We are now accustomed to many more powerful microcontrollers and system-on-chips, the core of which is the ARM core. From the relatively humble beginnings of British home computers in the 1980s, the RISC processor architecture from Cambridge has transformed itself into the power-consuming but powerful core of choice for manufacturers around the world. This is the result of decades of shrewd business decisions, and ARM has transformed into a fabless core supplier with IP as its core. Recent news shows that although this kind of acumen has been in short supply recentlyAccording to reports, the Chinese subsidiary of ARM has been rogue and separated from the mothership with intellectual property rights.
It seems that the CEO of this Chinese company managed to retain legal power when he was dismissed by the parent company, because of problems with his other company, he was able to declare his independence from his current former parent company. It still had ARM IP before it was dissolved and claimed to be developing its own new product, but it does not seem to receive any new ARM IP.
What effect will this have on our level? Perhaps we have already seen it, because more Chinese chips, such as cheaper STM32 clone chips, may get low-end ARM cores. The newer ARM IP seems to remain in the more expensive non-Chinese chip series for now, but in the case of semiconductor shortages, we may not notice it anyway. The place where it will have a lasting impact is the future joint ventures of non-Chinese chip companies in China. Seeing ARM’s then-owner SoftBank hurt their fingers in this way may discourage other companies considering similar approaches. Whether ARM can resolve the deadlock remains to be seen, but this The difficult progress of their merger with Nvidia.