Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B • Hacker News Board

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#11

Post by Wowfunhappy » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:44 PM UTC

easton wrote: post #4

Could Apple hypothetically use their perpetual license to ARM to license the ISA to other manufacturers if they so desired? (not that they do now, but it could be a saving grace if Nvidia assimilated ARM fully).

I'm pretty sure they can't, but I also think there's no way in hell they'd do it if they could. It's not in Apple's DNA. Better for them if no one else has access to the instruction set.

I bet they'd make a completely custom ISA if they could. Heck, maybe they plan to some day, and that's why they're calling the new Mac processors "Apple Silicon".

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#12

Post by fizzled » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:45 PM UTC

Wow, this is tectonic. I cannot wait to see how this redraws the competition map. There are dozens of major embedded semi vendors that license Arm IP. Nvidia could eradicate them trivially.

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#13

Post by RobLach » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:46 PM UTC

chid wrote: post #7

RubberShoes wrote: post #3

This is not good

I have heard numerous arguments but they arguments don't feel that compelling, what are reasons why this is bad?

ARM will not be cheaper after this.

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#14

Post by maxioatic » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:46 PM UTC

> Immediately accretive to NVIDIA’s non-GAAP gross margin and EPS

Can someone explain this? (From the bullet points of the article)

I looked up the definition of accretive: "characterized by gradual growth or increase."

So it seems like they expect this to increase their margins. Does that mean ARM had better margins than NVIDIA?

Edit: I don't know what non-GAAP and EPS stand for

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#15

Post by newsclues » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:47 PM UTC

pokot0 wrote: post #8

easton wrote: post #4

Could Apple hypothetically use their perpetual license to ARM to license the ISA to other manufacturers if they so desired? (not that they do now, but it could be a saving grace if Nvidia assimilated ARM fully).

Why would they ever want to enable their competitors?

To spite nVidia.

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#16

Post by fizzled » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:48 PM UTC

chid wrote: post #7

RubberShoes wrote: post #3

This is not good

I have heard numerous arguments but they arguments don't feel that compelling, what are reasons why this is bad?

Ask Silicon Labs, NXP, STMicrolectronics, Dialog Semiconductor, ADI, Infineon, ON Semi, Renesas, TI, ... they all license Arm IP.

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#17

Post by gruez » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:48 PM UTC

RubberShoes wrote: post #3

This is not good

Bad for ARM, good for every other ISA.

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#18

Post by yissp » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:49 PM UTC

I still think the real reason was just to spite Apple :)

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#19

Post by stupendousyappi » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:49 PM UTC

RobLach wrote: post #13

chid wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard numerous arguments but they arguments don't feel that compelling, what are reasons why this is bad?

ARM will not be cheaper after this.

Conversely, Nvidia has done a solid job of advancing GPU performance even in the face of weak competition, and with their additional resources, ARM performance may advance even faster, and provide the first competition in decades to x86 in servers and desktops.

Re: Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B

#20

Post by gautamcgoel » Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:50 PM UTC

This is awful. Out of all the big tech companies, Nvidia is probably least friendly to open source and cross-platform comparability. It seems to me that their goal is to monopolize AI hardware over the next 20 years, the same way Intel effectively monopolized cloud hardware over the last 20. Expect to see less choice in the chip market and more and more propietary software frameworks like CUDA. A sad day for CS and for AI.