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Even if ARM's legal reasoning has a relatively low chance of success, I suspect the likely difference in the value of the contracts is enough that it's worth th

Even if ARM's legal reasoning has a relatively low chance of success, I suspect the likely difference in the value of the contracts is enough that it's worth them trying anyway, either to cause enough of a threat to extract some kind of settlement from Qualcomm or for a chance of a really big payout. It's probably not a great long-term plan: such actions are likely to hasten work on RISC-V alternatives at Qualcomm and all the other manufacturers witnessing the attempt.

aurareturn 2y ago
It's probably not a great long-term plan: such actions are likely to hasten work on RISC-V alternatives at Qualcomm and all the other manufacturers witnessing the attempt. I think any Qualcomm work on RISC-V is mostly for show. It's an empty threat. Qualcomm can't move to RISC-V because they don't have the power to drag an entire industry to optimize software for RISC-V.
- 15155 2y ago
  If any industry player has anything resembling this power, it's Qualcomm.
  - aurareturn 2y ago
    I disagree. Qualcomm does not have any pull to make Google to make RISC-V Android a first class citizen. Nor do they have any pull to make Microsoft develop Windows RISC-V. They also don't have a presence in servers so they can't make Linux and server software like Kubernetes/Postgres/Redis/etc. optimize for RISC-V. The actual entities that have this kind of power is Apple, AWS, Microsoft, and Google and some Chinese tech giants.
    - yencabulator 2y ago
      > Qualcomm does not have any pull to make Google to make RISC-V Android a first class citizen. You can debate what "first class" means, but RISC-V was announced as an official Android platform in 2023, and runs in emulators today: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/google-announces-official-android-support-for-risc-v/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/google-announces-off... https://opensource.googleblog.com/2023/10/android-and-risc-v-what-you-need-to-know.html https://opensource.googleblog.com/2023/10/android-and-risc-v... https://github.com/google/android-riscv64 https://github.com/google/android-riscv64
  - musicale 2y ago
    Apple, Google, and Nvidia have entered the conversation.
Wytwwww 2y ago
Would it be any better for the whole market if Qualcomm developed their own proprietary RISC-V cores with proprietary/patented extensions that most software would be reliant on? There wouldn't be any equivalent of ARM to keep them grounded and they'd have zero incentives to give away their IP for free to their competitors (or even license it).

aurareturn 2y ago

It's probably not a great long-term plan: such actions are likely to hasten work on RISC-V alternatives at Qualcomm and all the other manufacturers witnessing the attempt. I think any Qualcomm work on RISC-V is mostly for show. It's an empty threat. Qualcomm can't move to RISC-V because they don't have the power to drag an entire industry to optimize software for RISC-V.

15155 2y ago
If any industry player has anything resembling this power, it's Qualcomm.
- aurareturn 2y ago
  I disagree. Qualcomm does not have any pull to make Google to make RISC-V Android a first class citizen. Nor do they have any pull to make Microsoft develop Windows RISC-V. They also don't have a presence in servers so they can't make Linux and server software like Kubernetes/Postgres/Redis/etc. optimize for RISC-V. The actual entities that have this kind of power is Apple, AWS, Microsoft, and Google and some Chinese tech giants.
  - yencabulator 2y ago
    > Qualcomm does not have any pull to make Google to make RISC-V Android a first class citizen. You can debate what "first class" means, but RISC-V was announced as an official Android platform in 2023, and runs in emulators today: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/google-announces-official-android-support-for-risc-v/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/google-announces-off... https://opensource.googleblog.com/2023/10/android-and-risc-v-what-you-need-to-know.html https://opensource.googleblog.com/2023/10/android-and-risc-v... https://github.com/google/android-riscv64 https://github.com/google/android-riscv64
- musicale 2y ago
  Apple, Google, and Nvidia have entered the conversation.

Wytwwww 2y ago

Would it be any better for the whole market if Qualcomm developed their own proprietary RISC-V cores with proprietary/patented extensions that most software would be reliant on? There wouldn't be any equivalent of ARM to keep them grounded and they'd have zero incentives to give away their IP for free to their competitors (or even license it).