Why would a company sue to keep its latest tech from coming out? Ask Arm

November 19, 2022
Technology

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But as it now stands, the chip may hurt Arm more than it helps. It has been dubbed the Qualcomm Oryon.

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But what would really turn the Arm relationship on its ear is Qualcomm’s broader plan to redesign all of its Arm-based chips to incorporate Nuvia’s innovations. That would slash what Qualcomm pays in royalties to Arm on every chip it sells, not just PC processors.

How big a gash would that be? No one knows exactly. But Qualcomm bought the capability by paying $1.4 billion for Nuvia. So if you’re trying to figure it out, that’s not a bad place to start.

Stock or custom?

Like Qualcomm, the vast majority of licensees incorporate into their chip designs stock, pre-designed processors from Arm. It costs them more to let Arm do all the processor design work. But it’s easier, faster and – for many applications – good enough.

Apple is one of the few licensees doing its own Arm processor designs. And it not only saves money through lower royalties. The customization is also what makes the M1 and M2 series of Arm-compatible processors so special.

Qualcomm has had a longstanding license to design custom Arm processors as well, though it’s been content of late to build its products with canned Arm processors.

And then it bought Nuvia.

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So who’s right?

If what Qualcomm says is true, then Arm doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on. In its response to the lawsuit, Qualcomm asserts that Arm doesn’t have any claim to the stuff that makes Nuvia special. The Nuvia design innovations can be applied to any processor, not just Arm.

For its part, Arm said that Qualcomm’s filing is “riddled with inaccuracies,” and added that it will be filing a formal response soon.

If Arm doesn’t win, the licensing firm will need to figure out how it can live with Qualcomm growing Arm’s share in new markets with disruptive new technology it doesn’t control.

Which, as strange as it sounds, is really what this fight is all about.

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