The text of Qualcomm’s counterclaim against ARM, filed in the course of a bitter legal conflict between companies, suggests that ARM is going to radically change its licensing policy after 2024, which will create huge problems for the entire industry.

No licenses will be given to chip makers (such as Qualcomm) – ARM requires licensing agreements and annual payments directly from device OEMs. In addition, third-party coprocessors – modems, graphics adapters, and others – cannot be embedded into Arm-licensed chips.

According to Qualcomm’s updated counterclaim, ARM is arguing with manufacturers that the only way to get their technology is to accept the new licensing terms. Qualcomm claims that ARM is misleading Qualcomm’s OEM partners about the current licensing terms.

ARM is said to be telling manufacturers not to add third-party modules to ARM-based systems-on-a-chip, instead offering to license its own designs. We are talking about a wide range of coprocessors – modern manufacturers integrate video cards, modems, neuroprocessors and other modules into chips.

Well

Development in Python

Invest in popular mov programming to earn $1300 via rіk

REGISTER!

The new approach means that Samsung’s licensing deal with AMD to integrate GPUs into the latter’s chips, or the production of Mediatek processors with Imagination graphics modules, could be illegal after 2024.

If what Qualcomm is saying is true, it looks like ARM is playing a dirty game by threatening the entire market with a radical change in the relationship model. Companies such as Mediatek, Samsung and others should be very concerned and urgently start looking for a way out. NVIDIA has a 20-year ARM license – it is likely that the change in ARM policy will not affect the company’s activities in the near future. Apple may have comfortable licensing terms due to their historical ties to Arm.

Such a radical turn may encourage manufacturers to look for fundamentally different solutions – for example, to pay more attention to other branches of the RISC architecture. In addition to the very fact of changing the license, Arm looks like an unscrupulous partner, allowing itself to radically change the terms of collaboration unilaterally.

Who knows what the situation would have been if NVIDIA’s deal to buy ARM was approved. With a high degree of probability, Jensen Huang would not have “twisted his hands” on the market so much. On the other hand, one of the arguments for disapproving the deal was precisely the fear of radical changes. Qualcomm made an effort to block the deal – ARM’s actions from this angle may look like revenge.

ARM sues Qualcomm over Nuvia processors – the case will affect the entire industry

Source: SemiAnalysis