British chip designer ARM has just signed off its 50th licensing agreement for its ARMv8-A technology, which includes support for 64-bit computing.

More than 27 companies have signed agreements for the company’s ARMv8-A technology and it seems that the idea is starting to gather some momentum. Arm said that those company’s that signed up include all of the top 10 companies who sell application processors for smartphones; nine of the top 10 application processor companies for tablets; four of the top five companies that provide chips for consumer electronics; four of the top five companies that provide chips for enterprise networking and servers; and eight silicon vendors from Greater China.

ARM said that the licensing agreement demonstrates the continuing strength in demand for the company’s 64-bit-capable ARM Cortex-A50 processor family and ARMv8 architecture licenses which will serve future digital devices and infrastructure deployments coping with more complex applications within strict power budgets.

Noel Hurley, general manager, processor division, ARM claimed that ARMv8-A technology brings 64-bit capability and improved efficiency of existing 32-bit applications. All this should help tablets and smartphones replace PCs for many tasks.

The ARMv8-A platforms are fully backward compatible and will efficiently execute over a million 32-bit apps and extensive software assets already in use, Hurley said.