A history of ARM, part 1: Building the first chip
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThe take-home, IMO: >Let’s step back for a moment and reflect on what an amazing accomplishment this was. The entire ARM design team consisted of Sophie Wilson, Steve Furber, a couple of additional chip designers, and a four-person team writing testing and verification software. This new 32-bit CPU based on an advanced RISC design was created by fewer than 10 people, and it worked correctly the first time. In contrast, National Semiconductor was up to the 10th revision of the…
May also be of interest on the history of ARM - up to 1997: https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/the-arm-story-part-1-fr... https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/the-arm-story-part-2-ar... https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/the-arm-story-part-3-cr... This interview with ARM's first CEO Robin Saxby is also really entertaining and informative. His energy is really infectious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO5PsAY5aaI&t=1823s
Comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32953980.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 329
- Total comments
- 101
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-09-23 | A history of ARM, part 1: Building the first chipFirst breakout · Best thread | samizdis | 190 | 74 |
| 2022-09-24 | A history of ARM, part 1: Building the first chip | signa11 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-09-24 | A history of ARM: Building the first chip | marcobambini | 20 | 1 |
| 2025-09-23 | A history of ARM, part 1: Building the first chip (2022)Latest 20+ point return | ibobev | 118 | 26 |