I mean, it's just ARM - pretty standard architecture these days. If the big companies want to compete on chip design, I don't see it as all that different from AMD, Intel (and Via if you count them) competing on x86-compatibles.
AMD/Intel/Via/IBM/ARM are in horizontal competition on chip design, Amazon/Google/Microsoft/Apple are in vertical competition on chip design. Vertical competition typically results in far less ability for the market to optimize.
Compare for instance the Zen 3 upset vs the M1 upset. Zen 3 allowed the market to pick what they thought was the best CPU, the M1 allowed the market to pick if they wanted to buy an entire computer, OS, and software set because the CPU was good. Similarly with Graviton and Amazon, you can't just say Amazon is competing the same as Via, their interest is in selling the AWS ecosystem not in providing the best individual components. Same with Google and their custom chips and Microsoft with theirs now. Yes many are "just ARM" but due to custom extensions/chips and (in some cases) lack of standard ARM features that doesn't mean they are the same ARM.
Of course that's not to argue it's wrong because it's vertical integration, many will think that's the better way to make complicated products, but that's not the point - the way big companies are competing on chip design is very different than if one acted like an AMD/Intel/Via competitor to actually compete in the chip space instead of a larger space.
Yes many are "just ARM" but due to custom extensions/chips and (in some cases) lack of standard ARM features that doesn't mean they are the same ARM.
This is a stretch at best.
Linux running on M1, Graviton2 (and, soon, Graviton3), Raspberry Pi 3/4 runs same, aarch64 compiled, user space binaries. NetBSD running on M1 and on Raspeberry Pi 3/4 runs same, aarch64 compiled, user space binaries. ARM, the company, enforces the µ-architecture compatibility through the licensing. Just like Intel and AMD do.
The difference is perceptable at the hardware/kernel level; however the same is also true for nearly every new generation of Intel and AMD CPU's – at least some modifications are required in the kernel.
You are conflating software compatibility with hardware availability.
Most ARM vendors sell the equvialent of an electric bicycle when what you need is a van and there are only two viable manufacturers of vans but the first one doesn't sell to companies and the second one requires you rent the van.
Comments
I mean, it's just ARM - pretty standard architecture these days. If the big companies want to compete on chip design, I don't see it as all that different from AMD, Intel (and Via if you count them) competing on x86-compatibles.
AMD/Intel/Via/IBM/ARM are in horizontal competition on chip design, Amazon/Google/Microsoft/Apple are in vertical competition on chip design. Vertical competition typically results in far less ability for the market to optimize.
Compare for instance the Zen 3 upset vs the M1 upset. Zen 3 allowed the market to pick what they thought was the best CPU, the M1 allowed the market to pick if they wanted to buy an entire computer, OS, and software set because the CPU was good. Similarly with Graviton and Amazon, you can't just say Amazon is competing the same as Via, their interest is in selling the AWS ecosystem not in providing the best individual components. Same with Google and their custom chips and Microsoft with theirs now. Yes many are "just ARM" but due to custom extensions/chips and (in some cases) lack of standard ARM features that doesn't mean they are the same ARM.
Of course that's not to argue it's wrong because it's vertical integration, many will think that's the better way to make complicated products, but that's not the point - the way big companies are competing on chip design is very different than if one acted like an AMD/Intel/Via competitor to actually compete in the chip space instead of a larger space.
This is a stretch at best.
Linux running on M1, Graviton2 (and, soon, Graviton3), Raspberry Pi 3/4 runs same, aarch64 compiled, user space binaries. NetBSD running on M1 and on Raspeberry Pi 3/4 runs same, aarch64 compiled, user space binaries. ARM, the company, enforces the µ-architecture compatibility through the licensing. Just like Intel and AMD do.
The difference is perceptable at the hardware/kernel level; however the same is also true for nearly every new generation of Intel and AMD CPU's – at least some modifications are required in the kernel.
You are conflating software compatibility with hardware availability.
Most ARM vendors sell the equvialent of an electric bicycle when what you need is a van and there are only two viable manufacturers of vans but the first one doesn't sell to companies and the second one requires you rent the van.