Why on the list: arm is the main designer of RISC (reduced instruction set computing) chips used in such battery-powered information appliances as handlheld PCs and mobile phones.

FORBES: 20 FOR 2000

The Brahma15 is a 21, 000 DMIP Quad-core ARMv7-A instruction set compatible multiprocessor. 32KB instruction and 32KB data caches per processor are backed by a shared 2MB L2 cache and feed the multi-issue, out-of-order superscalar 15-stage plus write back pipeline of the Brahma15.

ENGADGET: Broadcom's new ARM-based chip boosts Ultra HD TV into living rooms of the future