4 ms·

Quite an odd thing for a British journal to pretend ARM doesn't exist...

by nasretdinov 5mo ago

deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
dijit 5mo ago
ARM is: 1) An ISA licensor, with no capability to create its own CPUs and 2) Owned by Softbank in Japan, not European
- shaokind 5mo ago
  Is 1) accurate with ARM creating their own CPUs directly? https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/03/24/arm-launches-its-own-cpu-with-meta-as-first-customer.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/03/24/arm-launches-its-own-cpu...
- Aromasin 5mo ago
  They are pivoting to become a fabless chip company as of last year (the decision happened a few years back): https://www.wired.com/story/chip-design-firm-arm-is-making-its-own-ai-cpu/ https://www.wired.com/story/chip-design-firm-arm-is-making-i... I'd also argue that while Softbank has capital ownership of the company, the leadership structure and how that capital is allocated is still done within the UK with standard board oversight. I know a few of the leadership team personally, and they have a wide remit, almost more so than a public company might do.
- dadoum 5mo ago
  ARM design IP blocks, they can make their own CPU (and now they are making one), eevn though that means competing with your customers.
  - wvbdmp 5mo ago
    They still don‘t fab them though, AFAIK they go through TSMC.
    - gehsty 5mo ago
      And where does TMSC go for the machines it uses to produce these chips?
    - mathisfun123 5mo ago
      There are literally only 2 "fabfull" processor companies (Intel and Samsung) so you're saying something completely meaningless.
      - dadoum 5mo ago
        Actually there are more if you count the ones which are not at the cutting edge but your point still stands, most high-end silicon companies only do design.
hannob 5mo ago
As far as cloud service servers are concerned, I don't think ARM CPUs have any meaningful marketshare, right? You could start running things on ARM, but, almost certainly, that comes with a lot of extra friction. (Not saying that isn't a bad idea, it'd probably improve the ecosystem as a whole and flush out architecture-specific assumptions in server software. But it's not someting trivial to do.)
- hanwenn 5mo ago
  AWS graviton, Google Axion? ARM has better performance per watt, which translates to better performance per $.
  - jandrewrogers 5mo ago
    The reality is more complicated than this. If the processor is mostly idle or running minimally optimized software, which is most software, then ARM offers better performance per watt. If the processor is running highly optimized code at max throughput all the time then x86 offers better performance per watt. This is an intrinsic tradeoff. To make low-utilization workloads more power efficient you have to make high-utilization workloads less power efficient and vice versa. ARM and x86 differentiate themselves by taking opposite ends of that tradeoff spectrum. It depends on the code.
- therockhead 5mo ago
  AWS Graviton has been steadily gaining share, a quick Google search says it's up to 20% now.
- Sytten 5mo ago
  AWS runs a lot of ARM server and they are pushed heavily since they are cheaper and faster. And with Apple running ARM it is just easier to fully transition now.
- Hikikomori 5mo ago
  More than 50 % of new CPU capacity on AWS is arm. Most of their own stuff uses it, nitro co processors are also arm. Anyone caring about cost of AWS has or is transitioning.
Aromasin 5mo ago
The author is a Dutch journalist with no technology background. I wouldn't jump to get my information from this source. As a person who works in the UK semiconductor industry, I noticed 4 or 5 glaring holes in the article in just the first couple of paragraphs.
- embedding-shape 5mo ago
  I got to the second sentence ("Europe is pouring more than €2 billion into sovereign cloud initiatives") before I realize the author either doesn't know and/or didn't care to research properly.
anonym29 5mo ago
ARM has the exact same problem via TrustZone. Different technical implementation, slightly different known capabilities, but fundamentally, still an unauditable, unremovable ring -3 subsystem that cannot be controlled by the legitimate, lawful owner of the hardware.
- M95D 5mo ago
  It depends on the CPU. For Rockchip we have open source BL31 blob [1] and it's supported by mainline u-boot. And I think it's ring -2, because it's not a separate CPU. [1] https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2024/02/21/almost-a-fully-open-source-boot-chain-for-rockchips-rk3588/ https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2024/02/21/almo...

Quite an odd thing for a British journal to pretend ARM doesn't exist...

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

dijit 5mo ago

ARM is: 1) An ISA licensor, with no capability to create its own CPUs and 2) Owned by Softbank in Japan, not European

shaokind 5mo ago
Is 1) accurate with ARM creating their own CPUs directly? https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/03/24/arm-launches-its-own-cpu-with-meta-as-first-customer.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/03/24/arm-launches-its-own-cpu...
Aromasin 5mo ago
They are pivoting to become a fabless chip company as of last year (the decision happened a few years back): https://www.wired.com/story/chip-design-firm-arm-is-making-its-own-ai-cpu/ https://www.wired.com/story/chip-design-firm-arm-is-making-i... I'd also argue that while Softbank has capital ownership of the company, the leadership structure and how that capital is allocated is still done within the UK with standard board oversight. I know a few of the leadership team personally, and they have a wide remit, almost more so than a public company might do.
dadoum 5mo ago
ARM design IP blocks, they can make their own CPU (and now they are making one), eevn though that means competing with your customers.
- wvbdmp 5mo ago
  They still don‘t fab them though, AFAIK they go through TSMC.
  - gehsty 5mo ago
    And where does TMSC go for the machines it uses to produce these chips?
  - mathisfun123 5mo ago
    There are literally only 2 "fabfull" processor companies (Intel and Samsung) so you're saying something completely meaningless.
    - dadoum 5mo ago
      Actually there are more if you count the ones which are not at the cutting edge but your point still stands, most high-end silicon companies only do design.

hannob 5mo ago

As far as cloud service servers are concerned, I don't think ARM CPUs have any meaningful marketshare, right? You could start running things on ARM, but, almost certainly, that comes with a lot of extra friction. (Not saying that isn't a bad idea, it'd probably improve the ecosystem as a whole and flush out architecture-specific assumptions in server software. But it's not someting trivial to do.)

hanwenn 5mo ago
AWS graviton, Google Axion? ARM has better performance per watt, which translates to better performance per $.
- jandrewrogers 5mo ago
  The reality is more complicated than this. If the processor is mostly idle or running minimally optimized software, which is most software, then ARM offers better performance per watt. If the processor is running highly optimized code at max throughput all the time then x86 offers better performance per watt. This is an intrinsic tradeoff. To make low-utilization workloads more power efficient you have to make high-utilization workloads less power efficient and vice versa. ARM and x86 differentiate themselves by taking opposite ends of that tradeoff spectrum. It depends on the code.
therockhead 5mo ago
AWS Graviton has been steadily gaining share, a quick Google search says it's up to 20% now.
Sytten 5mo ago
AWS runs a lot of ARM server and they are pushed heavily since they are cheaper and faster. And with Apple running ARM it is just easier to fully transition now.
Hikikomori 5mo ago
More than 50 % of new CPU capacity on AWS is arm. Most of their own stuff uses it, nitro co processors are also arm. Anyone caring about cost of AWS has or is transitioning.

Aromasin 5mo ago

The author is a Dutch journalist with no technology background. I wouldn't jump to get my information from this source. As a person who works in the UK semiconductor industry, I noticed 4 or 5 glaring holes in the article in just the first couple of paragraphs.

embedding-shape 5mo ago
I got to the second sentence ("Europe is pouring more than €2 billion into sovereign cloud initiatives") before I realize the author either doesn't know and/or didn't care to research properly.

anonym29 5mo ago

ARM has the exact same problem via TrustZone. Different technical implementation, slightly different known capabilities, but fundamentally, still an unauditable, unremovable ring -3 subsystem that cannot be controlled by the legitimate, lawful owner of the hardware.

M95D 5mo ago
It depends on the CPU. For Rockchip we have open source BL31 blob [1] and it's supported by mainline u-boot. And I think it's ring -2, because it's not a separate CPU. [1] https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2024/02/21/almost-a-fully-open-source-boot-chain-for-rockchips-rk3588/ https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2024/02/21/almo...