Arm making its own advanced chip

3 years ago 1

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UK semiconductor and software design company Arm is developing its own advanced chip to showcase the potential of its products, Financial Times reports.

The project is being spearheaded by former Snapdragon designer and Qualcomm executive Kevork Kechichian.

Kechichian’s recently-formed solutions engineering team started working on a chip prototype around six months ago.

Several industry executives told Financial Times that the chip’s design was “more advanced” than any previous semiconductors produced in the past.

The goal of the chip will reportedly be to draw new customers as the company prepares for its initial public offering later in 2023.

Arm licences its Reduced Instruction Set Computer architecture and processor designs to numerous companies that make powerful compact chips for mobile devices.

It boasts several advantages over Intel’s x86 architecture, the dominant architecture on computers, including reduced cooling requirements and longer battery life.

The technology is particularly popular with smartphone manufacturers — including Apple, MediaTek, Samsung, and Qualcomm.

Arm estimates that about 95% of premium smartphones boast chips with its designs.

In recent years, Arm-based chips have also increasingly been used on PCs, the most noteworthy and widespread being Apple’s M-series.

These replaced the Intel x86-based processors Apple had used for over a decade. The switch brought substantial performance, heat management, and efficiency benefits.

Windows Arm adoption struggles

However, Arm-based designs for Windows systems have not been as successful, with tech reviewers being highly critical of their poor performance and limited software support.

Some have blamed the lack of Arm processors for Windows systems on an exclusivity agreement between Qualcomm and Microsoft, meaning the only Arm-based Windows chips have been Snapdragon models.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has promised that Arm-based processors will become common in Windows PCs by 2024, with the company planning Snapdragon chips to rival Apple’s M-series.

However, a legal battle between Arm and Qualcomm threatens those plans.

Arm is attempting to stop Qualcomm from developing custom Arm chips that use CPU core designs owned by Nuvia, which Qualcomm acquired in 2021.

Nuvia’s designs were based on Arm-licenced IP, paid for at high royalty rates, while Qualcomm wants to pay for them at its own lower rate with Arm.

Nuvia’s technologies are believed to be critical in developing high-performing Snapdragon chips for Windows.