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

arstechnica.com

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

#51

Post by anoncareer0212 »

solarkraft wrote: post #46

How can anyone not be interested in owning ARM? Whoever controls that company can decide who's allowed to make processors that run consumer facing software (sure, RISC V might present a threat in the long term , but it's a good decade out). Of course that would be a nightmare for every other licensee (which is why I'm hoping for the IPO), but the potential gain is immense, isn't it? Or are the licenses so nice they'r…

your 2nd sentence is a zen answer to the first sentence

reminds me the old Eric Schmidt quote about how YouTube was cheap because it was expensive - had a ton of legal liability and a ton of engineering work required to meet the needs of rights owners

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

#52

Post by pjc50 »

2bitencryption wrote: post #7

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?…

> why would one chipmaker have faster/better CPUs if they are using the same spec as another chipmaker with slower/worse CPUs?

That's not the interesting thing, really. ARM licensees don't compete on how fast the ARM itself is, they compete on what else is on the same chip that they've designed themself. Radios, high-speed serial interfaces, analog-digital, etc.

(the big exception is Apple, who have their own silicon team improving the ARM implementation)

ARM have a very wide range of price/performance/area/power options. You don't always want the biggest and best.

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

#55

Post by klelatti »

tmaly wrote: post #23

If ARM is so important, surely the government would give consideration to have an American company own it. I am surprised that Intel in not in talks as a bidder.

Not 100% sure which government you're referring to here but a polite reminder that ARM, although owned by Softbank, is still a British company with its HQ in Cambridge UK and design centres around the world including the US. I'm sure many US companies would be fine owners of ARM but it doesn't have to be owned by one to secure its future and that of the architecture.

Intel would a) not be allowed to buy for very clear antitrust reasons b) as owner would be very likely to be a disaster for both Intel and ARM. Intel has had ARM licenses in the past and has sold the relevant businesses.

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

#57

Post by simonebrunozzi »

I would never want to buy ARM if I were Apple. Here's why.

Apple can design AND manufacture chips based on ARM architecture, essentially without any interference from ARM the company. Just pay a (relatively small) license fee and you're all set.

The article says it well:

> Arm’s licensing operation would fit poorly with Apple’s hardware-focused business model.

> There may also be regulatory concerns about Apple owning a key licensee that supplies so many rivals.

I think it's important not to confuse the success of a specific architecture, with the economic success of the company owning and licensing IP related to that architecture. These two things might not necessarily go hand in hand.

Edit: two very relevant comments in the parent thread, I'll just mention them here for completeness:

> the revenue of ARM before Softbank acquisition was less than the Net profits of Intel. (from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23930895)

True. As mentioned above, architecture success != economic success

> Risc-V (from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23930814)

Absolutely relevant. I am bullish on Risc-V and think there's a good chance we will all eventually converge to that.

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

#60

Post by ben_w »

sitkack wrote: post #17
starfallg wrote: post #2

The antitrust implications of an ARM sale to any one of the tech giant is massive and may drag on for a while. It would be probably be quicker if Softbank floats ARM through an IPO.

There has been no meaningful antitrust action in over a decade. I wouldn't bank on it.

A little over a decade ago, a lot of stuff went wrong because a bunch of economically dominant corporations figured they were too big for governments to allow them to fail.

And it looks like big tech is developing much the same rich-and-out-of-touch reputation that bankers and stock traders used to have.

I don’t know who, but I am assuming one of the FAANGs will be forcibly broken up in the next decade.

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