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SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

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Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#21

Post by bayindirh »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #13

If this goes through, I expect Nvidia to become the new Intel - a humongous, anticompetitive chip monopoly. Today, people refer to Intel as Chipzilla; tomorrow Nvidia will carry that moniker.

> Today, people refer to Intel as Chipzilla; tomorrow Nvidia will carry that moniker.Today, people refer to Intel as Chipzilla; tomorrow Nvidia will carry that moniker.

Intel will always be the "Chipzilla". nVidia won't replace them but, will join it as the "Chipkong". So we'll have two problems, not a single but, different one.

Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#22

Post by ysleepy »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #17

The important players like Samsung/Apple/Huawei are already ARM architecture license holders so they can do their own thing if they don't like the direction that NVidia is going in. A 128 bit version might be an issue in the future.

A 128bit ISA is super unlikely. We're barely using the 48bit implemented in AMD64 of 64 possible address bits.

Wider data arguments are already implemented as AVX/2/512.

Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#23

Post by severine »

klelatti wrote: post #15
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #9

Do Apple actually work with Arm currently or is all their Apple Silicon stuff completely on their own? I don’t actually understand the issue they have with Nvidia but they seem to have one.

Saw a presentation a little while ago with Simon Segars of Arm and Jeff Williams of Apple (don't have the link but it was in honour of Morris Chang of TSMC and I think Jensen Huang hosted!) which seemed to imply that there was quite a close relationship. If nothing else I'd expect feedback from Apple to Arm about the evolution of the architecture. If Apple was really unhappy about this and didn't want full ownership…

> Saw a presentation a little while ago with Simon Segars of Arm and Jeff Williams of Apple (don't have the link but it was in honour of Morris Chang of TSMC and I think Jensen Huang hosted!)

Perhaps this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGT3zSGDN3k

Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#24

Post by jrmg »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #11
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #9

Do Apple actually work with Arm currently or is all their Apple Silicon stuff completely on their own? I don’t actually understand the issue they have with Nvidia but they seem to have one.

As I understand it, Apple has a special perpetual license for the architecture thanks to it being one of the companies that founded ARM. This deal shouldn't have too much impact on Apple.

I think you’re thinking of PowerPC?

To my knowledge, Apple was not involved in any founding of ARM (the company or the ISA).

ARM history, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#History

Edit: I guess you could quibble about ‘founding’, but really I’m wrong, and my own link proves it!

————

Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. – Arm6

In the late 1980s, Apple Computer and VLSI Technology started working with Acorn on newer versions of the Arm core. In 1990, Acorn spun off the design team into a new company named Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.,[30][31][32] which became Arm Ltd when its parent company, Arm Holdings plc, floated on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ in 1998.[33] The new Apple-Arm work would eventually evolve into the Arm6, first released in early 1992. Apple used the Arm6-based Arm610 as the basis for their Apple Newton PDA

Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#25

Post by xxpor »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #17

The important players like Samsung/Apple/Huawei are already ARM architecture license holders so they can do their own thing if they don't like the direction that NVidia is going in. A 128 bit version might be an issue in the future.

I could imagine we might see an architecture with 128 bit word sizes, but I doubt we'd see 128 bit pointers (aka a 128 bit address space) any time soon. Itd just be more annoying than anything. I personally have even written software where we do pointer path to get 32 bit indexes rather than storing full 64 bit pointers simply because of space constraints (like trying to fit a hot struct into a single cache line)

Having a native uint128_t would make dealing with IPv6 addresses a lot nicer though :)

Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#26

Post by MangoCoffee »

BluSyn wrote: post #3

I think this is a very bad and short-sided deal. ARM is in such a great position currently. There's no reason to sell except that SoftBank is in desperate need of capital. On top of that, Nvidia is likely to be a terrible steward of the IP. Nvidia has a terrible track record of working with other companies, partners, and open source developers. ARM has become a de-facto standard in mobile space, and Nvidia will likel…

>ARM is in such a great position currently. There's no reason to sell except that SoftBank is in desperate need of capital.

Softbank needs cash. sells ARM. not a good reason?

Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#28

Post by qweq1231234 »

jrmg wrote: post #24
kitsunesoba wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it, Apple has a special perpetual license for the architecture thanks to it being one of the companies that founded ARM. This deal shouldn't have too much impact on Apple.

I think you’re thinking of PowerPC? To my knowledge, Apple was not involved in any founding of ARM (the company or the ISA). ARM history, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#History Edit: I guess you could quibble about ‘founding’, but really I’m wrong, and my own link proves it! ———— Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. – Arm6 In the late 1980s, Apple Computer and VLSI Technology started wo…

From that page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Advanced_RISC...

Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. – Arm6

Die of an Arm610 microprocessor In the late 1980s, Apple Computer and VLSI Technology started working with Acorn on newer versions of the Arm core. In 1990, Acorn spun off the design team into a new company named Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.,[30][31][32] which became Arm Ltd when its parent company, Arm Holdings plc, floated on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ in 1998.[33] The new Apple-Arm work would eventually evolve into the Arm6, first released in early 1992. Apple used the Arm6-based Arm610 as the basis for their Apple Newton PDA.

Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#29

Post by akvadrako »

ysleepy wrote: post #22
tibbydudeza wrote: post #17

The important players like Samsung/Apple/Huawei are already ARM architecture license holders so they can do their own thing if they don't like the direction that NVidia is going in. A 128 bit version might be an issue in the future.

A 128bit ISA is super unlikely. We're barely using the 48bit implemented in AMD64 of 64 possible address bits. Wider data arguments are already implemented as AVX/2/512.

Architectures with 128 pointers exist, but the extra bits are used for metadata. I don’t see much indication this’ll become mainstream through.

https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/ctsrd/cheri/cheri...

Re: SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40B

#30

Post by klelatti »

severine wrote: post #23
klelatti wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saw a presentation a little while ago with Simon Segars of Arm and Jeff Williams of Apple (don't have the link but it was in honour of Morris Chang of TSMC and I think Jensen Huang hosted!) which seemed to imply that there was quite a close relationship. If nothing else I'd expect feedback from Apple to Arm about the evolution of the architecture. If Apple was really unhappy about this and didn't want full ownership…

> Saw a presentation a little while ago with Simon Segars of Arm and Jeff Williams of Apple (don't have the link but it was in honour of Morris Chang of TSMC and I think Jensen Huang hosted!) Perhaps this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGT3zSGDN3k

It was - thank you. Not sure which part led me to think that Apple and Arm worked together though and it's a long presentation!
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