Is it possible to create a 10W gaming PC?

While phones and tablets can idle at sub-watt levels, even a modest PC gaming rig can happily suck down almost 200 watts of power without trying.

If you're sat there browsing the web or furiously writing complaints about the neighbour's leylandii, all that power seems a bit of a waste of energy.

But what are the alternatives? You could jump on your laptop, but that's often still underpowered and you're left with an awful keyboard and trackpad to use, while upgrading it always feels a compromise.

But then we did what our therapist told us not to do, we got thinking, perhaps we could build a full-desktop system that was capable of 3D gaming but was also built around the idea of ultra-low power consumption? Perhaps even low enough to rival a laptop?

• 14 best graphics cards for every budget

At the heart of this project is going to be the new breed of Intel Ivy Bridge processors. They're built with a 22nm process and, in some ways most importantly of all, Intel's new generation of integrated HD Graphics, which means we can do away with power hungry third-party graphics cards for our system. Sorry AMD and Nvidia.

With so much integrated on to the super-efficient 22nm process, low-power states can be efficiently managed. While historically higher-power tasks now require far less juice as well, this is against a background of continued integration and ever more efficient processes; the number of ICs on a motherboard is down, the main chipset uses less power than ever and main storage and memory can be measured in a single watt. So let's see if we can get near that magical 10W mark…

The road to power efficiency

Viable iGPUs started with Sandy

When you think of PCs and power, you're more than likely thinking 800 Watt power supplies, 125 Watt TDP processors and multiple graphics cards, each of which could probably suck down enough juice to power a small English hamlet. That view of the PC world does exist and isn't even that uncommon.

Even a modest gamer is going to use a system that's sucking its way through a couple of hundred Watts under load. Never mind someone likeJeremy Laird that's running Intel's latest six-core Extreme Edition kit. You don't even have to go to those extremes to rack up a multi-Watt power tally.

Everything in a system adds up to the final power usage. From all the ICs on the motherboard to multiple DIMMs in their many slots, to arrays of RAIDs, every component adds to the overall power draw. While the headline components like the processor and graphics card consume by far the most power, as we'll see when we start chipping away at the power consumption, suddenly every Watt of power becomes an issue.

• Best CPU: find the best processor for you

We're not trying to demonise PC gamers and users here. On the contrary we love the high-powered rigs and the fact is these days the components comes with reasonable power savings, enabling them to power down usually to a single Watt making them more environmentally friendly than ever. The question we're asking is: can we have a decent desktop PC that's capable of modest 3D gaming with the latest games, but one that would have trouble powering an energy-efficient light bulb?

Now that Intel has finally gotten around to producing usable integrated graphics, the answer to that question seems to be an emphatic yes. All that remains is figuring out how low we can go in power terms.

Core exercises

Small but powerful

So we're going on a voyage of low-power discovery. Taking a look at why individual components have been chosen, why they're so much better than other choices and how they've managed to achieve such a low-power result.

We're going to kick things off as is often the case with the processor but for a couple of good reasons. So we all know that when Intel introduced its Sandy Bridge processors it had finally introduced an integrated graphics solution that was just good enough to play the latest games. Something you could never say about older attempts, which seemed nothing more than afterthoughts to fill out the feature list.

The crucial aspect of putting the graphics on-die with the CPU is that it all has to fit within the TDP of the processor package. The processor is core to system performance, entirely so when you're relying on it to provide the performance graphics end of the system too.

Potentially, both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge processors offer low-power models that could be used within a suitable system, it's just choosing the right one.

The 'older' HD 3000 offers 12 execution units at a higher 650/1250 clock, while the newer HD Graphics 2500 has just 6 at 650/1150. You would think this would lean us towards a Sandy Bridge packing HD Graphics 3000 model, such as the Intel Core i3 2105. But doing so trips you from the 35W TDP into the 65W TDP category as it's built on the 32nm process.

Opting for the 22nm based Intel Core i3 3220T provides a chip that retains a reasonable 2.8GHz speed with its twin cores and Hyper Threading but one that runs within the 35W TDP too. Opting for the HD Graphics 4000 or a faster 3.4GHz model bumps the processor up to 55W TDP. As it also turns out the revised HD Graphics 2500, while running half the number of execution units of the older HD Graphics 3000, manages better performance per-unit than the older model.

If we were going for low-power gold then the Intel Core i3 3217U that offers a tiny 17W TDP but still with an enhanced HD Graphics 4000 would be very tempting, until you realise the GPU clock is crippled at 350MHz. It actually tempted Intel itself, as this is the processor chosen for the Intel NUC mini-PC.

The Intel NUC consumes a mere 11W when idle, we're guessing that Intel QS77 chipset makes the difference here

Our main turn-off for this model is the low 1.8GHz main core speed, as we feel the extra 1GHz will benefit us in the long run for general tasks and gaming. If we weren't going for lowest-power then certainly the Intel Core i3 3225 would be of interest.

In a similar frame of mind the name AMD hasn't so far been mentioned at all. That's because unfortunately when it comes to low-power AMD can't match Intel on the fabrication process technology. The AMD A10-5800K can slap the Core i3 3225 around in terms of GPU performance and pricing. But take a look at its TDP and it is 100W against the Core i3 3225 TDP of just 55W, while AMD can't build an A-series processor with a TDP below 65W.

Mummy or chips?

Try opting for DDR3L memory

Connected on a certain level with processor power usages is that of its particular chipset and motherboard. In the past motherboard chipsets have been surreptitiously power hungry. This was partly due to them being based on older fabrication processes. Added on top of that, older chipsets had to do a lot of donkey work which has now been integrated onto the more efficient processor die, and let's not forget the benefit of the integrated graphics element.

We've chosen the mid-range Intel B75 chipset, this has a TDP of 6.7W while it offers all the advanced ports you'd be after such as USB 2.0/3.0 and PCI Express 3.0. On a being nice to AMD note its A-series Fusion Controller Hubs or FCH are actually competitive on power, dissipating between 4.7W and 7.8W, this certainly wasn't always the case with the AMD 890GX chipset hitting 22W with its integrated Radeon HD 4290 graphics.

Contrast with say the classic Intel 945 Express, this provided DDR2 dual-channel memory support and was released back in 2005. It had a TDP of 15.2W and had to be accompanied by a South Bridge I/O IC to provide PCI, LAN and USB support. This added another 3.3W for a maximum of 18.5W.

Similarly the Intel 915G with its integrated graphics pushed this to 16.3W with its South Bridge using 3.8W, which topped out at 20W just for the chipset, never mind the processor.

The motherboard we've opted for is the MSI B75IA-E33 mini-ITX based, as we've mentioned, on the Intel B75 chipset. Technically, the Intel Z77 chipset has the same power dissipation but these mobos tend to be fully-loaded high-end affairs and any extra ICs on there will add to the power requirements. So the super-slimmed version works for us just fine. Besides it offers everything you'd want output wise anyway.

Inefficient supplies

The Pico efficient PSU

We're all aware of gold-rated 85 per cent efficient power supplies, right? Well, turns out they're not, under low-power conditions. That whole gold-standard only applies to a PSU under full load. Hook up a low-power system or just a standard system that's idling along while you, for example, consider your insignificant position in this infinite universe, and it's efficiency will tank.

What does that mean to you? It means that a low-power system ends up sucking down more Watts than it actually needs to and not even by a small amount, as we'll see. For testing we'll be using a gold-standard 850w PSU as a benchmark and older 275w Intel PSU to see how a lower power but unrated PSU can manage.

Lastly, we have a Pico PSU from Scan. This is an especially engineered, low-power PC PSU that is reported to be as high as 96 per cent efficient. Its main disadvantages are that it's limited to 160W, uses an external power brick and has limited connections. While it does offer a full 24-pin ATX connector and the standard 4-pin ATX12v connector, it only offers a single SATA power connector and 4-pin Molex.

There is an even lower-power Pico PSU option that omits the ATX12v connector, but for the modern PC systems we're after that's not an option.

Peripheral matters

The WD Green is a great 'big storage' option

We're not quite done with selecting components for our low-power system. Hard drives can add quite a lot of power consumption to an overall system. In a standard desktop computer a bank of four 3.5-inch spinning hard drives can actually consume upwards of 30 Watts when under full access.

Things are somewhat more subdued once they've spun down at 0.75 Watts per drive. Even SSD drives don't get away with a free power ride here. Power use on SSDs can vary as high as 6 Watts under load. This is as high as a 3.5-inch spinning drive, so thinking it's solid state doesn't necessarily mean it's low power.

We're running a Kingston V+200 SSD this is rated at 0.5w idle and 1.8w under load. The best on the market, however, is the Intel SSD 520 with a load power draw of a just 0.85W.

In contrast we're also testing a Western Digital Green 2.5-inch 2TB drive. This offers SSD matching power consumption, but without the capacity limitations while the retail price of £150 matches the higher-end 256GB SSDs. The load power draw is a very respectable 1.7w while idle is 0.8w.

The last element we're looking at is memory. Obviously opting for a single DIMM rather than a dual configuration will help reduce the overall power required. Beyond this it's also possible to buy low-power DDR3. For the test we have an 8GB Kingston DDR3L DIMM that's rated at 1,600MHz and 1.35v rather than the normal 1.65v for DDR3.

Didn't he do well

Pico offers a full 24-pin ATX plug

Plugging this all together, and powering it up off our standard test PSU a XFX 850w model, we were pleasantly surprised to read idle consumption of 22W and a game load of 36W. At this point we cracked out our Pico PSU and re-ran the system. Impressively, idle power consumption dropped to 15W an improvement of 32 per cent, while load dropped from 36W to 25W again an improvement of 31 per cent.

There was chatter that lower-power PSUs could fare better, so we tested an older Intel 275W PSU from a BTX system. Clearly the age of the PSU showed through as the power draw of 28W at idle and 39W under load was significantly worse with the Pico PSU being around 47 per cent more efficient.

Of course, these initial results are through running the base BIOS settings. While many of the more useful voltage settings get locked out, we can at least tinker with a few settings. It's odd the DDR3 memory defaults to 1.65V, we had already manually selected 1.35volts, but we also kicked the memory bus down to 1,066MHz from 1,600MHz. We also turned off as many of the on-board integrated chips as possible, such as the LAN and audio.

Annoyingly, many of the voltages and even the QPI bus speed aren't accessible, as we'd certainly be tempted to undervolt the memory controller Vtt line, the memory VDIMM and main chipset PCH line. Underclocking the CPU from 2.8GHz to 2.0GHz had no effect on idle power consumption, we'd imagine as largely the processor powers down as much as possible no matter what the clock.

Surprisingly, it also had no effect on the loaded power consumption. All of this tinkering managed to drop the Pico PSU idle power consumption down to a mere 13 Watts idle and 23 Watts under a gaming load. Even adding the WD Green 2TB 2.5-inch drive to the system wouldn't see this rise above 15 Watts.

As a gaming rig it is going to leave something to be desired in the speed department, but the fact is, this is a system that can game if you need it to. At 13 Watts idle we almost match our plucked-out-the-air 10W goal and frankly brought desktop power consumption down to laptop levels. We think that's pretty impressive, especially as we haven't had to compromise raw CPU power.

Microsoft to take on iPad mini with 7-inch Surface

Microsoft's next batch of Surface tablets will include a 7-inch edition, according to the latest rumours.

A 'person familiar with Microsoft's product plans' told the WSJ that the company is on the 7-inch case to take on the likes of the Google Nexus 7 and iPad mini.

The smaller Surface is apparently set to go into production later this year, which should see it hitting the shops in time for the Christmas rush.

Festive

Back in November, we heard talk of an Xbox Surface - apparently a 7-inch gaming tablet running on a custom ARM processor with a cut-down Windows version.

It's expected to work in conjunction with the new Xbox which means we may see Microsoft unveil the smaller Surface at the same time or shortly after the console, slated for a May announcement.

Whether these two rumoured tablets - the Xbox Surface and the 7-inch Surface - are one and the same remains to be seen. Either way, we'd expect to see a 7-inch slate from Microsoft before the year is out.

Throw down £20 and reserve a Sony PS4 as Asda opens UK pre-orders

Asda has become the second major UK retailer to give folks the chance to reserve a Sony PlayStation 4 console before the official release date is confirmed.

Despite the price, on-sale date and design of the console remaining in limbo, the supermarket is encouraging interested parties to throw down a score to pre-order the device

Available from the Asda website, the pre-order process essentially takes the form of a discount card, which guarantees a console and priority shipping, whenever Sony launches on British soil.

Once the release and price is confirmed, Asda will contact pre-order customers by email and enable them to apply the discount card to the cost of the console.

No Christmas guarantees

Asda references Sony's expected pre-Christmas release date, but makes no promises to those signing up for the pre-order card, which is limited to one per customer.

"The current expected date of release made by Sony is Christmas 2013. Asda make no Guarantees that this is correct or will not change and Asda shall not be held responsible if Sony change or delay the release date of the Sony PlayStation 4 in the UK and or limit stock."

The company also said that customers will be given a choice over the available bundles.

Asda is following the lead of high street chain Game, which began offering a similar deal for pre-order customers in the immediate aftermath of the launch event in February.

10 ways the Xbox 720 can win the next gen

Considering the number of rumours about the new Xboxcircling around right now, we're considering changing April to Xbox-ril here at TechRadar. And as the stories have come flooding in, the gaming community has been unsurprisingly vocal in letting us know how it feels.

Until now, word has been that the new Xbox will have a feature that would make it only playable online, while saying goodbye to backwards compatibility and - though this third one's the least likely – blocking the use of old games.

Now a new batch of rumours point to Microsoft releasing not one but two consoles. While the devices will be connected to the net all the time, the main unit won't need to be online to play local games. Good news, if it's true.

As Xbox 720 is the subject of such heated speculation right now, we thought we'd put forward our own ten-point manifesto - with added opinion from some fellow tech journos - to suggest how Microsoft could unveil a winner when it finally unveils its new console on - allegedly - May 21.

The ultimate set-top box?

1. By beating Apple to the punch

Apple might not be gunning for the gaming market directly - though the smartphone has itself risen to gaming glory - but Cupertino is showing signs that it wants to dominate our living room space with the much-rumouredApple iTV.

Microsoft knows this, and if the latest bunch of rumours about its XTV media service are to go by, it considers Apple just as much a contender right now as Sony.

But the idea of having to buy a second device - aka the Xbox Mini - to get full Xbox functionality isn't hugely compelling.

According to sources speaking to the Verge this week, the Mini is a box that passes a cable box signal through the Xbox via HDMI, with the Xbox UI overlaying the TV.

If Microsoft wants to to be our one-stop media shop, it's going to need to offer the full media experience at a reasonable price and without any of the faff.

And if XTV is good enough Microsoft could already be in charge of the living room space by the time Apple rolls in. We'd certainly rather use Kinect than that rumoured iRing to control our media viewing.

2. With less waiting, more playing

"Good news - loading screens are a thing of the past! But you will have to sit through a ten-minute update almost every time you want to play online."

Thanks, but no thanks. One big thing we like about what we've heard about the PS4 so far is the promise of less hanging around, allowing gamers to start playing titles before they've even finished downloading.

The big frustration right now, as found on services like Steam, is how often if feels like "updating" is our most-played game.

If the new Xbox is going online then updates need to be kept to an absolute minimum, and always in the background.

3. By keeping the controller

Whether the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 has the better controller has been the source of fanboy baiting for years.

It was particularly interesting that Sony chose to show off the PS4's controller at its PS4 unveiling in March while keeping the actual unit a secret.

It just went to show how important the gamepad is to users. But whichever way you swing it, there's no denying that the current Xbox 360 controller is perfectly crafted.

So it's safe to assume we'll get the same again, right? Well, not necessarily. The goliath handset of the console's predecessor showed us that Microsoft is happy to take a few risks that don't always pay off.

We ask that this time round it doesn't. It's found a winner in its current controller - let's keep it that way.

We love you just the way you are

4. Streaming, streaming, streaming

Supposed leaked specs claim the console will be powered by an AMD system-on-chip. The architectural leap - though beneficial for game developers - means that backwards compatibility is unlikely.

And as the new rumours have pointed out, the console will need the Xbox Mini to be attached in order to offer retrospective play.

This is one solution, but we'd also like to be able to stream old games if and when backwards compatibility isn't an option.

Now, the PS4 isn't backwards compatible, but it will offer a streaming service of PlayStation 1, 2 and 3 games. We'd like to see the same thing implemented on the new Xbox and we can't see any reason why it wouldn't be able to.

An online marketplace with every Xbox and Xbox 360 game ever released, available for insteand download? Yeah, we could learn to like that.

5. No more unnecessary Live charges

Xbox Live has somehow lasted this long with Microsoft charging gamers to use the service (well, for a proper Gold membership at least). The PlayStation 3, on the other hand, has had online services free from day one.

This begins to feel very unfair when it means shelling out extra money to use services like Netflix that we're already paying for separately.

Sure, the premium stuff will still be there on the new console, but if Microsoft is going for the big media approach then non-gamers shouldn't be punished for wanting to access current service subscriptions through their console.

Oh, and ditch Microsoft Points while you're at it. They just don't make sense anymore.

6. Kinect evolved

This could be what makes or breaks the new Xbox. Right now, Kinect can be summed up in one word: limited. Yet there's little doubt that the new console will be baking the feature into its UI.

As such, we want a nice fluid interface that's functional but, more importantly, reliable. One thing we've heard is that the new Kinect will be able to detect up to six people at once.

It will also allegedly detect eye movement, pausing media when a user looks away. This feature appears on the Samsung Galaxy S4, so it's not out of the question that it might pop up on Microsoft's new console. However, while potentially useful, we're not yet sold on it.

Really, Kinect is going to be most useful for the non-gaming side of the new Xbox, and we're happy for it to be that way. After all, we're still fans of old-school controller play.

Fewer of the casual titles this time, please

7. By keeping an eye on privacy

This will be a biggy for a lot of people. With Google Glass and augmented reality on smartphones, concerns for privacy are becoming more and more prevalent.

"I don't really care if you have to always have an internet connection for it to work properly," says games journalist Adam Hartley. "So long as no one else knows what I'm playing or looking at in the privacy of my own lounge, I'm buying it."

We agree. The risk of the next Xbox sharing more data than we'd like is a big turn off. We want the option to control all our share settings from the start, with a guarantee that none of our data will be passed on unwittingly.

8. Taking some lessons from Nintendo

Say what you want about the Wii U's hardware, its social functionality is an undeniable leap forward.

The Miiverse enables gamers to see what others around the world are playing, post hints and tips to public messageboard, and generally just engage. We want this - and more of it - in the Xbox 720.

The foundations are already in place; the Xbox 360 has prided itself on its online community. But it would be good to see that opened out a little more.

Sony is paying attention to social activity too, but so far it still looks relatively closed off. Microsoft has a real chance to crack the gaming social market.

The Twitter of gaming

9. Combining it with Steam

We've put this towards the end because it's the least likely scenario here - more of a pipe dream actually - but just think how powerful a weapon Steam could be for Microsoft's new console to wield.

Unfortunately (for Microsoft) we know all too well that Valve is bringing out its very own living room console - the Steam Box - and having a platform on the Xbox console could be shooting itself in the foot somewhat. Then again, is there a benefit in doing both?

The more likely alternative is for the new Xbox to inflate its marketplace exponentially and offer its own Steam-like platform.

A more comprehensive app/game marketplace would be a big pull for indie developers, and increasingly as the indie market continues to boom.

Currently the Xbox Live Marketplace is fine for the essential apps such asNetflix and iPlayer, and not bad for game downloads, but we'd like to see Microsoft broaden it out a lot more.

10. If it's always-on, make it good

So it looks like the always-online aspect of the next Xbox might be kept to just the TV side of the console. Good news for many, but it's still not a sure thing.

And if it turns out that we're wrong and always-on does apply to the games themselves, Microsoft is really going to have to sell it. Hard.

"If this played out, you would potentially spend hundreds on a console, £50 on a game, and still not be able to use it if your internet dropped out," says Matt Hill, Deputy Editor of T3. "It feeds into the whole 'leasing' culture that is rising around us, how we don't seem to truly own anything any more, we just pay increasing amounts of money to have it temporarily and on someone else's terms."

This is what Microsoft will need to address if such a console does end up being revealed. When smartphone owners can get increasingly better games for increasingly better value on their handheld devices (with offline playability) why would they invest a lot more money in something that's never really theirs?

In many ways it's a shame that SimCity was almost totally marred by launch issues involving its servers. While there are plenty of fair criticisms to be made about the game's online model, it has brought a few decent features with it that many people have overlooked.

For example, SimCity exists has an always-running global trade market, allowing players to buy, sell and exploit as the market fluctuates. If tonnes of players around the world are selling oil, the price of that resource will drop. And so on.

Andy Robinson, editor of CVG, thinks that these are the sorts of things that could make future games compelling. "Sometimes you have to be bold to be brilliant," he says "And this could well result in some fascinating connected games with persistent, MMO-like features."

If our gaming experience is going to exist solely online, we want to see these bold ideas put into action to help outweigh the negatives. This is down more to the game developers than Microsoft, but an always-online system would no doubt alienate a huge segment of gamers unless it really brings something unique to the table.

Just imagine an online Grand Theft Auto world that never sleeps, populated entirely by other players. You picturing that? Yeah, we wanna go there.

Xbox Mini release date, news and rumours

The new Xbox has not been officially announced by Microsoft yet, but we're expecting an announcement in May.

But latest rumours suggest that the new Xbox will be joined in the cabinet by a little brother - the Xbox Mini.

Sources close to Microsoft told The Verge that Xbox Mini will be based on Windows 8 with a focus on casual games and entertainment services.

Exact hardware specs were not revealed, and may not be finalised, but the set-top box is said to put an emphasis on accessibility with fast boot times and always-on functionality for instant access to content.

Though not mentioned in the initial rumor, the always-on feature sounds remarkably similar to the cloud-based TV platform Microsoft is developing.

Latest Xbox Mini rumours

According to the report, Xbox Mini will serve as half of Microsoft's two system strategy for its next generation of game consoles.

Xbox Mini will allegedly target a more casual gaming audience, while thenew Xbox, commonly referred to as Xbox 720, will offer a more traditional Xbox experience.

A rumour on VG Leaks suggests that the cheap-as-chips Xbox Mini would have no disc drive but would be able to stream Xbox 360 - not not gen - games via the cloud.

Microsoft has so far managed to draw both demographics to its Xbox 360, with both traditional games available alongside Kinect functionality and entertainment apps.

The move to segment the audience seems a risky one, but could pay off for Microsoft. Dedicated gaming systems are often seen as more intimidating to casual users who would prefer the convenience and simplicity of a TV set-top box.

Xbox TV could also be used as a test case for scaling Xbox Live and Cloud TV services to a wider range of hardware, opening new possibilities for Windows 8 PCs, Surface and Windows Phone 8 devices.

This latest rumor suggests that Microsoft is planning to announce Xbox TV and Xbox 720 sometime in 2013 for a launch before the holidays.

Xbox Mini release date

Both VG Leaks and The Verge report that this low-cost Xbox machine will debut next year as opposed to releasing along the new Xbox console, which is expected to be released later this year in time for the Christmas silly season.

Xbox Mini price

The Xbox Mini price is suggested to be USD $149 (£97, AUD$141) or lower, putting it in direct competition with the USD $99 (£65, AUD$94) Apple TV.

Why ARM is still the tech giant you don't really know

Given that the number of ARM-based chips made in 2012 outnumbered the population of Earth several times over, it's fair to suggest that Ian Drew is a man whose finger is on the tech pulse.

A former Intel-man, Drew is currently in charge of marketing and business development, and is a key figure in the British company's strategy, making him an ideal person to ask just why such an influential technology company still remains so far from consumer minds.

For all its so-far brilliant model - letting partners like Samsung, Qualcomm and Microsoft hog the limelight - ARM is aware that there are big benefits to getting a little more credit than they currently do.

• Qualcomm: How we're making future 4G LTE devices work anywhere

"Having been at ARM for eight years I can tell you that, when I first joined everyone we talked to went 'ARM? Who are you?'. Now, the semiconductor market all know us very well and, in the next step outside of that, in software, content and OEMS we're reasonably well known," said Drew

"The bit that we are not well known it as a consumer brand and the reason we don't do a consumer brand is our culture - we're very much into pushing our partners forward. Would we ever do a consumer brand? I'd never say never, but our business model is about partnerships and about the way we do business."

Samsung Galaxy S4 - using a huge amount of ARM tech

Just to give a quick example of how prevalent ARM has become, theSamsung Galaxy S4 uses a huge amount of ARM technology, theMicrosoft Surface RT is the first example of Windows on something other than the traditional (Intel-based) X86 PC platform, the Nike Fuelband has an ARM chip, and if your phone has a Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, it is based on ARM's processor.

Taking lessons from others?

Given that kind of presence, TechRadar asked Drew if ARM could look to replicate the clever way in which Corning's Gorilla Glass has gone from phone component to a familiar consumer selling point.

"Certainly consumers are becoming more savvy - and we have some plans to go into that space," Drew said. "But let's look at it in a different way; We're talking about phones but I don't think of it as a phone - a phone is what I had ten years ago - it's a PC. In reality what we are doing with it is a lot more than just as phone and what I would like to do is bring the ARM association in with all those other things as well.

"There's a whole pile of add-ons like the Nike fuel band and [the smartphone] is going to be more and more the centre of your world. Yes we need to be associated with that but we need to be associated with it in a positive way that adds all those things together.

"Building a brand takes multiples years. I think we are getting there but we have to be centre of our universe first, then we then expand to places like Hollywood and the software industry. I don't think the next step is consumer: ultimately we'd look at consumer but the next step is the influencers. We're not going to see an ARM inside logo on devices, but it's how you get the people writing about those phones saying it's got a Cortex A15 versus 'x' and giving you data to go and do that."

ARM's Cortex processors are increasingly prevalent

"We're a typical British company we're not going to shout about [our success] but things like seeing Warren [East] on stage with Samsung, of being involved with huge announcements, are helping."

ARM vs Intel

Intel's dominance of the processor market in traditional computing has increasingly be challenged by the rise in mobile, something the chip giant is now working hard to work its way into - whereas Windows RT showed the shift the industry has taken towards ARM's designs. So what has prompted this shift?

"There are no unique laws of physics," said Drew. "So what's different between ARM and Intel?

"One is that ARM cores are much smaller and take lower power, secondly we allow people to differentiate, allowing people like Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Qualcomm and Mediatech to build on what we have done and the third one is about volume.

"You look at eight or nine billion cores shipped each year - of which 1.5 billion micro-controllers helping build the internet of things, thousands are in servers and see that there's a huge spread that software developers can target - it's not just a pc anymore and that allows software developers to say 'I can do this because its on ARM'.

"I talk to more software developers than I do any other part of the industry - and it has become a huge ecosystem. For anyone who works on phones I would say you have to know about ARM."

Microsoft's Surface RT is Windows on ARM processors rather than the traditional X86

A self-confessed 'tablet geek' Drew is fascinated by the democratisation of the internet, showing off a £150/$230 quad-core tablet from China that is 4K capable alongside the inevitable Microsoft Windows Surface which runs on ARM architecture ("Maybe it's just because of where I work but everyone tells me how much they like it," he says as an aside, adding that it's now his primary out-and-about work device.)

"If you want to democratise the internet, I've seen tablets in China being sold at 35 quid," he said.

With the whole tablet industry flourishing, there's more tablets and laptops shipping using ARM than on Intel. So ask yourself, 'is this going to revolutionise the industry?

"I bought $50 tablets in Taiwan and that is what my kids use. I have an iPad for media, and for work I carry an RT device, I don't carry a laptop. What I do know is that I have a lot of options - I think it's a whole new way of doing things and that has democratised the internet.

"I gave an internal speech last week about the next billion users of phones being in emerging markets. There's a whole new class of people who have disposable income and their first devices will be phones."

Is the future wearable?

Drew believes that the breadth of ARM's scale - from 50 cent micro-controllers to complex high-end chips - stands the company in good stead. Which obviously prompted TechRadar to ask about another burgeoning area of technology - wearable tech.

Nike's Fuelband - wearable tech making an impact

"We have talked to wearable technology companies - we're an IP provider so yes we're involved in companies that do wearable tech - although not Google Glass.

"Yes I'd have liked [to have been attached to the Google Glass product] but I'd also like to make sure there was differentiation - multiple players - because in reality one size doesn't fit all. I think it's all about the data that comes off of this technology and how you use it. Google Glass, the Nike band, smart meters - it's all about the data and how you use that data that's the important thing."

As a company focused on providing designs that cater for the next generation of chips, ARM needs to future-gaze, and Drew provided us with three rules that keep the company agile and innovative.

"We design our IP so it can work across multiple devices, the Cortex a15 is in phones, tablets, servers, tvs etc because it's designed to work across all of them. So firstly, don't hem yourself in.

"Secondly make sure you have enough software in the ecosystem -so we have to think three to five years ahead to what software's needed and find ways to do it.

"Finally, when we define new products we don't just talk to the semiconductor manufacturers, but we'll also go to people like the OEMs and film companies in Hollywod and say 'we're thinking about doing this. What do you think?'"

It all sounds so simple, when put like that, but ARM's quiet ways have propelled it into becoming one of the most influential technology companies on the planet. Not bad for a Cambridge-based company whose first product appeared in an Acorn computer. From Acorns...