ARM Holdings PLC, makers of low power consumption processors and Acorn spin-off, have announced first quarter results up until March 2001. Despite a general down turn in computer and mobile phone sales ARM have announced that revenues are up 52% over the same period last year (from £21.4million to £32.5million) and 9% up on the fourth quarter of last year. Pre-tax profits are up 39% from £8.2million to £11.4million over the same period last year, and up 13% on fourth quarter 2000.

"Given the high increase in our headcount during last year and the difficulties reported by other technology companies, we decided early in the quarter that it would be prudent to moderate our headcount growth plans for the year until market conditions improve. This has resulted in slightly lower costs for the quarter allowing operating margins to rise to 32% compared to 30% in the fourth quarter of 2000. With continuing strong demand for our products and services, we remain confident about the outlook for the next two quarters."

"The announcements we are making this week at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco demonstrate the momentum that is building in our business."

This announcement follows a flurry of press releases, including announcements on a new ARM developer website (ARM DevZone), expanded JAVA support (the new ARM926EJ-S soft macrocell and the ARM7EJ cores, to the Jazelle Technology Enabling Kit (JTEK), a software product that enables VM vendors and OS providers to exploit the Java acceleration provided by the ARM Jazelle technology), and partnerships with companies such as Philips Semiconductors.

More info from the ARM website, http://www.arm.com/