Enhancing the Capabilities of the Smallest Devices
Arm Helium technology is the M-Profile Vector Extension (MVE) for the Arm Cortex-M processor series. Helium is an extension of the Armv8.1-M architecture and delivers a significant performance uplift for machine learning (ML) and digital signal processing (DSP) applications.
The Cortex-M55 processor is the first Arm processor to support Helium, which enables small, low-power embedded systems to manage the compute challenges in many applications, such as audio devices, sensor hubs, keyword spotting, and voice command control, power electronics, communications, and still image processing.
Features and Benefits
Many OEMs, software providers, and tools partners within the Arm ecosystem are supporting the development of Helium and are ready to build the next wave of compute.
Helium provides up to five times the performance improvement for common signal processing tasks, and up to 15 times performance uplift for machine learning.
Helium works together with TrustZone to make an excellent base for implementing Platform Security Architecture (PSA) compliant systems.
Developers can benefit from a simple programmer’s model and one toolchain to reduce development efforts and costs.
Talk with an Expert
Interested in speaking with someone about Helium or joining the established Helium ecosystem? Talk to an Arm expert today.
A Foundation of Silicon Success
Arm Neon Technology
Neon technology is an advanced SIMD architecture extension for the Arm Cortex-A and Cortex-R series processors. The architecture extension improves the multimedia user experience across many applications.
CMSIS
The Common Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) enables consistent device support and simple software interfaces to Cortex-M processors and their peripherals. This simplifies software reuse, reduces the learning curve for microcontroller developers, and reduces the time to market for new devices.
Platform Security Architecture
The Platform Security Architecture (PSA) is a common industry framework for IoT devices. PSA helps developers define a consistent level of security by providing principles and deliverables, including threat models, architecture specifications and open source firmware. A key security goal outlined in PSA is isolation—exactly where Arm TrustZone provides a perfect implementation.
TrustZone for Cortex-M
System-wide hardware isolation for trusted software. TrustZone creates an isolated secure world to provide confidentiality and integrity to the system, protecting your chip from software attacks.
Armv8.1-M Architecture
Armv8.1-M takes the Armv8-M architecture to new performance levels for the smallest devices. The architecture includes TrustZone and the M-Profile Vector Extension (MVE) used in Helium, and is a primary target of the PSA framework.
Cortex-M55 Processor
Arm’s most AI-capable Cortex-M processor and the first to feature Arm Helium technology, bringing a significant uplift in power-efficient ML and DSP performance for IoT devices.
Helium Resources
News
Blogs
- Making Helium Part 1: Why not just add Neon?
- Making Helium Part 2: Sudoku, registers and rabbits
- Making Helium Part 3: Going around in circles
- Making Helium Part 4: Bringing Amdahl's law to heel
- Getting started with Arm Helium: The new vector extension for the M-Profile architecture
White Papers