New initiative puts ARM-based technology into the hands of students across the globe, to build new skills, careers and the electronic innovations of the future

27 February 2014, Cambridge, UK -- ARM® announces that its worldwide University Program has started shipping its flagship 'Lab-in-a-Box' (LiB) with its partners to higher educational institutions around the globe. The LiB contains ARM-based technology and high quality, rigorous training materials that support electronics and computer engineering courses. It provides a migration package for academics wanting to upgrade their existing curricula to state-of-the-art ARM-based technologies and is a key part of the ARM University Program in its mission to make low power, high performance ARM-based products accessible to students and to spark the next generation of electronics innovation.

The Lab-in-a-Box (LiB) package includes hardware boards from ARM partners, software licenses from ARM, and complete teaching materials ready to be immediately deployed in classes. Current partners supplying hardware boards include Freescale and NXP. The full contents of the box are as follows:

• 10 x ARM-based development boards
• 100 x ARM Keil® MDK-ARM Pro 1-year, renewable software tools licenses
• A complete suite of teaching materials from ARM, including lecture note slides, demonstration codes, lab manuals and projects with solutions in source.

'We are pleased to see the very first LiBs start shipping to our partner institutions," said Khaled Benkrid, manager, Worldwide University Program, ARM. "This is an important moment for the ARM University Program and for our partners, who are giving us very strong support. Together, we are enabling educators and their students to discover the possibilities of ARM technology. We are committed to equipping tomorrow's engineers with the skills they need to drive the exciting and intelligent products that are transforming how people work and play."

"We were delighted to be one of the first institutions to receive the ARM University Program's Lab-in-a-Box on Embedded Systems," said Dr. Boris Adryan, University of Cambridge, UK. "It has immediately proven itself to me as an excellent resource for our research and teaching activities. The ARM-based materials it contains are helping us to connect our teaching of systems biology with the world's latest embedded computing and sensing technology."

The ARM University Program enables educational use of ARM technology. Current Program partners include Cypress, Freescale, Nuvoton, NXP, ST and Silicon Labs/Energy Micro. The Program provides a variety of teaching materials, hardware platforms, software development tools, IP, and other resources for educators, students, and researchers. This brings benefits to university courses and labs, student projects, and academic research in embedded systems, microprocessors/controllers, mechatronics, SoC design and computer architecture. Other Program initiatives include "Train-the-Trainer" workshops, online teaching/training videos, design contest sponsorships and research support.

The ARM University Program provides its teaching materials and software tools, including ARM Keil MDK-ARMPro Software Tool, free of charge to qualifying institutions to support teaching, laboratory work and educational research projects. Faculty/Professor requests for these materials should be made through the ARM University Program website: www.arm.com/university where educators, researchers and students can register to join the program and avail of its wealth of products and services.

To find out more, please contact the ARM University Program: Email Contact

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"Freescale is delighted to be building on our longstanding relationship with ARM by providing access to our solutions to universities and electronic engineering students around the world," said Andy Mastronardi, director, University Programs, Freescale. "The Lab-in-a-Box is just one way Freescale and ARM collaboratively reach out to our engineers of the future and help us create a new wave of innovative embedded technologies that will drive our increasingly connected world."

"NXP is pleased to partner with the ARM University Program and to support its exciting Lab in a Box," said John Rayfield , senior director, MCU Ecosystem, NXP. "This is a great initiative that will benefit university departments and students on a global scale. Demand continues to grow for engineers with the skills to embed innovative and intelligent ARM–based technology into the environments around them. NXP is committed to creating solutions that enable secure connections for this smarter world."

About ARM

ARM® designs the semiconductor intellectual property and enabling technology at the heart of the world's advanced digital products. Our energy efficient and scalable processors deliver the intelligence which is transforming society; from smartphones and wearable devices, to enterprise infrastructure and servers, to embedded technology in automotive, industrial applications and the 'Internet of Things'.

Our technology is licensed by partners who have now shipped more than 50 billion microchips containing ARM processors since the company was founded in 1990. Together with our Connected Community, we are breaking down barriers to innovation for developers, designers and engineers, ensuring a fast, reliable route to market for leading electronics companies. Join the conversation at http://community.arm.com.