MWC Runs on Arm With AI-Powered Infrastructure and Mobile Innovation

Entering the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024, attendees could not miss the huge billboards that stated: “MWC Runs on Arm”. Arm-powered innovations across diverse technology markets were present throughout the event, with significant new announcements, new product releases, new collaborations, innovative demonstrations and stimulating discussions around the latest technology trends and themes.

AI dominates MWC

At MWC 2024, AI once again emerged as the key theme. The tone was set on the first day of the event, with the launch of the AI-RAN Alliance. This new collaborative initiative aims to integrate AI into cellular technology to further advance RAN technology and mobile networks, with Arm one of the founding members.

Speaking at the launch, Mohamed Awad, SVP and GM, Infrastructure, said: “AI will fundamentally change the way wireless services are deployed and enable broad innovation and operational efficiency across the telco sector. The AI-RAN Alliance brings together industry-shaping companies with expertise from silicon through software to deliver on the promise of ubiquitous AI and 6G.”

On the MWC show floor, Arm joined NVIDIA and SoftBank (who are both AI-RAN alliance members) to present demonstrations of AI on NVIDIA Grace Hopper, which is built on Arm CPU technology.

The start of MWC also saw Chris Bergey, SVP and GM of the Client Line of Business, discuss the AI evolution and Arm’s vital role in enabling AI computing across every single technology touchpoint. Bergey stated that the Arm CPU is at the forefront of AI enablement, with AI capabilities doubling every two years. He sees AI innovation currently being pioneered on mobile via Arm technologies entering other consumer tech markets, like PC and laptops with this fuelling the rise of the “AI PC.”

5G solutions built on Arm

Elsewhere in the world of Infrastructure, MWC 2024 offered companies a chance to showcase their latest 5G solutions. SynaXG unveiled its Arm-based 5G O-RAN platforms and technologies, with these empowering network providers to accelerate the development and market introduction of 5G O-RAN networks. These were displayed on the SynaXG, Vodafone and Arm MWC booths.

In fact, the Arm booth showcased a range of Neoverse-based 5G platforms. These highlighted the platform’s scalable efficiency, and performance per watt and total cost of ownership (TCO) gains. This is especially important with growing data and connectivity in the age of AI.

As Eddie Ramirez, VP, Go-to-Market, Infrastructure, said at MWC’s Sustainability Summit: “If we marry generative AI together with the low latency we already deliver to 5G networks, the opportunity to create new kinds of services is there for Telcos to take advantage of.”

Partner collaborations across Infrastructure

MWC provided the opportunity for Arm and our partners to announce a range of industry collborations.

Ceva, a leading provider of digital signal processing technology, announced that it joined Arm Total Design to accelerate the development of its end-to-end 5G systems-on-chip (SoCs) for Infrastructure and NTN satellites. This partnership combines Arm’s Neoverse Compute Subsystems (CSS) with Ceva’s comprehensive PentaG-RAN 5G DSP baseband platform to deliver advanced compute performance for processor-intensive 5G workloads.

Ceva is one of more than 20 partners that have now joined the expanding Arm Total Design ecosystem, with nine new companies being announced during MWC. Through Arm Total Design, partners get more silicon customization, a faster time-to-market and more efficient investment on Neoverse CSS.

Finally, Arm was welcomed by NTT DOCOMO as a new OREX partner to support overseas telecom operators implementing Open RAN (radio access network), which is a set of industry-wide standards designed to support equipment interoperability from multiple vendors. Through this collaboration, we are bringing sustainable Arm-based 5G solutions to accelerate the adoption of Open RAN deployments worldwide.

Mobile innovation on Arm

As the name suggests, MWC 2024 displayed outstanding mobile innovation. And one of the best places to see this in action was on the Arm booth.

As discussed in a previous blog, the Arm CPU is running generative AI at the edge on mobile. This was demonstrated on the Arm booth through a LLaMa2 7bn parameter demo running AI inference on Arm Cortex CPUs on a TCS23-powered smartphone. The performance of the demo is a fraction under 10 Tok/s, which is approximately twice the read speed of an average adult.

The booth also showcased the power of mobile gaming experiences on Arm through the Steel Arms demo. This follows work between Arm and Epic Games to enable the Unreal Engine 5 desktop renderer on Android, with the demo showing how desktop quality rendering and graphics can be delivered by Immortalis GPUs on mobile devices. MediaTek, which adopts the latest Arm Immortalis-G720 GPU and Armv9 CPUs in its Dimensity 9300, used MWC to showcase the chipset’s mobile gaming capabilities, which included ray tracing features for mobile, alongside its extensive support for on-device generative AI.

Leading mobile OEMs saw MWC 2024 as the ideal platform to unveil new smartphone devices that are built on Arm’s CPU technology. Xiaomi showcased the global versions of the Xiaomi 14, while Honor announced its flagship device, the Honor Magic 6 Pro. Also, a relatively new OEM called Tecno unveiled its new PolarAce imaging technology, which will be available in the Tecno Camon 30 Premier 5G smartphone later in 2024. The smartphone is built on an eight-core 4nm MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultimate 5G processor, which features Arm CPU technologies and an Arm Mali-G610 GPU.

Windows on Arm coming of age

As discussed in a previous blog, Windows on Arm (WoA) momentum continues to accelerate with new announcements and developments across the ecosystem. On the Arm booth, we demonstrated the performance capabilities of WoA laptop devices, like the Lenovo ThinkPad x13s, and the broad range of native-built applications now targeting WoA. Elsewhere on the showfloor, Microsoft introduced an AI-based image editing feature called Generative Erase for its Windows Photos application, which is available to Windows Insiders on Windows 11 Arm64 devices.

Automotive takes the lead from mobile

Using mobile innovation as inspiration, the automotive ecosystem is developing advanced infotainment software platform for software-defined vehicles (SDVs) being launched now and in the future. At MWC, MediaTek displayed its new Dimensity Auto Cockpit that is utilizing mobile technologies to deliver interactive AI-based driver features.

Meanwhile, on the Arm booth, we demonstrated the value of new development approaches for the automotive industry. The SOAFEE Cloud Native framework highlighted the benefits of containerized workloads for automotive applications, which decouples hardware and software to accelerate automotive development for SDVs. This is achieved through ISA parity between cloud and edge, which is enabled by the pervasive Arm compute platform, so automotive applications can be developed in the cloud and then seamlessly deployed at the edge (in the vehicle) for a quicker time to market.

Arm-powered robots

Finally, it was great seeing Arm-based robotic devices hitting the market at MWC. At the event, Tecno showcased its first AI-enhanced robotic dog, featuring an 8-core high-performance Arm CPU that is enabling dynamic stability, rapid post-fall recovery, and speeds of up to 3.7m/s.

Technology innovation on Arm

MWC 2024 demonstrates the pervasiveness of the Arm compute platform, with solutions across every technology touchpoint and diverse markets. This foundational compute is driving the AI revolution, whether it’s integrating AI technology into network infrastructure, running generative AI on mobile, powering AI-powered driver interfaces in the SDV or powering autonomous robots.

Arm is not just a technology provider, but a technology enabler. Through delivering scalable, efficient and secure compute solutions across the spectrum of devices, networks and clouds, Arm empowers its partners and customers to create, connect and collaborate in the AI era. MWC 2024 showcased the incredible breadth and depth of Arm’s ecosystem, and how it is driving innovation and transformation in every industry and every corner of the world.