![]() ![]() Under Softbank ownership Arm has been making large investments in growing Arm’s market position in IoT, automotive, and data center. Otherwise, it would destroy the value of the Arm business, right after paying $40 billion for it. Nvidia says it will keep Arm open and license all Arm technology as soon as it is available, which is Nvidia’s only rational choice. Nvidia’s focus on end solutions (chips, boards, and systems) will complement Arm’s IP and accelerate its push in new areas, such as the datacenter, while benefitting competing solutions from other Arm partners. The success of Arm in this market is dependent on licensees making appropriate investments and developing system-level innovations. So, for years, x86 has maintained its dominant position, notwithstanding predictions that Arm was poised for a breakthrough. ![]() Arm’s business model doesn’t provide the scale of the x86 competition nor does it allow for system level innovations that require other parts of the platform. As a result, Arm’s relative investment compared to the large x86 ecosystem players is relatively small. In markets such as datacenter, where IP beyond CPU cores are requirements for test chips, reference boards, reference systems and software elements, Arm is at a disadvantage. The companies who have benefited the most from Arm are those companies with strong platform businesses. This business model puts limits on the level of investment Arm can make in new markets. It makes investment decisions solely based on its pure IP licensing model. For example, Arm has limitations on developing or benefitting from platform solutions. But in fact, its status as a pure IP player - with no silicon products, platform solutions, or associated software business – can ultimately slow its pace of growth. The challenge for Nvidia will be finding the right balance between directing Arm toward their joint goals but doing so in a way that doesn't damage the latter’s position in the marketplace as an independent provider of IP.Īrm’s independence is often described as an asset. By combining Arm CPUs with Nvidia GPU's, Nvidia can also offer more choice for third-party SoC support to data center and cloud customers, in addition to AMD and Intel. There's an expectation that Nvidia would have a very “hands on” approach to Arm’s development plans and roadmaps and would try to accelerate Arm’s roadmap by investing in R&D resources, providing direct engineering guidance, as well as intermixing Nvidia intellectual property (IP) with Arm IP. That said, there is certainly concern from some Arm customers because Nvidia is a competitor to many of Arm’s licensees in key markets, such as automotive, data center, telecommunications, and robotics. That should be a good thing for Arm licensees that care about performance, which would include data center, high-end smartphones, networking, telecommunication systems, and Arm-based PCs. ![]() In a scenario where Nvidia is in charge of Arm’s roadmap, one would expect even higher performing CPU cores because of Nvidia’s focus on silicon and system performance. While there are alignment and synergies between Arm and Nvidia, there have been many critics of Nvidia’s acquisition plan for Arm. It is possible Nvidia is using the Neoverse N2 for Grace as the CPU isn’t responsible for the compute heavy lifting reserved for the GPU accelerator.Īrm And Nvidia – Perfect Match Or Perfect Threat? While the V1 is the highest performing core of the two, it is based on the ArmV 8.6 architecture, rather than the ArmV9 like the N2. Of the two cores, the V1 is the highest performance core designed with scalable vector extensions (SVE) instructions for high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Nvidia didn’t reveal the name of the Neoverse CPU core in Grace, but it is more than likely either a V1 or N2, or an improved version of one of the two cores. Grace is further proof that Nvidia values the performance possible with the Arm architecture and Nvidia's desire to push the Arm architecture to the highest performance platforms. Just two weeks earlier, Nvidia announced that it is building its own Arm CPU called Grace for high-performance computing and large-model training. MORE FROM FORBES Nvidia To Buy Arm - What's Next? By Kevin Krewell ![]()
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