Intel to manufacture ARM SoCs
Pretty big news really, Intel entered a licensing agreement with ARM, basically this allows parties like LG, Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung, to fab ARM SoCs at Intel fabs.
The two chipmakers, whose designs and technology dominate in computing and mobile, unveiled the agreement Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. The accord will let Intel offer third-party semiconductor companies its most advanced 10-nanometer production lines for manufacturing the complex chips usually used in smartphones reports Bloomberg:
Intel, which gets the majority of its revenue from making personal-computer processors, has failed to gain ground in the larger and faster-growing phone market -- the stronghold of ARM’s technology. Under Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich, Intel is trying to persuade other chipmakers to use its factories for their production. Adding licenses for ARM’s technology could open up that business to fabricating chips based on those designs for companies such as Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc., which now have their chips produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and others.
Intel’s embrace of the competing technology comes as the PC market continues to decline and growth in the lucrative server-chip market slows. The Santa Clara, California-based company began offering foundry services -- outsourced manufacturing -- under Krzanich’s predecessor, Paul Otellini, but hadn’t announced any major customers placing orders in large volume.
Indicating that those fortunes may be changing, Intel announced that LG Electronics Inc., South Korea’s second-biggest phone maker behind Samsung Electronics Co., will use Intel’s foundry business to manufacture 10 nanometer mobile-phone parts.
Separately, Intel said it won’t use extreme ultraviolet lithography as a manufacturing technique in its 10-nanometer production. The technology isn’t ready for the next generation of production, 7 nanometer, Intel also said, and the company won’t use the chipmaking technique until it delivers the promised efficiency.
ASML Holding NV is the main manufacturer of EUV machinery and has been trying to make it ready for full use for more than a decade. ASML’s stock fell as much as 3.5 percent in U.S. trading Tuesday following the comments by Mark Bohr, Intel’s head of process architecture.
“I can’t say whether it’s a year from now or three years from now,” Bohr said of the tehnique at the Intel conference. “I am hopeful.”
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Senior Member
Posts: 8099
Joined: 2014-09-27
Intel is going to be manufacturing ARM based processors for other companies. Intel has no interest in developing ARM based processors. The profit margins aren't large enough.
Last quarter Qualcomm had $6.0BN revenue and $1.2BN net profit over that. The profit margins are amazing, considering the sector, and Intel also has the best fabs in the world to produce chips, unlike Qualcomm who has to beg around Samsung/TSCM to get priority over Apple.
The only reason that Intel won't make their own ARM chips now is that they would bury half of their tactical advantage, x86. They are afraid that as OSes become more and more "agnostic", and as apps stand on top of things like .NET, x86 will eventually be irrelevant once everyone coalesces around 7nm. So they are not about to go dig their own grave.
This board has a short memory.
Intel inhereted an ARM license many years ago when they purched DEC's STrongARM division, and built it's own line of ARM processors called xscale. Even when they sold xscale to Marvell a decade ago, they kept their ARM license.
I used to have one of those. A QTEK one. Indeed a lot of people forget. Intel did that back then because it was Windows Mobile and a natural continuation of the Wintel alliance (back then).
Junior Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 2015-03-29
This board has a short memory.
Intel inhereted an ARM license many years ago when they purched DEC's STrongARM division, and built it's own line of ARM processors called xscale. Even when they sold xscale to Marvell a decade ago, they kept their ARM license.