From this article published in Feb 2020, it would appear that this latest development has been part of a long term strategy for Arm to bring AI and Machine Learning to loT and the edge.
Extract 1
In addition, it has a small but growing market in data center and other network infrastructure equipment and is the long-time leader in intelligent devices of various types---from toys to cars and nearly everything in between; essentially the "things" part of IoT (Internet of Things).
As a result, it's not terribly surprising to see the company pushing ahead on new innovations to power more devices.
Extract 2
Most notably, the addition of AI intelligence to all these types of "things" offers the promise of finally getting the kind of smart devices that many hoped for in areas from smart home to factory automation and beyond. Imagine adding voice control to the smallest of devices or being able to get advanced warnings about potential part failures in slightly larger edge computing equipment through onboard predictive maintenance algorithms. The possibilities really are quite limitless.
Extract 3
Of course, there are quite a few steps between releasing new chip IP designs and seeing products that leverage these capabilities. Unfortunately, that means it will likely be sometime near the end of 2021 and into 2022 before we can really see the promised benefits of a nearly 500x improvement in machine learning performance. Plus, it remains to be seen how challenging it will be for low-power device designers to create the kinds of ML algorithms they'll need to make their devices truly smart. Hopefully, we'll see a large library of algorithms developed so that device designers with little to no previous AI programming experience can leverage them.
The announcements are part of an overall strategy at Arm to bring AI capabilities to its full range of IP designs.
In addition, it has a small but growing market in data center and other network infrastructure equipment and is the long-time leader in intelligent devices of various...
www.techspot.com