• ARM Looking To Build Its Own Hardware?

    From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Aug 19 22:22:00 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    ARMrCOs business model, up to now, is to license chip designs and
    patents to all comers who want to make their own chips. This has made
    the ARM architecture the most successful in human history.

    But the company has been making some moves that are unnerving its
    licensees, lately. And hererCOs another one: it now wants to make its
    own hardware. WonrCOt that put it in direct competition with those
    licensees? Can you say rCLconflict of interestrCY?

    <https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/arm-hires-amazons-ai-chip-developer-to-help-create-its-own-processors-rami-sinno-returns-to-the-company-boasts-trainium-and-inferentia-on-resume>
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  • From Richard Kettlewell@invalid@invalid.invalid to comp.misc on Wed Aug 20 08:47:39 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
    ARMrCOs business model, up to now, is to license chip designs and
    patents to all comers who want to make their own chips. This has made
    the ARM architecture the most successful in human history.

    But the company has been making some moves that are unnerving its
    licensees, lately. And hererCOs another one: it now wants to make its
    own hardware. WonrCOt that put it in direct competition with those
    licensees? Can you say rCLconflict of interestrCY?

    <https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/arm-hires-amazons-ai-chip-developer-to-help-create-its-own-processors-rami-sinno-returns-to-the-company-boasts-trainium-and-inferentia-on-resume>

    Something similar was reported in February.

    It wouldnrCOt be outside historical industry norms. Intel made their own
    8086s but also licensed them to around 10 other manufacturers; the
    Intel/AMD thing today is similar although there may be licensing going
    on in both directions there.

    From a customer point of view: itrCOs not _that_ hard to change CPU architecture. WerCOve migrated between different CPU architectures a
    couple of times in our product history, we could do it again if it was
    really necessary (though donrCOt know of any reason to think an Arm entry
    into manufacturing would force us in particular to do so).
    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
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  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Wed Aug 20 22:05:32 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 08:47:39 +0100, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

    It wouldnrCOt be outside historical industry norms. Intel made their own 8086s but also licensed them to around 10 other manufacturers ...

    But Intel was a chip manufacturer from the get-go. ARM Ltd was set up precisely as a company that made designs (and got patents on them) for licensing to others, not as one that made its own chips. That way other companies paying it money for those licences could feel confident they
    were all competing fairly, on a level field with an honest broker.

    But if ARM makes its own chips, now it is competing with its own
    customers. Can you say rCLconflict of interestrCY?

    From a customer point of view: itrCOs not _that_ hard to change CPU architecture.

    Are you talking embedded? Because in general-purpose computing, the proprietary vendors anyway (Microsoft being the obvious example) have a
    great deal of trouble supporting more than one platform.

    The Open Source world certainly can manage it quite successfully. ThatrCOs
    how it could be the first to embrace RISC-V.
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  • From Richard Kettlewell@invalid@invalid.invalid to comp.misc on Thu Aug 21 08:41:00 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
    Richard Kettlewell wrote:
    From a customer point of view: itrCOs not _that_ hard to change CPU
    architecture.

    Are you talking embedded?

    Yes.

    Because in general-purpose computing, the proprietary vendors anyway (Microsoft being the obvious example) have a great deal of trouble
    supporting more than one platform.

    Apple have changed architecture three times now, HP and Sun at least
    twice each. Microsoft support two architectures at present and have
    supported more in the past.
    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
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  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Thu Aug 21 21:41:41 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Thu, 21 Aug 2025 08:41:00 +0100, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

    Because in general-purpose computing, the proprietary vendors
    anyway (Microsoft being the obvious example) have a great deal of
    trouble supporting more than one platform.

    Apple have changed architecture three times now ...

    But never more than main one at a time -- not for longer than
    absolutely needed to make the transition.

    ... HP and Sun at least twice each.

    All the old HP minis and RISC architectures have gone. Itanium has
    gone. HP only does x86 now. And Sun has gone.

    Microsoft support two architectures at present and have supported
    more in the past.

    Windows-on-ARM is struggling. And Windows NT on non-x86 architectures
    never lasted long. Fun fact: even on x86, which is now 64-bit, Windows
    is still a 32-bit architecture at heart.

    You see what I mean, donrCOt you?
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  • From Richard Kettlewell@invalid@invalid.invalid to comp.misc on Fri Aug 22 09:10:07 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
    Richard Kettlewell wrote:
    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

    Because in general-purpose computing, the proprietary vendors
    anyway (Microsoft being the obvious example) have a great deal of
    trouble supporting more than one platform.

    Apple have changed architecture three times now ...

    But never more than main one at a time -- not for longer than
    absolutely needed to make the transition.

    So what? The claim I made was about an architecture migration, not about supporting multiple architectures concurrently.

    ... HP and Sun at least twice each.

    All the old HP minis and RISC architectures have gone. Itanium has
    gone. HP only does x86 now. And Sun has gone.

    Again, so what?

    Microsoft support two architectures at present and have supported
    more in the past.

    Windows-on-ARM is struggling. And Windows NT on non-x86 architectures
    never lasted long. Fun fact: even on x86, which is now 64-bit, Windows
    is still a 32-bit architecture at heart.

    You see what I mean, donrCOt you?

    YourCOre obviously not addressing the claim I actually made, so IrCOm going back to assuming yourCOre not arguing in good faith.
    --
    https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
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  • From Theo@theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk to comp.misc on Fri Aug 22 19:12:17 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 08:47:39 +0100, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

    It wouldnrCOt be outside historical industry norms. Intel made their own 8086s but also licensed them to around 10 other manufacturers ...

    But Intel was a chip manufacturer from the get-go. ARM Ltd was set up precisely as a company that made designs (and got patents on them) for licensing to others, not as one that made its own chips. That way other companies paying it money for those licences could feel confident they
    were all competing fairly, on a level field with an honest broker.

    But if ARM makes its own chips, now it is competing with its own
    customers. Can you say rCLconflict of interestrCY?

    Microsoft sold Windows to PC manufacturers, until they got fed up that the
    PC manufacturers weren't making PCs that made good use of their OS. So they released the Surface line. Microsoft make a decent income from that, but PC manufacturers did not go bankrupt - in fact they incorporated many of the features from the Surface to make their products more attractive to
    customers (in the face of competition from in particular Apple). Everybody won.

    Theo
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  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Fri Aug 22 22:17:00 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:10:07 +0100, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

    Richard Kettlewell wrote:

    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

    Because in general-purpose computing, the proprietary vendors anyway
    (Microsoft being the obvious example) have a great deal of trouble
    supporting more than one platform.

    Apple have changed architecture three times now ...

    But never more than main one at a time -- not for longer than
    absolutely needed to make the transition.

    So what?

    Because I said they rCLhave a great deal of trouble supporting more than one platformrCY.

    All the old HP minis and RISC architectures have gone. Itanium has
    gone. HP only does x86 now. And Sun has gone.

    Again, so what?

    Because I said they rCLhave a great deal of trouble supporting more than one platformrCY.

    Windows-on-ARM is struggling. And Windows NT on non-x86 architectures
    never lasted long. Fun fact: even on x86, which is now 64-bit, Windows
    is still a 32-bit architecture at heart.

    You see what I mean, donrCOt you?

    YourCOre obviously not addressing the claim I actually made ...

    You were trying to refute what I said, which was they rCLhave a great deal
    of trouble supporting more than one platformrCY.
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  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Fri Aug 22 22:19:29 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On 22 Aug 2025 19:12:17 +0100 (BST), Theo wrote:

    Microsoft sold Windows to PC manufacturers, until they got fed up
    that the PC manufacturers weren't making PCs that made good use of
    their OS. So they released the Surface line. Microsoft make a decent
    income from that ...

    Somehow I doubt that. Given their so-so reviews, I would suspect they
    are a loss-making venture -- a corporate vanity project, no more.

    ... but PC manufacturers did not go bankrupt - in fact they
    incorporated many of the features from the Surface to make their
    products more attractive to customers ...

    Actually, Surface is an example to PC vendors of how *not* to make a
    successful product.
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  • From kludge@kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) to comp.misc on Sat Aug 23 09:55:19 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    Apple have changed architecture three times now, HP and Sun at least
    twice each. Microsoft support two architectures at present and have >supported more in the past.

    In the case of HP and Sun, customers often used the architecture change as
    a reason to move to a competing product. If we have to recompile the code anyway, we might as well recompile it for a faster machine from a different company.

    Microsoft has over the years tried very hard to promote Windows on a variety
    of architectures from Alpha to ARM and in spite of spending a lot of money
    they have never really been able to get customers off of the x86.

    Apple is weird... Apple is

  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Sun Aug 24 21:53:35 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:34:54 +0100, Sn!pe wrote:

    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    On Sat, 23 Aug 2025 15:07:19 +0100, Sn!pe wrote:

    ... decent interoperability within its own ecosystem.

    An oxymoron, if ever there was one ...

    How else would you describe the family of iDevices that all talk to each other with ease straight from the box? [rhet.]

    Words like rCLproprietaryrCY, rCLclosed systemrCY and rCLwalled gardenrCY come to
    mind ... [fact.]
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  • From snipeco.2@snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) to comp.misc on Sun Aug 24 23:31:55 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    On Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:34:54 +0100, Sn!pe wrote:

    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    On Sat, 23 Aug 2025 15:07:19 +0100, Sn!pe wrote:

    ... decent interoperability within its own ecosystem.

    An oxymoron, if ever there was one ...

    How else would you describe the family of iDevices that all
    talk to each other with ease straight from the box? [rhet.]

    Words like "proprietary", "closed system" and "walled garden"
    come to mind ... [fact.]

    Why is that a problem; is it just a case of "not invented here"?
    --
    ^-^. Sn!pe, PTB, FIBS My pet rock Gordon just is.
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