Arm Virtual Hardware (AVH) was launched by Arm in October 2021 as a cloud-based solution to aid software development without relying on physical hardware. This allows embedded software developers to minimize time to market and simplifies the integration of end devices into IoT services.
Over a year later, Arm expanded AVH capabilities to accommodate new use cases and a wider array of Arm processors and third-party hardware using Corellium’s hypervisor technology. This includes hardware from partners like NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics, and Raspberry Pi, as well as Arm models of Corstone-300, Corstone-310, and Cortex-M processors ranging from Cortex-M0 to Cortex-M33. The private beta saw participation from hundreds of embedded and IoT developers within the Arm ecosystem, incorporating the new AVH offering into their development workflows, CI/CD pipelines, IoT SaaS solutions, and development tools, providing valuable feedback to improve and enhance the AVH service.
As of today, the service has transitioned from private beta to public beta and is open for anyone with an Arm account to experiment with and use for commercial purposes. The public beta is available for a 30-day trial period, followed by a paid service based on usage per device-hour. To get started, visit arm.com/virtual-hardware.
In addition to expanding access to AVH, Arm also enhanced software development capabilities by adding the NXP i.MX 93 Applications Processor to the AVH portfolio. This enables faster and earlier software development for developers utilizing this board.
NXP i.MX 93 Applications Processor
A further enhancement of AVH includes the addition of Arm Cortex-M and Corstone AVH models, available as a service through the SaaS platform, providing access to the complete portfolio via a web console or API.
Board and models available through the SaaS platform
With uniform access to all types of AVH, there are no dependencies on local or cloud computing infrastructure to run AVH instances.
Beyond enhancing AVH, Arm has laid a solid foundation for AVH integration into CI/CD, IoT, and MLOps services.
CI/CD with Arm Virtual Hardware
Following the partnership with GitHub announced last year, Arm now offers a native GitHub Actions Runner that includes Arm Cortex-M and Corstone Fixed Virtual Platforms (FVP) with AVH, and the Arm Compiler for seamless creation of Arm CI/CD pipelines in the GitHub environment. This integration is available as a private beta for GitHub Enterprise customers. Request access here.
Arm also enabled sound CI/CD practices for foundational IoT software with AVH, best exemplified with GitHub Actions-based flows.
For more information on what can be done with Matter and AVH, read our blog.
IoT Services Enhanced with Arm Virtual Hardware
The AVH story, which started with AWS, has expanded with:
* The AVH beta marketplace offering adopted by hundreds of AWS users, now a qualified device in the AWS Partner Device Catalog.
* An AWS microcontroller developer solution that brings cloud-native FreeRTOS-based services to traditional embedded developers through integration with Keil tools and CMSIS packs.
* AWS IoT Core integration with Greengrass Orchestration and MLOps for AVH devices, showcased at Arm DevSummit last year.
How to build, train, test, and deploy machine learning applications on AVH.
We anticipate even more capabilities with AVH and AWS in the coming year.
Earlier this year, we integrated with Remote.It to simplify remote access to virtual Arm devices hosted in AVH, helping developers streamline their workflows and bring products to market faster than ever.
Arm Tech Talk from Remote.it: Simple and secure remote access to Arm Virtual Hardware devices
Simplified, Scalable MLops
Through a close partnership with Arm, TDK Qeexo is working to extend AVH integration, adding support for additional Arm Corstone platforms, and incorporating Arm’s Synchronous Data Streaming (SDS) framework to enable full machine learning training and validation workflows using existing sensor data across a variety of Arm processors.
In collaboration with Baidu PaddlePaddle, Arm has deepened its collaboration to accelerate edge AI development and deployment on Arm, showcasing the deployment of PaddlePaddle AI framework and models, and sponsoring the Paddle Hackathon 2023 to expand the model zoo for edge AI on Arm. This agility, brought by AVH, allows rapid development and testing, which would have previously taken hours or weeks to set up.
Stay tuned, AVH will soon be hosted natively on Baidu Cloud for edge AI developers in China.
Arm Tech Talk from Baidu: How to apply AI to OCR text recognition
Get Started with the Public Beta
We have had an exciting year working with developers and partners to broadly adopt AVH into their development workflows, services, and solutions. We are eager to see how developers will utilize AVH with even broader access through our public beta, the GitHub private beta, AWS, and other ecosystem partner integrations.
Register for AVH public beta