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Report: ARM is for sale and Nvidia’s interested, Apple isn’t

arstechnica.com

21–30 of 184 posts

Re: Report: ARM is for sale and Nvidia’s interested, Apple isn’t

#21
post #13

How relevant is ARM in the long run if Apple is pursuing its own design / CPU architecture ("Apple Silicon") and the Chinese lead by Huawei are forced by US sanctions also to create their own design / architecture?

Apple is still using ARM. And benefits greatly from the ARM ecosystem from compiler to software compatibilities. Having their own design doesn't mean they dont rely on ARM. No idea about the 2nd part of the question though.

Re: Report: ARM is for sale and Nvidia’s interested, Apple isn’t

#22
post #13

How relevant is ARM in the long run if Apple is pursuing its own design / CPU architecture ("Apple Silicon") and the Chinese lead by Huawei are forced by US sanctions also to create their own design / architecture?

Doesn't Apple have a perpetual license to their current ISA anyway? And it's not like Apple would need external help to refine/develop the current ISA.

Re: Report: ARM is for sale and Nvidia’s interested, Apple isn’t

#25
post #13

How relevant is ARM in the long run if Apple is pursuing its own design / CPU architecture ("Apple Silicon") and the Chinese lead by Huawei are forced by US sanctions also to create their own design / architecture?

The number of units Apple sells with ARM designs inside (all devices - desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, and more) are dwarfed in comparison to the ARM ecosystem at large. ARM isn't dependent on Apple for anything really.

Even your toaster and fridge probably have ARM licensed designs in them. Your Smartwatch certainly does, and the billions of non-Apple smartphones too.

> Chinese lead by Huawei are forced by US sanctions also to create their own design

Pretty sure they were heading that way even without US sanctions. Steal the IP, then make a competing product while paying zero licensing fees to ARM.

Re: Report: ARM is for sale and Nvidia’s interested, Apple isn’t

#26

Is regulation really that big of an issue? I realize all the tech companies in the running and ARM are global brands. Recently T-Mobile and Sprint were allowed to merge in the US. Is it really that certain that Apple or another giant purchasing ARM wouldn’t be allowed?

It's not certain but it is a big risk. Nobody wants to be spending time and money on doing a deal when there's a high risk it'll be blocked at the final hurdle.

Re: Report: ARM is for sale and Nvidia’s interested, Apple isn’t

#27
post #10

can someone explain how ARM as a business works? My understanding is, they design the specification of the ARM assembly language, and the design of the hardware (not individual chip fab but like... abstractly, somehow?) But if they specify the design of the hardware, why would one chipmaker have faster/better CPUs if they are using the same spec as another chipmaker with slower/worse CPUs? What's the business model?…

I don't know exactly how compensation works, but they have basically two products: - The ARM ISA (the "specification") - A series of chip designs implementing such ISA (the Cortex series) Customers can either license the Cortex design to implement in their own silicon or license the ISA and design their own CPU (like Apple did). There isn't one single Cortex core, but many of them at different performance/price point…

Why exactly does one need to license an ISA? AMD doesn't license x86 from Intel, AFAIK.

What's the IP that Apple would otherwise be infringing upon if they didn't license? The "ARM" trademark?

Re: Report: ARM is for sale and Nvidia’s interested, Apple isn’t

#28
post #13

How relevant is ARM in the long run if Apple is pursuing its own design / CPU architecture ("Apple Silicon") and the Chinese lead by Huawei are forced by US sanctions also to create their own design / architecture?

ARM will continue to be relevant for embedded stuff for a long time.

True, but it's also true that "embedded stuff" will be the first market to fall to RISC-V chipmakers, in classic innovator's dilemma fashion.

Western Digital for instance already announced since last year that it will use RISC-V chips for its drives. Nvidia also announced that it will use a RISC-V controller for its GPUs.

Re: Report: ARM is for sale and Nvidia’s interested, Apple isn’t

#30
Just keep in mind that the major use case for ARM is embedded systems: washing machines, smart refrigerators, car electronics, barbecue thermometers, medical devices, lawn mowers, you get the idea. Mobile phone or computer companies would not be interested in dealing with that part of the business.
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