It is not just the core of Qualcomm chips in the United States that must rely on ARM. 95% of smartphones and tablets around the world use the ARM architecture; even the mobile phone processing chips of Apple, Samsung, Huawei and other manufacturers are also based on the ARM architecture. Let’s take a brief look at the ARM company and why major manufacturers use the ARM architecture.
ARM was founded in 1991 as a joint venture between Apple, Nokia, Acorn, VLSI, Technology and other companies. SoftBank acquired ARM for US$31 billion in 2016. I believe everyone is familiar with SoftBank. It is the largest shareholder of Alibaba; and there is news today that SoftBank will sell ARM China 51 shares to a Chinese consortium; if this is true, it will The development of China's chip business will provide greater assistance. ARM does not rely on itself to design and manufacture processors, but sells the processor architecture to companies in need;
Apple, Huawei, Samsung, Qualcomm and even Xiaomi, etc., belong to this category. companies in need.
ARM's architecture has the characteristics of low cost, low power consumption and high efficiency, which just meets the needs of mobile phones or tablets. The research and development of the processor architecture itself requires strong semiconductor integration and corresponding technology patents; research and development will also consume a lot of manpower, physics, financial resources, etc., and the performance of the developed chip architecture will not necessarily be better than ARM. Similarly, the processors of Huawei, Qualcomm, Apple, etc. are redesigned based on the ARM architecture, and the specific chip production is still left to foundries, such as Samsung and TSMC; every detail of chip production has relatively high technical requirements. High requirements.
Research and development will also consume a lot of manpower, physics, financial resources, etc., and the performance of the chip architecture developed may not be better than ARM. Similarly, the processors of Huawei, Qualcomm, Apple, etc. are redesigned based on the ARM architecture, and the specific chip production is still left to foundries, such as Samsung and TSMC; every detail of chip production has relatively high technical requirements. High requirements.