Qualcomm has adopted the latest Arm Holdings computing architecture (v9) for its flagship chips, incorporating features to enhance AI performance, according to Reuters.
Reuters:
The decision at least partially settles a question of whether and how Qualcomm would continue to work with Arm technology, following an acrimonious legal battle between the two last year, and the move is likely to raise revenue for Arm which charges more for the newer tech.
San Diego, California-based Qualcomm last week introduced a new generation of PC and phone chips. Unlike previous generations, two sources familiar with the matter said Qualcomm’s new chips will use the ninth version of Arm’s computing architecture, called “v9” in the industry, which includes several improvements aimed at helping chips handle tasks from chatbots and image generators better.
Qualcomm rivals such as MediaTek, which has at times eclipsed Qualcomm’s market share for mobile phone chips, has publicly confirmed its use of Arm’s v9, and most analysts believe Apple uses it, too.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s chips consistently outperform Qualcomm’s (and everyone else’s) Arm-based processors, even as Qualcomm and others adopt Arm’s v9 architecture, because Apple secures priority access to TSMC’s most advanced manufacturing processes due to its status as the foundry’s largest and most lucrative customer. This gives Apple a significant edge in transistor density, power efficiency, and raw performance that Qualcomm et al. struggle to match on older or less optimized nodes.
Apple also designs its own custom Arm cores with an architectural license, allowing deeper optimizations for performance and integration with its ecosystem, while Qualcomm relies more on Arm’s reference designs and faces higher wafer costs on advanced nodes — up to 16-24% premiums for TSMC’s N3P — due to lacking Apple’s bargaining power.
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