The Cambridge-based company was purchased by SoftBank at a discount during the collapse in sterling after the vote to leave the European Union. It licenses its chips to any company willing to pay, which includes Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung and Apple. These designs can then be edited by the licensees to their own custom specifications, depending on the application they’re being designed for.
ARM’s dominance in both smartphones and tablets has seen its designs being used as a way to build low power computers as well. The long-standing attempts to build a Windows-on-ARM system has had a rough road, but laptops like ASUS NovaGo are almost usable. Similarly, it is ARM-based designs that Apple uses for its custom smartphone chips, which will form the basis of its push for Apple Silicon in its computers.
SoftBank’s sale of ARM to NVIDIA is not a done deal, and Son has also told investors at an event that ARM could go public once again. It originally planned to take the company public in 2023, but that could change if Son could see a decent rate of return for its efforts. It would be hard to see companies turning their nose up at the chance to own a piece of ARM, which while small, creates a key component for billions of devices worldwide.
ARM co-founder Dr. Hermann Hauser was a critic of the sale to SoftBank and told the BBC that a sale to NVIDIA would be a “disaster.” Since the company licenses its designs to any paying customer without picking favorites, a partisan owner like NVIDIA could wreck the business. “If it becomes part of NVIDIA,” he said last week “most of the licensees are competitors of NVIDIA,” who may look to dump ARM. Hauser has asked the British government to intervene, in the hope of restoring some national pride after allowing the UK’s one true tech giant to fall into foreign ownership.
The Link LonkAugust 11, 2020 at 09:46PM
https://ift.tt/33PlWX6
SoftBank is in talks to sell ARM (at a time when ARM chips matter) - Engadget
https://ift.tt/2RGyUAH
Chips
No comments:
Post a Comment