AMD stands ready to make ARM Chips

[humbug]

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/amd-says-it-is-ready-to-build-arm-based-chips

They have not confirmed they are making ARM chips but say they recognise ARM, they have a good relationship with ARM and they would make ARM CPU's if people want them to.
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I think of course they will, this is AMD's nature, they never confirm or deny anything even if they have it in the works, preferring instead to announce it when they have working silicon to demonstrate.

AMD are always looking for ways to branch out, they absolutely recognise that being heavily dependant on X86 is a really bad idea, it is their main source of revenue, but they don't want it to be.

Starting with branching in to medical equipment and aviation SOC's, then GPU's, then consoles, and now even cars and mobile phones.

ARM still has a growing use case, its exactly the sort of thing i think AMD would be looking at, and should be.

The question is Nvidia and their intention to purchase ARM, AMD would not want to be sharing IP secretes with Nvidia.

 

[jigger]

Expect ARM’s share prices to increase now.

 

[humbug]

If this is new development then it's a new complication for the NVIDIA takeover surely.
If so maybe it is done on purpose by AMD against their rival?

No, they are rivals but i don't think these companies do that sort of thing to eachother, they are all buying up other companies from time to time and if they all got in eachothers way all the time no one of them would be able to move forward.

AMD are trying to buy Xilinx for $35 Billion.

If AMD did something with ARM they would do it entirely for themselves.

 

[Donnie Fisher]

Aren’t a lot of the core architecture with CPUs risc style computation anyway with a translation layer between that and the instruction set of the computer around it. So not out with the scope of possibility to adapt a lot of what they already through a different translation layer for Arm ?

 

[humbug]

No idea ^^^^

 

[jigger]

If this is new development then it's a new complication for the NVIDIA takeover surely.
If so maybe it is done on purpose by AMD against their rival?

Wouldn’t it be the opposite? If AMD got behind ARM it would be a massive boost for ARM.

 

[cliffy]

Wouldn’t it be the opposite? If AMD got behind ARM it would be a massive boost for ARM.

I believe Nvidia have had to agree to not stand in the way f rivals licensing ARM IP's as part of the buy out. Nvidia wont mind if AMD are using ARM as it would ultimately be money to Nvidia. Much like when Apple and Samsung were locked in a continuous court battle Apple were still using Samsung for supply of parts for the iPhone

 

[jigger]

I believe Nvidia have had to agree to not stand in the way f rivals licensing ARM IP's as part of the buy out. Nvidia wont mind if AMD are using ARM as it would ultimately be money to Nvidia. Much like when Apple and Samsung were locked in a continuous court battle Apple were still using Samsung for supply of parts for the iPhone

Depends what Nvidia intends to do with ARM. Clearly they are buying ARM for a reason. Nvidia already have access to ARM so they must intended to limit or control access to other companies.

 

[cliffy]

Depends what Nvidia intends to do with ARM. Clearly they are buying ARM for a reason. Nvidia already have access to ARM so they must intended to limit or control access to other companies.

I think any such agreement for Nvidia to not block the use of ARMS IP would be illegal although the deal may not even go through yet by the looks of things
CMA finds competition concerns with NVIDIA’s purchase of Arm - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Also i doubt the intent would be to limit others, By buying ARM Nvidia would own the IP's so they would not need to license these IPS going forward (saving money) they can license the IPs (raising money) plus it adds to there portfolio and share price. Limiting the use of the IP's would also limit there value, create bad PR and ultimately hurt Nvidias share price

 

[humbug]

Wouldn’t it be the opposite? If AMD got behind ARM it would be a massive boost for ARM.

It would be a boost for both, but if Nvidia succeeds its not going to happen, i think AMD are waiting to see the outcome of it.

 

[jigger]

I think any such agreement for Nvidia to not block the use of ARMS IP would be illegal although the deal may not even go through yet by the looks of things
CMA finds competition concerns with NVIDIA’s purchase of Arm - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Also i doubt the intent would be to limit others, By buying ARM Nvidia would own the IP's so they would not need to license these IPS going forward (saving money) they can license the IPs (raising money) plus it adds to there portfolio and share price. Limiting the use of the IP's would also limit there value, create bad PR and ultimately hurt Nvidias share price

45 billion is a lot to give away. I’m not sure what Nvidia have planned, but I think the concerns over Nvidia buying ARM is justifiable. Everything about the deal is bad for the silicon industry IMO.

 

[cliffy]

45 billion is a lot to give away. I’m not sure what Nvidia have planned, but I think the concerns over Nvidia buying ARM is justifiable. Everything about the deal is bad for the silicon industry IMO.

I do not like the idea either but they would not be giving away $45B, it is an investment they would expect to make that back in licensing and share price. I think they would be less likely to see the money come back in if they did keep ARM to themselves

 

[jigger]

I do not like the idea either but they would not be giving away $45B, it is an investment they would expect to make that back in licensing and share price. I think they would be less likely to see the money come back in if they did keep ARM to themselves

Then the temptation to push others out or control the market for Nvidia will remain.

Everything about the deal is wrong IMO.

 

[HACO]

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/amd-says-it-is-ready-to-build-arm-based-chips

They have not confirmed they are making ARM chips but say they recognise ARM, they have a good relationship with ARM and they would make ARM CPU's if people want them to.
-------

I think of course they will, this is AMD's nature, they never confirm or deny anything even if they have it in the works, preferring instead to announce it when they have working silicon to demonstrate.

AMD are always looking for ways to branch out, they absolutely recognise that being heavily dependant on X86 is a really bad idea, it is their main source of revenue, but they don't want it to be.

Starting with branching in to medical equipment and aviation SOC's, then GPU's, then consoles, and now even cars and mobile phones.

ARM still has a growing use case, its exactly the sort of thing i think AMD would be looking at, and should be.

The question is Nvidia and their intention to purchase ARM, AMD would not want to be sharing IP secretes with Nvidia.

Likely to meet the demand in the enterprise/server market, as ARM is quite popular these days due to better perf/w compared to especially Intel's offerings.

I'd be very surprised if AMD spent any time designing custom ARM uarchs, they'll just use reference ones, relying on their skills in chip design to compete with the likes of AWS Graviton and Ampere Altra. That way, NVIDIA's possible acquisition of ARM isn't as much a concerning either.

 

[Freddie1980]

Don't AMD already have ARM designs waiting in the wings? I thought I remembered reading a custom SoC was one of the last projects Jim Keller was working on just before he left AMD.

ARM is certainly and interesting player if they remain independent you would think at some point either Microsoft or Sony will jump ship to ARM especially since Apple have shown how powerful a custom based design can be in the desktop space.

 

[HACO]

Don't AMD already have ARM designs waiting in the wings? I thought I remembered reading a custom SoC was one of the last projects Jim Keller was working on just before he left AMD.

ARM is certainly and interesting player if they remain independent you would think at some point either Microsoft or Sony will jump ship to ARM especially since Apple have shown how powerful a custom based design can be in the desktop space.

AMD eventually released the Opteron A1100 series back in 2016, which were based on ARM Cortex-A57 cores. Back then, performance wasn't there and it didn't even have a perf/w advantage over Intel, so it didn't succeed. Things are very different now.

 

[Deleted member 209350]

Beginning of the end of X86?

 

[jigger]

Beginning of the end of X86?

The end of the beginning?

 

[Orcvader]

Don't AMD already have ARM designs waiting in the wings? I thought I remembered reading a custom SoC was one of the last projects Jim Keller was working on just before he left AMD.

ARM is certainly and interesting player if they remain independent you would think at some point either Microsoft or Sony will jump ship to ARM especially since Apple have shown how powerful a custom based design can be in the desktop space.

I remember few years back their custom ARM core K12 was being designed side by side with Zen, but then was pushed back so AMD can focus on the x86 space. Not heard of anything about it since but this news could be a potential resurrection of it.