How embarrassing for Arm that they are having to admit how weak they really are to all and sundry.
Is RISC-V an upcoming threat to ARM or will the occupy non competing areas?
I would say that RISC-V is going to be competing in all areas, and possibly more quickly than many realise.
- It’s already competitive in the microcontroller arena
- more capable processor designs are being worked on
- There’re hints of GPUs, and
- RISC-V is competing in the emerging markets - going head-to-head with Arm.
The RISC-V Foundation increased by 133% last year, and with that came funding and greater visibility. The momentum seems to be with RISC-V, and ARM is in the doldrums.
They have had a pretty good ride with Smartphones and SBC’s, maybe they should have embraced open source :)
I absolutely agree with you!
What happens to Arm if the deal doesn’t go ahead?
I think they’re right to fear a flotation - the ROI has been surprisingly low for a company that’s supposed to be worth US$40B… And Arm are looking to raise money, not produce profits just to give the money to investors.
Qualcomm’s idea of users of the ISA clubbing together to maintain it - I guess more-or-less the Foundation model - might raise some money… but wouldn’t that reduce Arm to custodians of the specification?
Arm could open source the ISA… That would probably consign RISC-V to the classroom… but it would diminish Arm Ltd. too.
: Chip designers for hire, and scrabbling for funding the next processor.