The ARM processor is a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) based chip architecture used in many smartphones, tablets and other embedded systems. It was developed in the 1980s by Acorn Computers and has since become one of the most commonly used instruction set architectures in both 32-bit and 64-bit processors, powering devices from most manufacturers. The diagram shows the basic components of an ARM processor including the arithmetic logic unit, control unit, registers and memory.