ARM looking to boost IoT security with upcoming acquisition

A deal between ARM and Sansa Security could close within the next month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. That ARM is sniffing around a company that could help put its chip designs in more connected devices doesn't come as a surprise.

The U.K. processor designer has stepped up its IoT efforts with products launches such as the mbed OS and a number of acquisitions, including Dutch security vendor Offspark. On Monday, ARM announced a new chip design to address another challenge, battery life.

Sansa's product portfolio includes Silicon, an embedded subsystem that handles all the security-related features on the chipset it's integrated with, including secure boot, key management and secure storage. One big advantage with Sansa's underlying architecture is the ability to find a balance between power, performance and robustness that suits each application, making it possible to protect connected cars as well as light bulbs.

ARM and Sansa are already partners, which should make the integration easier if an acquisition is finalized. The two companies didn't want to comment on a potential deal.

Sansa's list of partners also includes chip makers Qualcomm, MediaTek and Freescale Semiconductor, which all also license ARM's processor designs.

Smartphone vendors have also partnered with Sansa to secure their devices. Sansa's technology is used in Android-based devices from companies such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Huawei Technologies, HTC, Sony and Google, all users of ARM-based chips, according to its website.

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