Powering Transformative innovation and New Market Entrants: Arm at CES 2023

Transformative innovation, new entrants

While most ease their way into the new year, there is no such time afforded to the tech sector as thousands of companies descend upon Las Vegas for CES at the start of January. As the event returns to near pre-pandemic level of attendees, the world’s tech companies are exploring exciting opportunities in new markets beyond their usual scope, with Arm providing the technology platform that allows them to innovate.

Throughout CES 2023, Arm was shown to be the driving force behind these emerging consumer compute experiences, not just now but in the future. As we take a look at some of the latest products and solutions built on Arm technology that were on display or announced at CES, we saw two themes emerge: transformative innovation and new entrants.

Many Arm-based automotive demos

CES has become a key industry event for the latest and greatest automotive innovations right across the vehicle, from infotainment and cabin functions through to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. Dozens of Arm’s automotive partners were showcasing their latest automotive products and solutions as the industry accelerates to software-defined vehicles (SDVs). Many of the demos from our automotive partners featured work in support of SOAFEE, the Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE), that was launched in 2021. Here are some notable demos we visited:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) had a SOAFEE demo showing how to develop and then run applications in an Arm-based AWS Graviton cloud instance, before seamlessly moving this to the edge to run on the Arm-based AVA development platform. The example used in the demo was the AWS IoT Fleetwise application that collects information from the vehicle and then sends that information to the cloud for storage and analysis.
• Continental featured a demo of it CAEdge (Continental Automotive Edge) platform, a modular multi-tenant framework with Elektrobit software that connects the vehicle to the cloud and is one of the SOAFEE reference hardware systems. It adopts NXP’s S32G Vehicle Network Processors, which integrates multi-core Arm Cortex-A53 CPU processors alongside Arm Cortex-M7-based microcontrollers for safety, security and high-performance. The system also features two system on module (SOM) sockets that are both based on Arm technology.
• Sonatus had many Arm-based demos on its booth, including showing how the company can update diagnostic and testing agents within the vehicle to add new functions from the cloud, as well as new NXP S32G-based Zonal Controllers.
• Ampere showcased its YOLOv5 object detection demo, which is built on its Arm Neoverse N1-based platform.

Big announcements from auto partners

Capitalizing on the big automotive focus at CES, a host of partners announced Arm-based products at the event. NXP announced its new i.MX 95 family of application processors built on 6x Arm Cortex-A55 CPU cores. These enable a broad range of edge applications in the vehicle, including connectivity and eCockpit. In the world of autonomous drive, Ambarella introduced its CV3-AD685, which integrates Arm Cortex-A78AE and Cortex-R52 CPU cores, to the CV3 family of automotive AI domain controllers for autonomous vehicles. Staying with Ambarella, Kodiak Robotics announced that it would be integrating the company’s CV2AQ AI perception system-on-chip (SoC) into its self-driving trucks, with this featuring 4x Cortex-A53 CPU cores. NVIDIA also announced that its Drive Orin SoC, which is built on Cortex-A78AE cores, will be used as part of a new strategic partnership with Tier 1 manufacturer Foxconn to develop autonomous vehicle platforms.

Lenovo enters the mobile arena

Lenovo is traditionally known for its extensive range of desktop and laptop PC devices, but the company used CES to showcase its latest product in the mobile space. Partnering with Motorola, Lenovo launched the new ThinkPhone targeted specifically for enterprise use cases. This smartphone device is built on the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform, which integrates 1x Arm Cortex-X2, 3x Cortex-A710 and 4x Cortex-A510 CPU cores. The CES demo of the ThinkPhone focused on seamless integration with other Lenovo devices, like the Windows on Arm Lenovo ThinkPad x13s laptop device which continues to grow its market share in the enterprise space. The demo showed a drag and drop feature between Lenovo devices, being able to copy on one device and then paste on the other, and also using the ThinkPhone with an external monitor for a desktop PC experience.

Alongside the ThinkPhone, Lenovo showcased other Arm-based consumer products at CES, including:

• The Lenovo Tab Extreme, an entertainment first device built on MediaTek’s Dimensity 9000 which features Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710 and Cortex-A510 CPU cores alongside an Arm Mali-G710 GPU;
• Lenovo SmartPaper, a dedicated note-taking device built on the Rockchip RK3566 processor which integrates 4x Cortex-A55 CPU cores and an Arm Mali-G52 CPU; and,
• Lenovo ThinkReality A3 augmented reality (AR) smart glasses – built on the Arm-based Snapdragon XR1 SmartViewer platform – that expands the workplace environment through generating many different virtual monitors via AR.  

XR wearable innovation

The metaverse has given the XR market – which covers AR, VR (virtual reality) and MR (mixed reality) – a significant boost, with more wearable devices announced at CES. Selected as one of the best products of CES 2023, HTC’s new Vive XR Elite, a highly portable standalone VR headset which runs on the Snapdragon XR2 platform integrating Arm Cortex-A77 and Cortex-A55 CPU cores, offers hours of battery life and expanded visual capabilities for key VR use cases like gaming. Elsewhere in the XR space, TCL – traditionally known for its DTV devices – unveiled its new augmented reality (AR) Ray Neo X2 smart glasses. Like the HTC Vive XR Elite, the wearable device runs on the Arm-based Snapdragon XR2, with the CES demo showing how the RayNeo X2 can translate conversations in real-time with the translated text appearing in the user’s eyeline via AR.

A new name in the 2-in-1 space

CES gives the opportunity for start-up companies to make some noise with their new products and innovation. One such company is Robo and Kala which showcased its only product, a very impressive Windows 2-in-1 tablet and laptop. The super thin, lightweight device is built on the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform, which integrates 4x Arm Cortex-X1 and 4x Cortex-A78 CPU cores, and offers impressive display features alongside the Windows on Arm battery life benefits.

Expanding gaming

CES showed how gaming is not just restricted to premium and flagship smartphones, laptops and games consoles. Featuring at Chrome Unboxed was a gaming demo showing impressive performance on the entry-level ASUS Chromebook CM14 built on the high-efficiency Kompanio 520 processor from MediaTek, which integrates 2x Arm Cortex-A76 and 6x Cortex-A55 CPU cores, alongside a Mali-G52 GPU. We also saw the new Razer Edge – a compact 6.8 inch handheld gaming console – in action. A new gaming Snapdragon gaming platform – the G3x Gen 1 – powers the device, with the chipset integrating 1x Arm Cortex-X1, 3x Cortex-A78 and 4x Cortex-A55 CPU cores. Finally, Amlogic had a fun demo showing over-the-top motion gaming through its new A311D2 chipset based on 4x Cortex A73 and 4x Cortex-A53 CPU cores and a Mali-G52 GPU.

AI-based smart checkouts

Walking around the CES show floor, it was interesting to see how new smart checkouts for retail were successfully incorporating AI. The Arm-based Arima smart checkout system uses AI to detect both people and items during the self-checkout process. Meanwhile, ThunderSoft showed its new self-checkout vending machine, with the AI running through the Arm-based EB2 Edge AI station that features in the product.

Robots to save lives…. and time on chores

As with previous events, CES showcased a variety of new robotic devices coming to market. Two Arm-based robots that caught our attention were U Safe’s remote controlled robotic rescue system for life saving and Yarbo’s 3-in1 intelligent yard robot for outdoor chores. The U Safe device, which rescues people lost or stranded at sea, integrates an Arm-based microcrontroller from ST electronics for connectivity and communications. Yarbo’s multi-functional device integrates Arm Cortex-A CPUs for smart vision to help complete various outdoor tasks, including mowing the lawn, blowing leaves and blowing snow.

The smart home is getting smarter

Ensuring Matter compatibility among smart home devices was a key focus at CES 2023. Following the launch of the Matter 1.0 standard by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, who Arm has collaborated with for years, many device manufacturers are creating Matter-compliant devices, with these built on the Arm platform. At CES 2023, Samsung was leading a huge drive around ‘Smart Things’, including smart light bulbs, thermostats, security cameras, video doorbells and many more, with all these compatible with Matter to ensure they are secure, reliable and seamless to use in the smart home. One great use case example from Samsung was healthy lifestyles, with the smart home connecting to sensors in wearable devices for fitness stats and then seamlessly updating the smart display in the kitchen to suggest healthy recipes following a workout.

Keeping track of health

At the start of every year, there are various commitments made toward leading healthier lifestyles as people make their New Year’s resolutions. With this in mind, it was great to see new, innovative wearable devices designed to keep track of people’s health, wellbeing and fitness on display at CES. Citizen announced its new CZ Smart wearable device, a smart watch that is built on the Snapdragon Wear4100+ platform featuring 4x Cortex-A53 CPUs. The wearable device uses AI to keep track of energy and fatigue among users, with this including sleep tracking.

The driving force behind CES 2023 innovations

CES 2023 showed the true breadth and depth of Arm’s technology across multiple tech sectors, with a vast array of Arm-based products and solutions on display and announced by partners. The world’s tech companies are expanding their product portfolio into new markets, with Arm technology allowing them to create innovative products and solutions with new features and use cases. At the start of the year, it was great to see Arm as the driving force behind CES 2023 innovations, with our technology continuing to redefine computing now and in the future.