In a lawsuit with Qualcomm, the British Arm decided to change its business model. From now on, license fees should be paid by manufacturers of end devices, including smartphones and tablets. ARM will also prohibit third-party components in chips with ARM processors if they have their counterparts, including GPUs, NPUs and ISPs.
ARM previously sued Qualcomm after it bought server processor developer Nuvia. The British company believes that after this transaction, all previous agreements should be considered invalid since Nuvia developed chip designs using ARM licenses and cannot be transferred to Qualcomm without permission.
ARM also decided to tighten its policy on chip developers, including Qualcomm. If ARM delivers its equivalents as a licenced product, it will no longer be allowed to employ third-party components in single-chip devices using ARM CPUs. This will affect graphics and network processors, as well as image processors. This innovation will affect partnerships between Samsung and AMD and MediaTek and Imagination.
However, the new rules will only affect some. Nvidia has a 20-year license to develop components with ARM architecture, and Apple was at the forefront of ARM. In addition, the innovations will not affect ARM’s cooperation with Broadcom.
In May, Qualcomm confirmed that it would like to take a stake in ARM and help build a consortium to keep the British chipmaker neutral. However, ARM owner SoftBank plans to retain a majority stake in the manufacturer after the IPO. It will be held during the financial year ending March 31, 2023.
its policy on chip developers, including Qualcomm. If ARM delivers its equivalents as a licenced product, it will no longer be allowed to employ third-party components in single-chip devices using ARM CPUs. This will affect graphics and network processors, as well as image processors.