Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X laptop chips and Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphone processor are some of the most powerful Arm-based chips available for consumer devices. But their future could be threatened by an ongoing dispute between Qualcomm and Arm.
Arm sued Qualcomm two years ago, alleging that the company had violated licensing and trademark agreements. This week Arm allegedly escalated things by terminating the license that allows Qualcomm to design its own chips based on Arm architecture.
Set to take effect in two months, the termination of this license could have a profound impact on Qualcomm's business just as the company is finally starting to make headway in the PC space. But I wouldn't be surprised to see some further action before that happens – Qualcomm could try to extend the deadline at least until the lawsuit has played itself out, or the two companies might finally negotiated some sort of settlement.
Arm offers two types of licenses to chip makers: one allows them to license specific CPU and GPU designs (like Cortex, Mali, and Immortalis) from Arm. The other allows chip makers to come up with their own designs based on Arm architecture. This is what Apple does, and it's what Nuvia did before that company was acquired by Qualcomm. Nuvia's designs laid the framework for Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus, Snapdragon X Elite, and Snapdragon 8 Elite processors.
But Arm says that Nuvia's license was non-transferable, and wants Qualcomm to destroy any Nuvia chip designs from before Qualcomm bought the company. Unsurprisingly, Qualcomm does not want to do that.
Here's a roundup of recent tech news.
Arm to Scrap Qualcomm Chip Design License in Feud Escalation [Bloomberg]Arm is cancelling Qualcomm's license that allows the company to design its own chips based on Arm architecture, effective in 60 days. It's the latest step in an ongoing legal battle between the two companies. The case is headed to trial on December 16, 2024.
RISC-V Announces Ratification of the RVA23 Profile Standard [RISC-V]RISC-V ratifies the RVA23 profile standard with a Vector Extension for accelerated math workloads including machine learning, cryptography, and compression and a Hypervisor Extension for virtualization.
Huawei announces HarmonyOS NEXT, removing its last ties to Android [Neowin]Huawei's phones, tablets, and other devices used to ship with Android. But after US sanctions blocked Huawei's access to technologies from companies that do business with the US, Huawei switched to a new operating system called HarmonyOS. For the first few years, it was basically just a heavily skinned version of Android. But now the company has released the first version of HarmonyOS that's doesn't have any Android bits left. It will power Huawei's phones, tablets, smart TVs, and smartwatches in the future.
Google Pixel 9a will reportedly have a new 48MP primary camera with larger pixels than the 64MP camera in the Pixel 8a. It'll be paired with the usual 13MP ultra wide-angle camera.
Lenovo registers three Legion Go handhelds with the EEC, including an "S" variant [ITHome]Several new Lenovo Legion Go handheld gaming PC models have been registered with the Eurasian Economic Commission, possibly including models with AMD Strix Point, Hawk Point, and Rembrandt chips.
Ubuntu Touch OTA-6 Call for Testing [UBPorts]Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-6 brings support for VoLTE to some devices with MediaTek chips running Halium 12 or newer, and initial support for newer devices including the Fairphone 5 and Volla Phone Quintus.
AYANEO Air 1S handheld gaming PC is now shipping [Indiegogo]This updated handheld features an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U processor with RDNA 3 graphics, up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage, and a 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel AMOLED display. It went up for pre-order through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign earlier this year, and now it's shipping to backers.
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