ARM's latest purchase is the super power behind NASA

The continued growth of ARM has seen the Cambridge company buy another leading software firm.

Allinea is an industry leader in development and performance analysis tools which maximise the efficiency of software for high performance computing (HPC) systems. Currently, 80 per cent of the world’s top 25 supercomputers use Allinea’s tools, with key customers including the US Department of Energy, NASA, a range of supercomputing national labs and universities, and private companies using HPC systems for their own scientific computation.

Javier Orensanz, general manager of ARM’s development solutions group, said: “As systems and servers grow in complexity, developers in HPC are facing new challenges that require advanced tools designed to enable them to continue to innovate.

“Allinea’s ability to debug and analyse many-node systems is unique, and with this acquisition we are ensuring that this capability remains available to the whole ARM ecosystem, and to the other CPU architectures prevalent in HPC.”

The acquisition further enhances ARM’s long-term growth strategy in HPC. Allinea’s expertise will continue to give partners access to a comprehensive software tools suite that addresses increasingly complex system challenges.

David Lecomber, CEO of Allinea, added: “Writing and deploying software that exploits the ever increasing computing power of clusters and supercomputers is a demanding challenge – it needs to run fast and run right, and that’s exactly what our suite of tools is designed to enable.

“As part of ARM we’ll continue to work with the HPC community, our customers and our partners to advance the development of our cross-platform technology, and take advantage of product synergies between ARM’s compilers, libraries and advisory tools and our existing and future debugging and analysis tools. Our combined expertise and understanding of the challenges this market faces will deliver new solutions to this growing ecosystem.”

Allinea is to be integrated into the ARM business with all functions and Allinea’s Warwick and Eastleigh locations retained.

Mr Lecomber will join the ARM development solutions group management team.

ARM is adding hundreds of jobs at its expanded Cambridge UK headquarters after the company was acquired for £24billion by SoftBank of Japan.

ARM’s microchips are used in the iPhone and more than 95 per cent of all smartphones.

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