element14 becomes largest global ARM distributor

element14 has signed a franchise agreement with global semiconductor IP supplier ARM to distribute its broad suite of development tool solutions for ARM processor-based system design in the Asia-Pacific region. 

The agreement extends an existing Americas and EMEA franchise agreement between the two companies and sees element14 become the largest global distributor of ARM development tools, software, evaluation boards and debug hardware. 

In addition to hardware, element14 provides ARM-certified technical support and is the only global distributor offering the industry’s first electronic delivery of software, which can be downloaded and used immediately. This includes the industry-leading ARM IDE/Compiler software, used globally by programmers.  

The agreement marks the next phase of element14’s successful relationship with ARM, which last year saw the distributor announced as the first third-party services partner for mbed, the development platform that allows developers to quickly create products based on ARM microcontrollers. The partnership brought the ARM development platform and tools to a much wider range of boards and products, with element14 working alongside customers to train engineers and designers.   

The global ARM portfolio complements the extensive ARM-powered design portfolio at element14, which includes Atmel, Freescale, NXP, Silicon Labs, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments. ARM products are available from Farnell element14 in Europe, Newark element14 in North America and element14 in Asia-Pacific.