Google, Tesla Get Behind Challenge to Arm Chip Design
More than 80 tech companies including Google, Qualcomm and Samsung have joined together to develop a new open-source chip design that offers a much cheaper way to build chips for new technologies like autonomous vehicles. If the effort succeeds, it could seriously undercut SoftBank-owned Arm Holdings, which has been trying to extend its dominance in smartphone chips into new areas.
The push to develop the technology, called RISC-V, comes at a time when the chip industry is going through considerable upheaval. Higher design costs and intense competition have fueled consolidation among chip designers, including, most recently, Broadcom’s attempt to acquire Qualcomm before the deal was blocked by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, slower advances in manufacturing capability have shifted the focus of the tech sector toward greater chip specialization.
RISC-V, which is anchored by a nonprofit foundation, is gaining popularity among companies frustrated by the limitations and high costs of current chip designs such as those offered by Arm. Tesla recently joined the RISC-V Foundation, and also is considering RISC-V, which is free to use, for its new chip efforts, said a person familiar with the matter. Western Digital and Nvidia already have announced plans to adopt the new chip design for some parts of their products. In Western Digital’s case, that could mean dropping Arm designs, among other chip designs it licenses, that it now pays to use.
While Arm’s hold on the mobile-phone chip market seems secure for now, the company’s prospects for growing its business in newer technologies are less certain, say people who work on RISC-V chips.
“[Arm] is incredibly expensive,” said Jothy Rosenberg, CEO and co-founder of Dover Microsystems, which is creating a RISC-V chip for security. “Just on cost alone, it pushes startups toward RISC-V.”
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