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Before the Arm acquisition materialized, Nvidia was quite present in the RISC-V space. All current Nvidia cards have at least one RISC-V chip on it.
So while their intended high performance use cases are not feasible yet, this could lead to Nvidia focusing on RISC-V again the medium term, which would definitely be beneficial.
Of course Nvidia can still pursue ARM based designs without owning the company.
Is it possible that Apple is calling their chips Apple Silicon for reasons other than marketing? Since Apple now plans to design and manufacture chips for all their products it’s also possible Apple comes up with an ARM compatible instruction set rather than ARM instruction set to avoid any issues with ARM being part of such takeovers. Just a wild theory since no one has yet (probably legal reasons) done a deep dive…
The semiconductor supply chain is now almost completely disaggregated ie everyone specialises in just a small part of the value chain. ARM’s speciality is in CPU design and it has carved out for itself the enviable position of being the defacto standard for mobile applications - almost every single phone on the planet has ARM processor(s) running it. And their products are in dozens of other end applications segments…
What does "flogging it off" mean in this context?
I've been struggling to understand why Nvidia's takeover of Arm might be a UK national security issue (the competition case is quite clear but separate). I'm guessing though that Arm collaborates with UK intelligence agencies and that that collaboration might be jeopardised with the Nvidia takeover (in a way that it was not with the Softbank takeover). Does anyone have any further insights?
given that, it's entirely reasonable that the UK doesn't want ARM gutted and the IP shipped out of the country.
The semiconductor supply chain is now almost completely disaggregated ie everyone specialises in just a small part of the value chain. ARM’s speciality is in CPU design and it has carved out for itself the enviable position of being the defacto standard for mobile applications - almost every single phone on the planet has ARM processor(s) running it. And their products are in dozens of other end applications segments…
> these companies will simply hollow ARM out (slash R&D, cut staff etc) to pump up the target’s value, before flogging it off or breaking it up. What does "flogging it off" mean in this context?
> Under the powers set out in the Enterprise Act 2002, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is able to intervene on national security grounds. > The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will prepare a report on the competition and national security aspects of the proposed transaction. So it's being framed as a national security threat, interesting.
https://www.cpni.gov.uk/critical-national-infrastructure-0
"In the UK, there are 13 national infrastructure sectors: Chemicals, Civil Nuclear, Communications, Defence, Emergency Services, Energy, Finance, Food, Government, Health, Space, Transport and Water. Several sectors have defined ‘sub-sectors’; Emergency Services for example can be split into Police, Ambulance, Fire Services and Coast Guard.
...the loss or compromise of which could result in:
a) Major detrimental impact on the availability, integrity or delivery of essential services – including those services whose integrity, if compromised, could result in significant loss of life or casualties – taking into account significant economic or social impacts; and/or
b) Significant impact on national security, national defence, or the functioning of the state.’ """
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You think espionnage, I think a key IP asset. ARM is a piece of infrastructure now, and dangerous in the hands of NVidia for other reasons than spying. Mostly economical. And yes, that's also national security.
All the more reason to dump funding into RISC-V and drop ARM. CPU architectures and instruction sets shouldn't be in the private hands.
I guess governments are suddenly much more interested in keeping key industries on-shore. I believe HMG didn't do anything to stop Astra-Zeneca being sold out of the UK a few years ago, and it's just luck it didn't go through. They probably see the need now.
They blatantly ought to have done this for the original sale. Better late than never, I suppose.
I understand objecting, but for security reasons? A better argument would be that Nvidia gains serious power over companies who are currently ARM customer and Nvidia competitors. Perhaps the UK want to be able to use ARM designs for domestic chips in the future, without being dependent on an American company, but yeah, then they should have objected when a Japanese company bought ARM as well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, good point. Can't trust those damn yankees. It's probably something where the government wanted to stop this deal for a number of reasons, and "national security" was the easiest justification where they already had a legal apparatus in place for doing so.
> Yeah, good point. Can't trust those damn yankees. Trump did a brilliant job :)