from Hacker News

Arm reportedly changing licensing model to prohibit custom GPUs and TPUs

by sanatgersappa on 10/30/22, 1:25 AM with 34 comments

• by _hypx on 10/30/22, 5:10 AM

  That seems like an incredibly dumb decision. They do realize that RISC-V is right around the corner, and could quickly end much of the ARM chip market if licensing deals are this onerous?

• by snvzz on 10/30/22, 5:48 AM

  There's an IMHO better article[0] on the same subject.

  0. https://www.semianalysis.com/p/arm-changes-business-model-oe...

• by jpgvm on 10/30/22, 7:45 AM

  So it begins.

  RISC-V and Chinese chips are coming for ARMs lunch.

• by colechristensen on 10/30/22, 5:59 AM

  Wasn’t this whole thing a somewhat sketchy attempt by Qualcomm to change its licensing terms by acquiring a company with a different business model and therefore different Arm license?

  Seems like Arm is trying to close licensing loopholes.

• by Conan_Kudo on 10/30/22, 7:41 AM

  This change would potentially lead to ARM licensees switching from integrated SoC models to more conventional split architecture designs where the CPU, GPU, and other significant processors are split into separate dies to maintain flexibility.

  The main problem with this is going to be on mobile phones, where board space is at a steep premium. Other form factors that typically have multiple processors will probably be fine, though.

• by KVFinn on 10/30/22, 9:20 AM

  Isn't this basically the nightmare scenario that everyone feared about the NVIDIA acquisition?

• by TheLoafOfBread on 10/30/22, 9:10 AM

  Apple migrating to RISC-V in 3... 2... 1...