Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Tech Tent: Is Arm the future of computing?

Tech Tent: Is Arm the future of computing?

Will Arm chips play a dominant role in powering advances in artificial intelligence? Can we find a faster way to build a quantum computer? And what is the secret to getting computers to think like humans?

This week's Tech Tent explores big questions about the future of computing.

If you asked most people to name the most influential forces in the technology industry, it is unlikely that many would mention Arm, the chip designer founded in Cambridge 30 years ago.

Yet its technology is in just about every mobile phone and in many of the sensors which are ushering in the "internet of things".

Most of the recent headlines about Arm have centred on the regulatory concerns about its takeover by the leading chipmaker Nvidia. But as if to emphasise that it remains focused on innovation, the company this week unveiled its first new chip architecture in a decade.

Arm's chief executive Simon Segars tells Tech Tent this is a signal of its ambitions in a computing future where everything is in the cloud.

"We're anticipating that pretty soon every piece of data that is shared touches an Arm [processor] along the way," he says.

"We've been developing capabilities in our processor that allow more and more complex AI algorithms to be run on the processor itself," he explains - and the new chips will also have a focus on security.

Dedicated AI chips are the next big thing in the semiconductor industry, with specialist companies like the UK's Graphcore already making an impact.

Arm is hoping that Nvidia's technology and financial firepower will give it an edge.

But looking further ahead, will it be much-hyped quantum computing that makes a real difference?

A quantum leap?


Giants such as Google, IBM and Microsoft have poured huge sums into quantum research. But some of the claims they've made about progress towards a working quantum computer that can tackle huge real-world problems have later appeared overblown.

Yet two small British start-ups each touted a breakthrough this week.

Quantum Motion, founded by academic researchers from Oxford and London, says it has found ways of using good-old-fashioned silicon chip technology to accelerate the production of qubits, the building blocks of a quantum computer.

"There are lots of weird and wonderful ways that people are trying to build quantum computers using exotic things like superconducting circuits or trapped ions in a vacuum," explains Prof John Morton, co-founder of Quantum Motion.

"What we're trying to do is to take the same kind of technology which is used to build the silicon chip in your smartphone... in order to build quantum computers that can really scale up to the level needed to solve the really big problems."

His doctoral student, quantum engineer Virginia Ciriano Tejel, gives us a flavour of the excitement she felt in the lab when she realised that one electron in a silicon transistor was exhibiting quantum properties.

"You're like, wow, I've measured something really, really small. That's fundamentally something from physics and from nature."

If that is a breakthrough in building quantum computers, another British company - Cambridge Quantum Computing - believes it has shown just how revolutionary such a device could be.

It announced this week what it called "ground-breaking proofs that reveal quantum computers can learn to reason under conditions of partial information and uncertainty."

Dr Mattia Fiorentini, one of the scientists behind the research, says until now this kind of thinking, which comes naturally to humans, has been a challenge for computers.

"Classical computers in particular, are very good at executing procedural tasks, they're not good at modelling probability, modelling uncertainty," he explains.

But he says quantum computers will, by their nature, be capable of dealing with a range of probabilities - "so there seems to be a sort of natural match here."

The hope is that this new type of computer will be able to perform well in areas where there is plenty of uncertainty, from diagnosing medical conditions from scans to predicting where financial markets are heading.

A sceptic might point out that a working quantum computer capable of performing such tasks always seems about five years away. But researchers insist that progress is now accelerating.

"We can measure it and it's happening," says Mattia Fiorentini.

So maybe we had better get ready for an era when a computer can diagnose any disease or play the stock market better than any human.


What is quantum computing?


Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
×