• MercatorLondon@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    ARM was originally a joint venture of british Acorn Computers, Apple, and VLSI. There will be no ARM without investment from Apple back then. Their history goes all the way back and Apple used their ARM processor in the Newton back in 1997.

    It it is still incredibly good deal for ARM to get all the fees for selling instruction sets. Apple still needs to design their processors themselves and pay for manufacturing.

    This may change in the future when RISC-V may or may not take over. But it seems ARM will be ok for next 18 years with Apple contract.

    • Weak-Jello7530@alien.topB
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      10 months ago

      Apple makes less than 5% of their revenue, how is it an incredible deal for them? And how are they going to be ok for the next 18 years if Apple makes such a small percentage of their revenue?

      • Lower_Fan@alien.topB
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        10 months ago

        Everything else is using or moving to ARM other phones, laptops, servers, IOT devices, cars, etc.

      • kjlo5@alien.topB
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        10 months ago

        ARM wouldn’t be the default architecture for all mold devices if it were not for Apple. Texas Instruments was a big player early on and there were others but now it’s basically ARM.

      • nethingelse@alien.topB
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        10 months ago

        Because a big portion of ARM’s other revenue Apple has set up the foundations for. They set the foundations for ARM on mobile devices with Newton - then perfected it with iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, etc. Then, in an industry-defining shift, Apple became the first major player in the industry to successfully push ARM onto Laptops/Desktops and have any sort of market for doing so.

        ARM is going to be just fine - the only viable alternative is RISC V which as it stands is immature and not very usable. Giving Apple a break on royalties is a sensible option if Apple is creating a ton of new business - which they are. Apple revitalizing ARM on desktop/laptop is creating a ton of new business as competitors do what they always do and look to copy Apple.

      • jeffsterlive@alien.topB
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        10 months ago

        ARM is mostly attorneys and engineers. They don’t produce chips, they don’t need expensive end user support, they don’t have the same types of expenditures most companies have to deal with. They are exclusively B2B sales.

        They are very happy with apple because apple showcases what ARM IS can do and in turn generates lots of hype. Do you think all those comparisons between the A series chips and Qualcomm every generation are for nothing? Or apple silicon standing up against Intel desktop?