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the takeover, Qualcomm had to stop projects Nuvia, because under the new owner the license for Arm-architecture is no longer valid.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.

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.

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.