Arm is Developing Its Own Advanced Chip - Slashdot

Posted by EditorDavid

on Sunday April 23, 2023 @03:43PM from the in-the-chips dept.

"Arm is developing its own chip," reports the Financial Times, "to showcase the capabilities of its designs, as the SoftBank-owned group seeks to attract new customers and fuel growth following a blockbuster IPO later this year." The company will team up with manufacturing partners to develop the new chip, according to people briefed on the move who describe it as the most advanced chipmaking effort the Cambridge-headquartered group has ever embarked upon. The effort comes just as SoftBank seeks to drive up Arm's profits and attract investors to a planned listing on New York's Nasdaq exchange... The hope is that the prototype will allow it to demonstrate the power and capabilities of its designs to the wider market.

Arm has previously built some test chips with partners including Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, largely aimed at enabling software developers to gain familiarity with new products. However, multiple industry executives told the FT that its newest chip — on which it started work in the past six months — is "more advanced" than ever before. Arm has also formed a bigger team that will execute the effort and is targeting the product at chip manufacturers more than software developers, they said...

Rumblings about Arm's chipmaking moves have stoked fears in the semiconductor industry that if it makes a good enough chip, it could seek to sell it in the future and thereby become a competitor to some of its biggest customers, such as MediaTek or Qualcomm. People close to Arm insist there are no plans to sell or license the product and that it is only working on a prototype. Arm declined to comment.

The article cites "people briefed on the move" as saying that Arm plans to build prototype chips for laptops, mobile devices, and other electronics. "The team will also expand on Arm's existing efforts to enhance the performance and security of designs, as well as bolster developer access to its products. "

The article points out that the head of Arm's engineering team previously oversaw the development of Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip.