Arm stopped selling licenses to Chinese companies for advanced processor architectures

Chinese processor developers are making serious bets on Arm and RISC architectures, since access to them has so far not been restricted by political opponents.
But now Arm has refused to export Neoverse V architecture licenses to China and this could become a nasty precedent, limiting the pace of development of China's national semiconductor industry.Image source: AlibabaBritish Arm holding, as the Financial Times reports, has determined that Chinese customers cannot buy licenses to use Neoverse V processor architectures because they allow processors to be built at performance levels that exceed the values allowed by US export rules.
The Neoverse V architecture includes elements developed in the United States, so British Arm has to negotiate the nuances of exporting the relevant technology with overseas officials.
As expected, the Chinese giant Alibaba as a result of such restrictions may face the inability to use the Neoverse V1 or V2 architecture in its processors.
In this case, the Chinese partners of Arm will be available architecture series Neoverse N2, which has a lower speed.This situation resonates with the restrictions, which have already faced NVIDIA, which lost the right to supply after the fall of next year, gas pedals generation calculations Ampere and Hopper with a certain level of performance.
The supplier was quick to react and started offering Chinese customers special A800 gas pedals, whose performance avoided the sanctions restrictions by a margin.
Arm's Chinese customers found themselves in a similar situation.
The same company, Alibaba, expected to buy a license from Arm to use the Neoverse V1 architecture to develop processors used in cloud systems.
Competitor Amazon Web Services in the U.S.
already uses the architecture of this series to create specialized processors used in its own infrastructure.
Alibaba representatives, on condition of anonymity, expressed dissatisfaction with Arm's behavior, stating its reluctance to sell technology to China even if such deals are adequately funded.

Arm's IPO is postponed - it will take place later in 2023

NVIDIA's deal to buy UK processor architecture developer Arm, which fell apart this spring due to opposition from regulators and activists, prompted Japan's SoftBank Corporation, the current asset owner, to bring Arm shares to the stock market, but it expected to do so by March 31, 2023.
Now there is information that the IPO could take place later next year.Image source: Getty ImagesThe fact is that in the calendar of Japanese SoftBank in March next year ends another fiscal period, and this milestone was originally seen as a benchmark for the return of Arm shares to the stock exchange.
SoftBank's priority remained the idea of placing Arm shares on the U.S.
stock exchange, as this would have raised more funds, but British authorities insisted on a dual offering that would have brought Arm shares back to the London Stock Exchange as well.
Before SoftBank bought Arm for $32 billion in 2016, the last of the companies remained public.The Register reports, citing its own sources, that Arm shareholders these days began receiving notices that a public offering would take place later in 2023.
Arm officials have confirmed that such discussions are underway, but no final decision has yet been made.
The current macroeconomic situation prevents the placement of shares at the stock market in the first quarter.
Interestingly, Masayoshi Son, head of SoftBank's parent company, made a reference to his plans to develop Arm's business for several years ahead during his recent speech, but he did not mention anything about an IPO in his speech.
However, this can be explained by a change in the structure of Arm's upcoming offering.
If SoftBank retains a large block of shares, it will still be able to significantly influence the business of the British company.

Arm responded to Qualcomm's counterclaim: licensing scheme will not change

British processor developer Arm, owned by Japanese conglomerate Softbank, filed a response to Qualcomm's counterclaim, rejecting all statements and accusations by the American company.
The company has no plans to change its licensing scheme.Image source: community.arm.comIn August Arm sued Qualcomm, which was the result of a dispute over the licensing of processor architecture.
Qualcomm responded with unexpected accusations against the British partner: according to the defendant, Arm in this way is revenge for its position against the failed merger with NVIDIA, and to consolidate its position the company allegedly decided to change the processor licensing scheme to the detriment of all chip makers - payments will be charged from manufacturers of end devices.Arm denied all these allegations and in its response to the counterclaim stressed that the essence of its claims is simple: when Qualcomm bought startup Nuvia, which was a licensee of Arm, the buyer Qualcomm assures that Arm decided to take advantage of the situation and get additional royalties, and the license terms were not intended to obtain such permission.
Finally, Arm categorically rejected Qualcomm's assertion that it plans to change its licensing model - the British company said that this information is misinformation and misleading, according to The Register.
In reality, the company is not going to limit partners' access to its technology and will continue to cooperate both with processor manufacturers and OEMs.

The share of laptops on Arm-processors will grow in the market by 10 times from 2020 to 2023 - Intel loses positions

Processors on Arm architecture are trying more and more actively to advance in the market of laptops.
According to experts at DigiTimes, by 2023 their share will be 13.9%.
Although at first glance it seems not very much in relation to the total mass, compared to 2020, the share will increase by 10 times - in that year such models on the market was only 1.4%.
In this case, Intel is actively losing ground in the mobile PC market.Image source: AppleAccording to Tom's Hardware, the DigiTimes report also reflects another trend - it seems that the dominance of Intel solutions in the notebook market is gradually coming to an end.
At the same time the whole segment is suffering from the current difficult macroeconomic situation and the decline in sales after the pandemic weakened.DigiTimes notes that the notebook market as a whole in 2022, there is a decline of 22.8 percent year-on-year - a total of about 190 million devices will be delivered.
However, experts predict a relative stabilization of demand in 2023 - sales should be about 200 million laptops.
Changes in sales will presumably fluctuate by up to 10%.An important role in the promotion of Arm-architecture in the market of laptops was played by Apple, which began in 2020 to promote MacBook on its own Arm-chipset.
For its part, Qualcomm is improving its solutions for Windows.
In addition, sales of Chromebooks on Arm have also recently received a certain impetus, but to a lesser extent than other platforms.Meanwhile, Intel is losing its leadership in the laptop segment due to a number of problems.
In addition to Arm processors that have challenged the hegemony of the x86 architecture, AMD is gaining ground.
Ryzen models have proven to be competitive in the notebook market, so they are increasingly trusted by manufacturers and customers.
According to DigiTimes, while Intel's share of the notebook market in 2016 was 82.2% (AMD accounted for 17.8% in the same year), in Q2 2022 Intel had only 63.5% of the market, while AMD strengthened its position to 36.4%.It is assumed that from 2024 will come other important changes - Qualcomm intends to introduce computer chipsets based on Nuvia developments, which will give new impetus to the Arm-architecture promotion.

Qualcomm again promised to turn the Windows PC market in two years - with Snapdragon based on Nuvia developments

Qualcomm has been optimistic about Windows PCs on Arm processors of the Snapdragon family for years.
However, with the developments of the startup Nuvia, acquired in 2021, the optimism turns into confidence - the company claims that in two years the disposition in the PC market will change.Image source: qualcomm.
comTalking to investors and analysts after announcing quarterly financial results, the company's CEO, Cristiano Amon, noted that OEMs have already expressed a desire to work with the company to release Windows PCs powered by Snapdragon processors, which will only hit the market in two years, Tom's Harware reports.
These processors use solutions from Nuvia, which specialized in server Arm processors.The release of next-generation PC chips is not easy for Qualcomm: it originally planned to start sending samples as early as August 2022 to start production and sales in 2023.
However, it was later decided to start shipping samples only in 2023, and Windows-based Snapdragon computers will begin a massive market conquest only in 2024.Mr.
Amon did not specify the number of projects in which Qualcomm chips have won competitive victories, and did not say when exactly in 2024 we should expect the next generation products, but the growing number of such projects indicates that OEMs are quite willing to start shipping Windows-based Arm-computers in two years.
And that's a good sign not only for Qualcomm, but also for other Arm chipmakers.A significant obstacle to achieving the goal could be a legal dispute between Qualcomm and Arm.
According to the British company, after the takeover, Qualcomm had to stop projects Nuvia, because under the new owner the license for Arm-architecture is no longer valid.
In addition, Arm is likely to change the licensing mechanisms of its products.

Former head of iPhone development joins Arm's board of directors

Tony Fadell, formerly head of iPhone development, has joined Arm's board of directors.
His goal in his new position is to help the developer of processor architectures reach beyond the mobile device market to a broader segment of the digital world.Image source: build-collective.comFadell's choice of Arm processors as the foundation for the iPod and iPhone solidified the company's position early in the smartphone era.
Today this architecture is successfully conquering both the segment of personal computers with Apple M1 and M2 chips, and the server direction with processors like Amazon Graviton.
In an exclusive interview with CNET, the expert said Arm would greatly benefit from his experience in end-product development: \"I can bring a more system-level vision.
\u003C...> I think about the end consumer.\" Nowadays Tony Fadell is the head of Build Collective, an investment and consulting company.
Arm is at a critical point in its history as the company is sure that the processor architecture it creates will lead to a dramatic increase in digital devices and their importance in the life of modern man.
We are talking about vehicles with autopilot, smart watches, security cameras, and voice assistants built into smart speakers.Fadell also noted that if to Arm-processors in the iPod players in Apple no questions, in the case of the iPhone, he had to defend his position, because the former head of the company Steve Jobs was inclined in favor of Intel chips.
After leaving Apple, Fadell founded Nest, a company specializing in smart home technology, later taken over by Google, and again designed equipment based on Arm-chips.

Arm will prohibit the proximity of its CPU and third-party modules in one chip, as well as impose royalties on manufacturers of end devices

The lawsuit between Arm and Qualcomm turned unexpectedly.The British developer of processors decided to radically change its business model: first, license fees will have to be paid by manufacturers of end devices, including smartphones and tablets; second, third-party components, including GPUs, NPUs and ISPs, will be prohibited in chips with Arm processors.

In late August Arm filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm.Qualcomm absorbed server processor developer NUVIA and, according to Arm, had to update its license agreement because it deemed all previous agreements with the company invalid after it bought it.Qualcomm filed a countersuit against the British developer, and new documentation on the case contains crucial details.Qualcomm's updated lawsuit says that after 2024, Arm will stop licensing its processor architecture to semiconductor component manufacturers - payments will be charged to end-device manufacturers.

Arm, according to the U.S.company, has already told OEMs that soon the only way for them to get Arm-based chips will be through direct license fees, and they'll have to accept these rules of the game.But that's not all.The British company has also decided to tighten its policy with respect to chip developers like Qualcomm: they will not be able to use third-party components in single-chip platforms with Arm processors if Arm offers their analogs as a licensed product.

This will affect graphics and network processors, as well as image processors.In other words, Arm will prohibit the creation of duos like Samsung and AMD chips, as well as MediaTek and Imagination - both pairs of companies cooperate in the field of mobile graphics.And Qualcomm itself does not use GPUs from Arm, but its own.Such an initiative Arm shows signs of anti-competitive behavior and it is possible that these steps will accelerate the companies' efforts to develop chips based on open architecture RISC-V.However, some of the British company's partners may not be affected by the new rules.

For example, NVIDIA has a 20-year license for the development of components with Arm-architecture.Apple was at the origins of Arm, so it is unlikely that these two can be destroyed so easily.There is also a version that a mutually beneficial cooperation binds Arm with Broadcom.Thus, the dispute between Arm and Qualcomm in just over two years threatens to affect the interests of many smaller players.

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Arm has separated automotive chip development into a separate division

In late September, the British holding Arm appointed a new CFO and added two members to the board of directors, which can be taken as a sign of preparation for a public offering, but the changes did not stop there.
The division that developed solutions for the automotive industry has been separated, and there was rotation among the heads of all major divisions.Source image: Getty ImagesAbout this on the pages of the corporate blog said Arm CEO Rene Haas.
According to him, so far the solutions for the automotive industry and the Internet of Things have been developed by one unit, but progress in both areas pushes the company to separate them.
In total, Arm will now have four main areas of activity: automotive, customer (responsible for technology for the consumer market), infrastructure and the Internet of Things.From the previously unified division of automotive solutions and the Internet of Things is Dipti Vachani (Dipti Vachani), he will now oversee the automotive business Arm in the post of senior vice president.
Paul Williamson, who previously headed the customer division, will move to head the IoT business, also taking the position of senior vice president.
The client business will be led by Chris Bergey, who was previously in charge of Arm's infrastructure solutions.
Finally, Mohamed Awad, who held the top IoT position, will head the infrastructure business, also as senior vice president.
According to the CEO, \"the change is critical to our success,\" which is why management sees this shift as the key to Arm's success.

According to Qualcomm, Arm is retaliating against the company for criticizing the deal with NVIDIA by demanding compensation for the use of Nuvia licenses

Early last year, Qualcomm bought the assets of processor developer Nuvia for $1.4 billion, which used the Arm architecture and held the relevant licenses.
According to Arm itself, this deal does not give Qualcomm the right to dispose of all the licenses inherited from Nuvia.
A dispute broke out between the companies, which they are trying to resolve in court.
Qualcomm believes that Arm is taking revenge for its criticism of the deal with NVIDIA.Image source: Qualcomm Recall that in the spring of this year NVIDIA was forced to abandon its intentions to buy Arm, because it opposed certain regulators, British officials and a variety of companies from among its customers.
Qualcomm was among them, and this summer it faced a lawsuit from the British developer, which accused it of misusing licenses for processor cores inherited from Nuvia.
The latter had a license for the architecture of Arm v8, which was available to Qualcomm, but Arm did not like the logic of interaction, and she demanded that the client stop using the development of Nuvia in their products.
According to Arm, after buying Nuvia, Qualcomm should have signed a new license agreement with the first of the companies.Qualcomm does not think it is right and necessary, calling Arm's claims revenge for its own position on the deal with NVIDIA, which collapsed in the spring.
Arm not only demanded extra payment for Qualcomm's right to use Nuvia's designs, but also tried to obstruct the work of that client's specialists on processors that use Nuvia's intellectual property.
Qualcomm representatives also added that Arm's original agreement with Nuvia did not provide for such control measures on the part of the British holding.
Arm believes that after Nuvia lost its independence, all the previous agreements lost their force and the new business owners represented by Qualcomm should conclude new contracts.In general, Qualcomm should pay Arm more for ready-made solutions, and in the case of using its own developments based on the Arm architecture, the royalties are reduced.
Apparently, in the precedent with Nuvia, the British developer simply does not want Qualcomm to pay him less.
The victory of Arm in this court dispute, according to Qualcomm, could untie its hands in the abuse of its own powers in relations with licensees.

Intel CEO says that the company will continue to lose market positions, but everything will change in 2025

Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger's strategic plans consider 2025 as a turning point, because by that time the company must not only regain its technological leadership, but also stop bearing the increased costs inevitable in the pursuit of this goal.
Until 2025, Intel will have to lose market share in the server segment, as Gelsinger realizes.Image source: IntelWith his views on the matter, he shared at the recent Technology Conference TMT, as explained by the resource Tom's Hardware.
According to the head of the company, Intel's management proceeds from the principle that its server business increases the turnover every calendar year.
Having reached the bottom in the second and third quarters of this year, Intel expects to bring the business back to growth, but over the next couple of years, these rates will still lag behind the rest of the market, allowing the main competitor to continue to strengthen its position.
Only from 2025 will Intel start to regain its lost position in the server segment, according to Gelsinger.By 2024, Intel expects to find decent competitiveness, and in 2025 to become the undisputed leader in lithography technology.
According to Gelsinger, the Sierra Forest server processors coming out in 2024, which will be manufactured using Intel 3 technology, will be a worthy alternative to server processors on the rival Arm architecture.
Intel's solution will offer an attractive performance to power ratio, and customers won't have to think about migrating software to the Arm platform.
Perhaps the only problem for Intel may be an earlier release of 5-nm AMD EPYC processors with 128 energy-efficient x86-core, which is scheduled for 2023.At the same time, the head of Intel stressed that the company's refusal to release Optane-type memory is not the only step to optimize the areas of its activities.
He attributes the future of the company mainly to logical components, and in the refusal to produce memory Gelsinger even sees a certain ironic symbolism - forty years ago, she already took a similar step, and then her business went up the hill.
What kind of business will be cut next, the head of Intel did not specify.

Arm sues Qualcomm and Nuvia over breach of license agreements

Arm has sued Qualcomm and Nuvia.
They are accused of violating license agreements signed with Arm, as well as the trademark rights of the British chip developer.Image source: QualcommThe Qualcomm company has dominated the mobile chipset market for years.
However, things are not going well in the PC segment.
To boost its potential in the PC market, Qualcomm last year acquired startup Nuvia, which was developing computer Arm processors that, in theory, could compete with Apple's solutions in the mobile and desktop segments.UK Arm works with two types of customers: companies that use its development as the basis for their own chips, and companies that license only Arm instruction sets for their own processors.
Qualcomm and Nuvia have had agreements with Arm in both areas for years.
However, the licenses are not transferable from company to company and differ in detail.Therefore, according to Arm, Qualcomm with the acquisition of Nuvia \"tried to hijack Nuvia's licenses without Arm's consent.\" From this, the British developer concluded that the licensing agreements signed between it, Qualcomm and Nuvia individually were thus violated.
In this regard, in March 2022 Arm revoked licenses from Nuvia to use its technology.
However, the latter continued to develop chips with a set of its software instructions.As a result, Arm went to court to prohibit the development of certain Nuvia chips, which can still use its technology.
In addition, the company is seeking compensation for infringement of its trademark rights.
Arm's lawsuit could set back Qualcomm and Nuvia's efforts to develop chips for laptops, desktops and servers for many months.
It could also result in hefty fines for both companies.

Former president of Arm left the board of directors of Chinese SMIC

The worsening controversy between the PRC and the United States, provoked by the recent visit to Taiwan of American Parliament Speaker Nancy Pelosi, touched the activities of those companies that work in the segment of semiconductor components production.
After nine years on the board of directors of SMIC, former Arm president Tudor Brown was forced to announce his departure from the position.Image source: Ceres Power HoldingsThis move by the industry veteran, who was president of British processor architecture developer Arm until May 2012, was reported by Bloomberg with reference to his personal comments on the social network LinkedIn.
Tudor Brown admitted that he regretted leaving the board of directors of Chinese contract chip maker SMIC, where he had served for the previous nine years.
He held the post of president of Arm from 1990 to 2012, but left it even before the British developer bought the Japanese corporation SoftBank.According to Tudor Brown, international controversy in recent times only intensified, which forced him to leave the board of directors of the Chinese company SMIC.
It became known recently that the U.S.
export control rules were tightened and now China's SMIC will not be able to receive from any supplier lithographic equipment using U.S.
technology suitable for the production of chips at 14nm and coarser, although previously the border was held at 10nm.
According to independent experts, this has not prevented SMIC from setting up last summer's supply of components with characteristics close to the 7nm products of Taiwan's TSMC.

British officials have not given up hope of persuading Arm to float in London

Before 2016, the British developer of processor architectures Arm was a public company whose shares were traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Under Theresa May, Arm's assets were bought by Japan's SoftBank Corporation, but the latter now expects to list them in New York.
British officials are trying to persuade SoftBank to float Arm on the London stock exchange.Image source: ReutersAccording to Nikkei Asian Review, the British authorities are trying to avoid reputational damage that could result from placing Arm on the New York Stock Exchange instead of the London one.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson even sent a letter to SoftBank's management urging them to list Arm in London instead of New York.
According to unofficial data, the British authorities are willing to attract funds of local investors to buy shares of Arm in the case if the placement takes place in London.According to SoftBank's management, namely the site in New York is the most suitable place for the IPO of Arm, because it plays a key role in the segment of high-tech assets.
Already this summer SoftBank may decide where to place Arm's shares.
After a failed attempt to sell assets to graphics solutions developer NVIDIA for $40 billion, Japanese business owners probably expect to gain much more during the IPO - according to some reports, up to $ 60 billion.
In May, the head of SoftBank said that Arm should go public by the end of this year.The British authorities are trying to create attractive conditions to attract issuers to the stock market in London, for this last year were relaxed requirements for wishing to get on the local stock exchange's quotation list.
Some parliamentarians are even calling for public funds to be invested in Arm's capital.
Since SoftBank intends to retain a large stake after Arm's placement, it will have to involuntarily take into account the opinion of the British authorities, as the company will continue to operate in the UK even if the shares are placed in New York.
So far, SoftBank has not made any decisions in this regard.

Qualcomm is ready to become a shareholder of Arm, if there are companions

Last quarter SoftBank's attempt to sell British processor architecture developer Arm to NVIDIA failed, after which the assets decided to return to the stock market, but not British, but American.
The head of Qualcomm Cristiano Amon (Cristiano Amon) spoke in favor of the idea to buy out Arm by a consortium of strategic investors, and in this respect, an ally of Qualcomm could become Intel.Image source: CTIA Everything Works Recall that the CEO of the latter, Patrick Gelsinger (Patrick Gelsinger), previously expressed a willingness to invest in Arm assets.
So far Qualcomm does not expect to form an alliance with Intel, but in general Cristiano Amon believes that the buyout of Arm assets by a group of investors would better serve the interests of the industry.
At the very least, it would preserve the balance of interests that would have been broken if the deal with NVIDIA had been consummated.
As you know, Qualcomm opposed the Arm and NVIDIA deal.
According to Amon, \"several companies should be involved in the deal, so that Arm could eventually maintain independence.
\"Until 2016, Arm shares were traded on the London and New York stock exchanges, but now SoftBank aims to return them only to the U.S.
stock exchange.
This causes discontent of some British politicians, who consider Arm a part of the national technological patrimony.
However, so far the attempts of the British authorities to influence the situation have not brought any results, but only contributed to the disruption of the deal with NVIDIA.As the leadership of Qualcomm, Arm managed to achieve success at the expense of collective investment in the ecosystem of the same name.
Arm's independence, according to Amon, was critical to the success of its namesake architecture.
Now everything is moving towards Arm platforms, as the head of Qualcomm thinks, so investments in the company's assets should justify themselves and contribute to its further development.
So far Cristiano Amon did not discuss with SoftBank the possibility of buying the Arm assets, because the management of the Japanese corporation was focused on solving problems with the rebellious head of the Chinese Arm division.
Whether such a conversation will take place in the near future is not specified.

Arm reported record revenues in 2021

Japan's SoftBank Group's Arm yesterday released a report on record revenues in 2021, with its CEO Rene Haas telling Reuters the business is very promising.
SoftBank has specific plans to float the company on the stock market.Image source: ArmSoftBank now plans to float the company in an IPO.
Previously, bureaucratic obstacles created by British regulators prevented it from being sold to American chip maker NVIDIA.Last year, the company received a total revenue of about $2.7 billion, up 35% compared to the previous year.
Of that, licensing revenue (not related to royalties) rose 61% to $1.13 billion, and royalties from chip sales using Arm technology rose 20% to $1.54 billion.According to the head of Arm, 29.2 billion chips using Arm technology were shipped last year, 8 billion of them in the fourth quarter of last year.
The company director said the growth in automotive technology development three to four years ago has borne fruit, and revenues from that segment more than doubled last year thanks to electrification and growth in the computing power of onboard vehicle systems.
The head of the company noted that the performance could have been even better if chipmakers had been able to supply in higher volumes.Haas declined to predict the potential value of Arm in the stock market.
It is known that in September NVIDIA proposed $40 billion for the whole company, and SoftBank itself once bought it for $32 billion.
According to CNBC referring to SoftBank's management, after the initial public offering (IPO) Arm in stock market Japanese owner intends to keep its controlling stake, so the loss of management of highly sought-after business is out of the question.
Earlier a scandal erupted in the company - its Chinese branch claimed de facto independence, but now it seems that control is gradually being restored.
According to Haas, the Chinese branch accounts for 20% of Arm's revenues.

NVIDIA: SoftBank offered to take over Arm company, and future deal does not threaten Intel and AMD

Judging by the report published by the American NVIDIA and the British chip developer ; company Arm, the purchase of the latter was not initially an initiative of NVIDIA. The current owner of Arm & ; the company SoftBank made a proposal to sell it in due time.

While NVIDIA is currently spending a lot of effort convincing UK regulators and the media that a $40 billion takeover is appropriate, evidence that SoftBank was the initiator of the sale is supported by recently released information from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). NVIDIA did not offer SoftBank to buy Arm» & ; said in a joint report of the companies published on the website of the British government. According to them, NVIDIA is a staunch supporter of the x86 ecosystem and has been developing computing platforms for PCs and data centers on the corresponding architecture throughout its history. According to the company, Intel and AMD produce industry-leading processors and chipsets suitable for many industries and products, including its own NVIDIA DGX system and supercomputers like Cambridge-1. One of the industry's main concerns is that the combined strength of NVIDIA and Arm could severely undermine the position of tech giants like Intel and AMD. Nevertheless, as indicated in a statement from the companies, ‖ a viable alternative ecosystem will promote growth and demand for NVIDIA platforms. It will also encourage x86 giants to innovate and expand their offerings, which will also benefit NVIDIA».

In NVIDIA stressed that the proposed by some entities and institutions stand-alone IPO Arm is unlikely to bring the latter to success ; it is likely that it would not allow the company to raise the necessary financial resources for development. At the same time, the merger will provide an opportunity to significantly increase investment in the development of Arm's research facilities. Also in NVIDIA responded to critics of the deal, saying that the market potential of Arm is not as strong as some believe & ; the merger does not threaten really big problems for competitors. If the British company had the ability to control the market as it is credited, it would regularly report «fantastic» revenue growth and huge profits.

AMD will not bet on big.LITTLE architecture and is skeptical about Alder Lake.

In this half of the year Intel has ceased to hide the fact that preparing for the announcement by next fall consumer processors Alder Lake will use a hybrid architecture with a combination of large and compact cores. But AMD believes that the time of such layouts has not yet come to the desktop segment, although it keeps a hand on the pulse of trends.

Image Source: Intel

As AMD corporate vice president and chief product officer Joe Macri explains, the concept of big.LITTLE itself has been on the market for more than fifteen years and is not new, but to make it successful in the consumer sector, operating systems and software must be radically redesigned. Existing task schedulers tend to be symmetrical and it's difficult to effectively manage data flows for large and small cores simultaneously. The AMD representative refused to discuss even the theoretical time frame for implementing such a hybrid layout in the company's processors, but admitted that it will never use such an architecture only for marketing purposes. "We will not do this just to get more cores," Joe Makri explained. Adding the number of cores at the expense of small functional blocks, he said, would be meaningless as long as their resources could not be used efficiently by the software ecosystem. The success that AMD has now achieved with "big" cores, according to Makri, could not have been achieved with "small" cores. Over time, he admits, AMD may need to use small cores, but the software must be fundamentally rebuilt by then. If such changes are not visible to the end consumer, there is no point in implementing them.