While not impressive on processing power, such modest chips also draw less than quarter of a watt of electricity -- a huge benefit for companies looking to design ever smaller devices with long battery lives. Before green computing was hip, ARM was walking the walk out of necessity to meet the requirements of its device-building customers.

ARM may have some chips today that eclipse the 1-GHz mark, but "it's not just about raw megahertz; it's about how effectively you use them," Drew said, adding that's why "we prefer to use different metrics, like megahertz per milliwatt of electricity."