LONDON – Processor intellectual property licensor ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) has signed up Prometric Inc. (Baltimore, Md.) to design and deliver the ARM Accredited Engineer certification program for software and hardware engineers.
The program was scheduled to launch first in Mainland China and Taiwan in mid-2012 before being extended to the United States, India and Europe. The program has similarities to an IT worker certification scheme that has been run by Microsoft for many years.
Prometric, which runs training and accreditation schemes on behalf of a number of companies and organizations including Microsoft, has been asked to supply test development and secure administration of the ARM examinations through its network of computer-based testing centers.
Candidates to become ARM Accredited Engineers have to attend a test center with government supplied ID – such as a passport or driving license – and take a computerized test. There is a fee to take the exam that varies by country. It is £125 in the U.K. and $200 in the United States and $160 (US dollars) in Taiwan, according to the Prometric website.
Gaining the ARM Accredited Engineer (AAE) status is not necessary to work on ARM-based projects but it is expected to provide engineers and students with an advantage over their peers when seeking employment.
"The ARM Accredited Engineer certification program we are developing with Prometric will be a key factor in driving the proliferation of engineers with demonstrable skills in the design and development of devices integrating ARM technology," said Paul Elbro, vice president and general manager of ARM Services, in a statement. "ARM Accredited Engineer certification will be an important differentiator for the industry's engineers and engineering students."
ARM said on its website that engineers, engineering employers and students would all find the AAE certification program useful.
Engineers could use it to secure better jobs, promotions and pay-rises while students could use the AAE to help demonstrate their suitability to be employed. For employers the AAE benchmark will provide a consistent way of selecting superior engineers, ARM said. ARM is also expecting universities to sign up as ARM Accredited University Partner by teaching the AAE syllabus and purchasing a number of examination vouchers for their students annually.
However, the AAE certification is only first qualification in the program. It is intended to be an entry-level qualification that focuses on software-related aspects of the ARMv7 architecture with a specific focus on the Cortex-A and Cortex-R cores, processors and software tools. It does not include questions about Cortex-M cores and systems.
According to ARM's website the company plans to roll out a suite of accreditation qualifications covering a range of different domains and specialist areas (see diagram). The accreditation scheme divides into embedded, microcontroller and system-chip tracks and covers more specialized knowledge on graphics, security and Android.
Candidates for the entry-level exam are expected to be familiar with the C programming language and have the ability to read and understand ARM assembly language code as well as a good grounding in basic software engineering and development skills. The entry-level syllabus could be downloaded from ARM's website when this article was first posted.