REPORT: Arm is sensationally canceling the license that allowed Qualcomm to make Snapdragon chips which power everything from Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs to Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and tablets

takes this opportunity to develop a high performance RISC V core

They might. This would never be open sourced though. Best case scenario is the boost they would provide to the ISA as a whole by having a company as big as Qualcomm backing it.

Simping for Qualcomm is definitely not a take i expected

Don't just give the extortionists more money

Or maybe they were just trying to pay a lot less money, and then they got caught at their little trick.

Saying an ISA is just a hardware API vastly oversimplifies what an architecture is. There is way more to it than just the instruction set, because you can’t have an instruction set without also defining the numbers and types of registers, the mapping of memory and how the CPU interacts with it, the input/output model for the system, and a bunch of other features like virtual memory, addressing modes etc. Just to give an idea, the ARM reference is 850 pages long.

True, I just wished RISCV laptops were slightly more developed and available. As of now, the specs aren't there yet in those devices that are available. (8core@2Ghz, but only 16GB Ram, too little for me)

Kind of a bummer, was coming up to a work laptop upgrade soon and was carefully watching the Linux support for Snapdragon X because I can't bring myself to deal with Apple shenanigans, but like the idea of performance and efficiency. The caution with which I approached it stems from my "I don't really believe a fucking thing Qualcomm Marketing says" mentality, and it seems holding off and watching was the right call. Oh well, x86 for another cycle, I guess.

You are overestimating RISC-V. It cannot save the planet alone.

ARM provides complete chip designs.

RISC-V is more like an API, and then you still need to design your chips behind it.

I'll wait and see. RISC-V is a nice idea, but there are way too many different "standards" to make it a viable ecosystem.

Yeah, in the current macro environment Qualcomm isn't that tied down & can afford some changes (basically with a few of their biggest partners that can keep their profits up even in a few transitioning years). Not sure what prompted ARM to force such a deal instead of getting like a good compromise.

But also fuck Qualcomm & their closed-softwareness.

Im still hoping I can buy a RISC-V laptop (from Framework?) in 2 or 3 years & just run Linux normally.
\ And if that can happen & RISC-V still doesn't overall prosper it's bcs of some shitty greedy deals between megacorps.

"risc architecture is gonna change everything"

For a firm that already have their own core designs that simply use the ARM instruction set, it might be easier to adapt to RISC-V. For a firm that licenses ARM cores on the other hand...

You should say that, yes, very hopefully much so.

Laughs in OpenPOWER

I'm hoping for a nice warm x86_64 phone.

This is 100% capitalism. It's not free market to have a goverment-enforced monopoly.

What does trust have to do with anything? I mean, they seem to be arguing because Qualcomm bought a separate licensor and ARM argues that requires a contract renegotiation. This is the least take sides-y legal dispute in the history of legal disputes.

Seeing things like "slide to unlock", "rounded corners", and "scroll bouncing" are all patentable is ridiculous.

Yeah, but another big issue is that big companies can afford to bribe or buy out the patent holders in the first place. Ideally, the patent holders would benefit the most from everyone making their tech, but instead they benefit the most from one company being the exclusive manufacturer and highest bidder.

The act of an agreement asking a patent holder not to sell to other manufacturers in itself should be illegal.

Anyway…

I saw this documentary where taco bell won them.

Syndicate was fun but I didn't want to LIVE inside of it...

Not necessarily "out of sand". IP is basically putting a price tag on a person for them to say "Yes, I consent". In other words, technofeudalism.

And so is Arm, especially their Mali drivers.

While some go "um, ackchually, you don't need a GPU driver for your hobby project of using a cheap SBC to run emulators", it does affect usability a lot. Yeah, Arm also pointing at the licensors and so are licensors to Arm in this case, but it's still not good that the only SBCs with relatively good GPU drivers for Linux are made by Raspberry Pi, and in all other case, you either need to pirate the drivers (!), use the tool that allows regular Linux to use Android GPU drivers, or just use the framebuffer-only driver with heavy limitations.

Apple?

Arm owner softbank wants more mulah, want line goes up.

Qualcomm thinks this is not allowed in their license contract.

Without having read the contract, I think Qualcomm has a strong case, seams arm wants this to be settled before court in December. Qualcomm also thinks they have a strong case, so they say let the courts begin.

But it doesn't matter if it's an American court, because Qualcomm is American, softbank is Asian, arm is European. So, you have home turf advantage

Nailed it. They know they have a leading chip in these designs now, the market is expanding, and whatever licensing fee was negotiated in the past needs to be revisited.

ARM is mad because Qualcomm bought Nuvia (which had their own ARM license) and then started using Nuvia's designs. ARM says that Qualcomm needs to renegotiate the license in order to use those designs.

Normally ARM and Qualcomm would handle this fairly smoothly, the reason its not happening this time is because ARM and Qualcomm both have growth plans that are increasingly making them direct competitors.

Truly yes, but RISC-V.

Yeah. The crowd rooting for Qualcomm has never worked with them

ARM has it's problems, but they aren't in the wrong here

Qualcomm paying as much as other licensees should be preferable to Qualcomm than bankruptcy.

Not saying this is wrong, but where do you get it from? The article just states that ARM considers Qualcomm's acquisition of Nuvia a breach of license. Both companies held ARM licenses before. What's the issue with such a purchase?

Oh so they aren't as shitty as other companies so it is all good? Sounds like horseshit to me. Patents on a quickly changing area like computer technology are pretty asinine hence why people don't like them.

Also there is nothing preventing them from changing their behavior and turning into patent trolls in the future. In fact, enshitification pretty much guarantees they will at some point in the future.

Qualcomm is not trying to take over Intel.

Not only has it been denied by both parties, it would 100% not go ahead. Additionally, it would invalidate the x86 cross-licence that AMD and Intel have, meaning Intel would no longer be able to make modern x86 CPUs. Frankly it's also somewhat doubtful Qualcomm wants to take Intel on.

The rumour was likely someone trying to pump up the stock and sell.

Let's wait and see how this develops...

IT Crowd s04e03 timestamp 6:25 - if someone was looking for a scene.

Yes, absolutely related. This fight started because Qualcomm bought Nuvia and started using their designs (and their ARM license for those designs). This recent escalation is almost certainly because Qualcomm is about to bring Oryon, which was designed by Nuvia, to smartphones.

Read this article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/arm-to-cancel-qualcomm-chip-design-license-in-escalation-of-feud/ar-AA1sK49J

What's the .io death? Looking this up is particularly frustrating.

Qualcomm, x86-64?

Intel and AMD aren't going to give them the go-ahead for that lol

I think you’re in the wrong classroom. Government abortion-clinic cellphone tracking software is next door.