Posted by ezequiel-garzon 4 days ago
Arm is canceling Qualcomm's chip design license
RISC V is neat, I even ordered a SBC, but it's no where near refined enough for usage in anything aside from tiny IOT devices.
I do think this is the end of Windows on ARM though. To my knowledge ( I can always be wrong) ARM is suing over the chips ultimately included in WoA PCs, the Snapdragon Elite and Plus chips.
Once the dust settles, I suspect Qualcomm will just stop making those chips.
Or we live in wacky world and Qualcomm will be prevented from making anything outside of reference designs.
Mediatek's time to shine?
If enough money moves behind RISC-V, it will catch up. This is exactly how that could happen.
No way Qualcomm just stops selling these chips. As the article says, it is not just Windows machines but smart phones as well.
This will all conclude with a new agreement between Qualcomm and ARM. They both need it to.
If Qualcomm has to stop using ARM for their high-end agenda, their next attempt will use RISC-V for sure.
I like RISC V, the idea of an open standard is better for everyone. In theory hobbyists could eventually make their own chips.
I'm always open to being wrong, Chat GPT 5( or whatever they have in the lab that's not public) might be able to design RISC V chips faster than we can imagine.
That is what is already exists. Put some money into it and you have a real product. The work Microsoft did for Windows on ARM I'm sure is mostly compatible. Windows has been a large number of architectures in the past (PowerPC, Itanium, Alpha, MIPS) so portability is in it's DNA and there isn't much ARM-native & hardcoded Windows software out there.
https://deepcomputing.io/product/dc-roma-risc-v-laptop-ii/
ARM is still leaps ahead though.
The next 5 years will be interesting, I don't think ARM is stupid enough to price themselves out of the market.
As well as a longer form podcast video with George from Chips and Cheese: https://www.youtube.com/live/T20rxYUySPw
I get this is satire, but still, there's no factual basis to it.
I am happy to take that bet, if the author is willing