Arm sues Qualcomm/Nuvia

[Yoused]

I once read an article, where a former Apple engineer claimed that Apple actually tasked ARM with creating AArch64 and also had certain input, which might also explain why they were much quicker on the draw.

There is little doubt that Apple were closely involved in the development of AArch64. The design looks like a sort of merger of the best parts of ARM-32-bit and PPC, with some features to facilitate OoOE. And, of course,

Apple shipped A7 in volume about a year before Cortex-A53 and A57 began sampling in SoCs. Apple probably began detailed design of their 64-bit core before Arm did.

it is almost as though Apple designed AArch64 and then let ARM claim it the way AMD let Anthill use x86-64.

 

[mr_roboto]

There is little doubt that Apple were closely involved in the development of AArch64. The design looks like a sort of merger of the best parts of ARM-32-bit and PPC, with some features to facilitate OoOE. And, of course,

it is almost as though Apple designed AArch64 and then let ARM claim it the way AMD let Anthill use x86-64.

My impression is that it's more like Apple contracted ARM's services to design the ISA, with Apple providing a lot of input but not exclusively owning the result.

Apple justifiably has a reputation for doing things proprietary when they don't really need to be, but I think even they see the value in an ISA not exclusively owned by them. It helps them a lot that other companies are interested and invested in AArch64's future.

 

[Cmaier]

My impression is that it's more like Apple contracted ARM's services to design the ISA, with Apple providing a lot of input but not exclusively owning the result.

Apple justifiably has a reputation for doing things proprietary when they don't really need to be, but I think even they see the value in an ISA not exclusively owned by them. It helps them a lot that other companies are interested and invested in AArch64's future.

I have it on reasonably good authority that Apple’s involvement was a bit more than just sort of contracting Arm to design the ISA. In other words, they were pretty hands on in terms of making specific proposals at a detailed level as to what they’d like to see. Arm had the final word, of course, and likely melded Apple’s feedback with its own thoughts. But Apple has its own CPU architects who had a lot of influence in how it turned out.

That’s not uncommon - Microsoft had some things to say about AMD64 back in the day, (not as much as Apple had to say about 64-bit Arm).