I have always had tremendous respect for ARM, the fabless company, which has designed the core processor for almost everything we use today. The history of ARM is worth studying. It is, to the best of my knowledge, closely tied to Cambridge University. If you look at the web site of Cambridge, they will tell you that it is a spin off from Cambridge. (source: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/another-record-year-for-university-of-cambridge-spin-out-investments
ARM is now about 4000 people; and has started as a spin off from Cambridge with Apple and VLSI (a silicon valley fabless design company) in the 1990. Its customers include Qualcomm (so essentially all mobile phones), Apple, Samsung and numerous others. It reported a revenue of 1.5 of Billion British pounds, and 340 million British pounds.
I must say that it is most interesting because it is (a) a university spin off, (b) a British fabless silicon company (it was not a silicon valley to start out with), (c) a company with world wide top customers, and (d) a company with very consistent performance despite competition for 26 years already.
It was founded roughly the year HKUST was established.
Wall Street Journal has a very good coverage.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-agrees-to-buy-arm-holdings-for-more-than-32-billion-1468808434
我一直對ARM這家無晶圓廠公司有著極大的關注，這公司設計的核心處理器幾乎可以在我們每天的日常生活中運用到。ARM的歷史，是值得研究的。據我所知，它們與劍橋大學有緊密的聯繫。如果你看一下劍橋的網站，他們會告訴你，這是一個劍橋大學分拆出來的公司。
source: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/another-record-year-for-university-of-cambridge-spin-out-investments
ARM目前有約4千人，是在1990年由劍橋大學、蘋果和VLSI (一家矽谷的無晶圓廠半導體設計公司)合作完成的公司。它的客戶包括高通(每一部手提電話上必須要有的物料之一)、蘋果、三星等。
在1990年它的客戶分拆與蘋果和VLSI（矽谷的無晶圓廠半導體設計公司）包括高通（所以基本上所有的手機），蘋果，三星和無數人。據報導有15 億英鎊，與 3.4億英鎊收入。
我必須說，ARM有幾點是有趣的︰一，因為它是一所大學分拆出來的公司；二，它是英國的無晶圓廠芯片公司（它不是一家由矽谷開始的公司）；三，它有來自世界各地的頂級客戶；和四，儘管已經過了26年，它依然是一家有堅固競爭性的公司。
ARM 與香港科技大學在相若的時間成立。
華爾街日報有一個很好的報導。 http://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-agrees-to-buy-arm-holdings-for-more-than-32-billion-1468808434