Given how many devices nowadays depend on arm IP i think they don't have cash issue. If so than maybe rise prices. Also i don't think RISC-V is a real competitor yet. Arm has Apple as its customer and old founding company. I wouldn't trust Apple with Arm but I don't think Apple would allow for "stagnation".
This is all prediciton and Apple invested a lot into switch to Arm which paid off so going back to x86 isn't an option. Especially because of the i86 instruction decoder situation. The fixed size instructions on Arm is a really good thing imho.
And the much better thermals which are key in mobile devices. I know thermals are not an attribute of architecture but more of a super low EUV in TSMC process nodes but it adds up.
Wasn't Apple looking for some RISC V developers or hardware people recently? Perhaps Apple will add some small RISC V components to their devices now but maybe envision moving to RISC V in the future. Or perhaps it's because of worries around the Nvidia deal perhaps ...
they have a core design, instruction decoder is like no more than 1% of the silicon and they're running a risk of depending on nvidia, which really likes how it prints money now and really wants to continue doing that. also, they've changed the architecture three times now?
I believe that you should have a license for ARM ISA to implement it and sell chips.
I also know that AMBA, with AXI and other popular bus designs from ARM are free to use without ARM CPU in the system and should be separately licensed when you use ARM ISA in your system. I can assume with high probability that most of peripherial devices like DRAM controller and others are using one of the AMBA buses.
Basically, if you use ARM CPU commercially, you are on hook to pay some not insignificant amount of money in perpetuity.
So, if Apple will continue to use ARM, they will be an ARM's customer, a significant one.
Comments
Given how many devices nowadays depend on arm IP i think they don't have cash issue. If so than maybe rise prices. Also i don't think RISC-V is a real competitor yet. Arm has Apple as its customer and old founding company. I wouldn't trust Apple with Arm but I don't think Apple would allow for "stagnation".
This is all prediciton and Apple invested a lot into switch to Arm which paid off so going back to x86 isn't an option. Especially because of the i86 instruction decoder situation. The fixed size instructions on Arm is a really good thing imho. And the much better thermals which are key in mobile devices. I know thermals are not an attribute of architecture but more of a super low EUV in TSMC process nodes but it adds up.
What does Apple switching to ARM *instruction set* have to do with ARM chip design stagnating.
Apple doesn't use ARM designs and RISC instruction sets shouldn't technically "stagnate"
Wasn't Apple looking for some RISC V developers or hardware people recently? Perhaps Apple will add some small RISC V components to their devices now but maybe envision moving to RISC V in the future. Or perhaps it's because of worries around the Nvidia deal perhaps ...
they have a core design, instruction decoder is like no more than 1% of the silicon and they're running a risk of depending on nvidia, which really likes how it prints money now and really wants to continue doing that. also, they've changed the architecture three times now?
Aren't apply taking chip design in house? They're a customer now, but will they still be in 5 years?
I believe that you should have a license for ARM ISA to implement it and sell chips.
I also know that AMBA, with AXI and other popular bus designs from ARM are free to use without ARM CPU in the system and should be separately licensed when you use ARM ISA in your system. I can assume with high probability that most of peripherial devices like DRAM controller and others are using one of the AMBA buses.
Basically, if you use ARM CPU commercially, you are on hook to pay some not insignificant amount of money in perpetuity.
So, if Apple will continue to use ARM, they will be an ARM's customer, a significant one.
What I heard is that Apple has a perpetual license having founded the company in the first place.
Can someone confirm this?
Genuine question: why would Apple be worse than Nvidia for ARM?