AI tasks on smartphones, watches, and other wearables without relying on cloud computing.
Four Variants for Different Devices
The Lumex series includes four design types tailored for a range of devices. Some prioritise energy efficiency for smartwatches and smaller wearables, while others maximise performance for high-end smartphones. The peak performance version is designed to run large AI models locally, enabling tasks such as real-time translation and interactive applications without internet access.
“AI is becoming pretty fundamental to what’s happening, whether it’s real-time interactions or killer use cases like AI translation,” said Chris Bergey, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Arm. “We’re just seeing AI become an expectation.”
Supporting Smartphone Makers and Chip Designers
The Lumex designs are part of Arm’s Compute Subsystems (CSS) business. This unit provides more complete, ready-made designs for handset manufacturers and chip developers, enabling faster integration into new products. By offering this technology, Arm aims to strengthen its position in the mobile market while expanding into data centres and other sectors.
The new Lumex series is optimised for 3-nanometre manufacturing nodes, including processes offered by Taiwan’s TSMC. Apple’s latest iPhone chips, also produced with TSMC’s 3-nanometre process, highlight the industry’s shift toward this advanced standard.
Future Investments and Market Focus
Arm has signalled plans to increase investment in exploring its own chip production and has recruited industry talent to drive this strategy forward. The company hopes such efforts will diversify revenue and deepen its role in the global chip supply chain.
To highlight the launch, Arm is holding an event in China on Wednesday. Bergey noted the choice of location reflects the dominance of leading handset makers such as Apple, Samsung, and major Chinese brands in the mobile market.
with inputs from Reuters