This is a very good news for RISC-V and with the recent news of Android being ported to RISC-V I will say 2024 (not until 2023 Q4 I guess) will be the year RISC-V starting to explode.
I hope for that!! But will it be better in regards to not every instantiation needings its very own tiny Linux kernel patch and device trees? Or similar one level down into the embedded world, a true CMSIS like HAL that includes peripherals, not the half-assed attempt of ARM-CMSIS where you still always need to fiddle with vendor's peripheral driver SDKs? That would be so great!
[1]: https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/07/08/risc-x-top-chinese-s...
In many ways it's a good thing. There's no point in more than one manufacturer existing if everything was standardized down to the literal register map. They all end up using the same fabs anyway.
Hardware, sure. Although not as much, as standarization goes further than ARM, with the platform profiles including e.g. standard serial ports, interrupt controllers and so on.
In practice, on the software side, it'll be closer to your usual IBM PC clone.
The boot process, with SBI and UEFI standarized, is also part of the relevant platform profiles. How to get to the point where a kernel loaded in memory is defined. The environment this kernel finds is also defined. The kernel does actually get a description of the hardware.
ARM did very little of that, and did it too late. RISC-V has it all in place before the hardware is even there, so it should be alright.
Qualcomm have been involved in many IP right bustups over the years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualcomm#Patents_and_patent_di...
I wonder if they will find that doesn't help them argue against getting some of their own medicine.
Fuck. Adreno GPUs are light-years ahead of Arm designs when it comes to console emulation.
1. Arm will stop licensing its processor architecture to semiconductor component manufacturers by charging payments to end-device manufacturers.
2. Only way for OEMs to get Arm-based chips will be through direct license fees
3. Third-party components such are custom GPUs and NPUs are no longer directly incorporable with Arm processors. This would probably mean they need to operate as a coprocessor of some kind that would not be tightly integrated.
3.1 This means Samsung's Exynos, AMD's PSP and Imagination's PowerVR are probably *fucked*
Conclusion: ARM is really fed up with Qualcomm and is wishing to step up the game by hurting itself. But that said, it's more like "Friendship ended with Qualcomm, Samsung and AMD (but it's more like a frenemy), now Apple and NVIDIA are my homies"
Everyone is fed up with Qualcomm at that point.
I would have no issue paying for a RISC-V + licensed PowerVR core that's well supported in Wayland and Mesa.
I would need at least some OEMs confirmation and a statement for Samsung before I believe it.
Imagination is almost dead not just because of Apple opening a chip dev branch basically across the street and offering Apple salaries to nearly anyone who wanted to jump ship, but also because of ARM licensing Mali + ARM CPUs for cheaper than ARM CPUs by themselves. It's why you see Mali in just about every Mediatek and Allwinner design. Even a free IMG GPU would be more expensive. It's why IMG went through that boondoggle buying MIPS in the first place.
So Qualcomm's complaint matches the current trajectory of ARM's corporate strategy.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/SoftBank2/SoftBank-to-discu...
The litigation between Arm and Qualcomm has taken an unexpected turn. The British developer of processor architectures decided to radically change its business model: first, license fees will have to be paid by manufacturers of end devices, including smartphones and tablets; second, third-party components, including GPUs, NPUs and ISPs, will be prohibited in chips with Arm processors.
In late August Arm filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm. Qualcomm absorbed server processor developer NUVIA and, according to Arm, had to update its license agreement because it deemed all previous agreements with the company invalid after it bought it.
Qualcomm filed a countersuit against the British developer, and new documentation on the case contains crucial details.
Qualcomm's updated lawsuit says that after 2024, Arm will stop licensing its processor architecture to semiconductor component manufacturers - payments will be charged to end-device manufacturers. Arm, according to the U.S. company, has already told OEMs that soon the only way for them to get Arm-based chips will be through direct license fees, and they'll have to accept these rules of the game.
But that's not all.
The British company has also decided to tighten its policy with respect to chip developers like Qualcomm: they will not be able to use third-party components in single-chip platforms with Arm processors if Arm offers their analogs as a licensed product.
This will affect graphics and network processors, as well as image processors. In other words, Arm will prohibit the creation of duos like Samsung and AMD chips, as well as MediaTek and Imagination - both pairs of companies cooperate in the field of mobile graphics.
And Qualcomm itself does not use GPUs from Arm, but its own. Such an initiative Arm has clear signs of anti-competitive behavior, notes the resource SemiAnalysis, and it is possible that these steps will accelerate the companies' efforts to develop chips based on open architecture RISC-V.
However, some of the British company's partners may not be affected by the new rules. For example, NVIDIA has a 20-year license for the development of components with Arm-architecture. Apple was at the origins of Arm, so it is unlikely that this tandem can be destroyed so easily. There is also a version that a mutually beneficial cooperation binds Arm with Broadcom. Thus, the dispute between Arm and Qualcomm in just over two years threatens to affect the interests of many smaller players.