Live data from Hacker News

Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

bloomberg.com

91–100 of 480 posts

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#91
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Support _reversed_ for it, got pulled 5 months ago Cursory research will yield that this was a technicality with no weight in Google's strong commitment to RISC-V Android support.

If you trust PR (I don't, and I worked on Android for 7 years until a year ago) - this is a nitpick 5 levels down -- regardless of how you weigh it, there is no Android RISC-V

[flagged]

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#92
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qualcomm doesn't have nearly as much to lose as ARM does and they know it. Qualcomm is almost certainly ARM's biggest customer. If ARM loses, Qualcomm doesn't have to pay out. If ARM wins, Qualcomm moves to RISC-V and ARM loses even harder in the long-term. The most likely outcome is that Qualcomm agrees to pay a slight bit more than they are currently paying, but nowhere near what ARM is demanding and in the meantim…

> Qualcomm moves to RISC-V and ARM loses even harder in the long-term. I think long term is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. How long until: 1. Qualcomm develops a chip that competitive in performance to ARM 2. The entire software world is ready to recompile everything for RISC-V Unless you are Apple I see such a transition taking a decade easily.

>> 1. Qualcomm develops a chip that competitive in performance to ARM

Done. Qualcomm is currently gunning for Intel.

2. The entire software world is ready to recompile everything for RISC-V

Android phones use a virtual machine which is largely ported already. Linux software is largely already ported.

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#93
post #52

Qualcomm is known for having a particularly aggressive & hardball-style legal department to enforce its patents on core telecom IP. I believe the most likely outcome is they just settle the dispute here. Arm fighting hardball with hardball. Which would not really affect the ecosystem of phones using Qualcomm arm chips, it would just change the margins / market cap of Qualcomm. Yes, longterm Q might invest in their ow…

Qualcomm doesn't have nearly as much to lose as ARM does and they know it. Qualcomm is almost certainly ARM's biggest customer. If ARM loses, Qualcomm doesn't have to pay out. If ARM wins, Qualcomm moves to RISC-V and ARM loses even harder in the long-term. The most likely outcome is that Qualcomm agrees to pay a slight bit more than they are currently paying, but nowhere near what ARM is demanding and in the meantim…

Just the impact of making this move will have a chilling effect, regardless of the long term outome.

ARM Ltd wants to position itself as the ISA. It is highly proprietary of course, but the impression they want to give is that it is "open" and freely available, no lock-in, etc.

This really brings the reality back into focus that ARM controls it with an iron fist, and they're not above playing political games and siding against you if you annoy their favored customers. Really horrible optics for them.

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#94

Qualcomm is known for having a particularly aggressive & hardball-style legal department to enforce its patents on core telecom IP. I believe the most likely outcome is they just settle the dispute here. Arm fighting hardball with hardball. Which would not really affect the ecosystem of phones using Qualcomm arm chips, it would just change the margins / market cap of Qualcomm. Yes, longterm Q might invest in their ow…

When do Qualcomm's patents run out?

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#95
post #68

Next week, Qualcomm will likely announce a 64 core RISC-V RVA23. ARM really shouldn't pursue an aggressive posture with lines outside iOS or Win11 ecosystems. The leverage won't hold a position already fractured off a legacy market. =3

you think they can just flip a RISC-V switch and keep all the performance instantly? I can't really understand the logic from some people here.

"keep all the performance instantly"

Depends what you mean by performance (most vendors ARM accelerated features are never used for compatibility reasons), as upping the core count with simpler architecture is a fair trade on wafer space.

i.e. if ARM is using anti-trust tactics to extort more revenue, that budget is 100% fungible with extra resources. Note, silicon is usually much cheaper than IP licenses.

One can ask polity to explain things without being rude to people. Have a wonderful day =3

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#96
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qualcomm doesn't have nearly as much to lose as ARM does and they know it. Qualcomm is almost certainly ARM's biggest customer. If ARM loses, Qualcomm doesn't have to pay out. If ARM wins, Qualcomm moves to RISC-V and ARM loses even harder in the long-term. The most likely outcome is that Qualcomm agrees to pay a slight bit more than they are currently paying, but nowhere near what ARM is demanding and in the meantim…

> Qualcomm moves to RISC-V and ARM loses even harder in the long-term. I think long term is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. How long until: 1. Qualcomm develops a chip that competitive in performance to ARM 2. The entire software world is ready to recompile everything for RISC-V Unless you are Apple I see such a transition taking a decade easily.

I think windows-on-arm is fairly instructive as to how likely RISC-V would go.

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Qualcomm moves to RISC-V and ARM loses even harder in the long-term. I think long term is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. How long until: 1. Qualcomm develops a chip that competitive in performance to ARM 2. The entire software world is ready to recompile everything for RISC-V Unless you are Apple I see such a transition taking a decade easily.

Keep in mind, Apple _did_ actually take a good decade from starting with ARM to leaving x86.

With 100% control of the stack and an insanely good emulator in Rosetta.

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Qualcomm moves to RISC-V and ARM loses even harder in the long-term. I think long term is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. How long until: 1. Qualcomm develops a chip that competitive in performance to ARM 2. The entire software world is ready to recompile everything for RISC-V Unless you are Apple I see such a transition taking a decade easily.

>> 1. Qualcomm develops a chip that competitive in performance to ARM Done. Qualcomm is currently gunning for Intel. 2. The entire software world is ready to recompile everything for RISC-V Android phones use a virtual machine which is largely ported already. Linux software is largely already ported.

And with VM tech, and the power of modern devices even some emulator/thunking layer is not too crazy for apps that (somehow) couldn't cross compile.

Re: Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I notice how 'viable' isn't an operative in your statement.

They're pretty good. Just can't beat qualcomm / Apple flagship. So around Intel level ;)

300W in a phone chip is a bit toasty.
Post reply on HN