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July 30, 2008

speculation

ARM gives architecture license to mysterious company

Posted Jul. 30, ’08, 3:14 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar
Category | Apple » Speculation

samsung-ARM.jpgSo, ARM had its second-quarter financial conference recently. No big deal, right? I mean, after all, this is the company that provides some of the guts for the iPhone and iPod touch, not to mention a whole slew of other processors (let’s call it 75 percent of the world market) especially in the mobile/low-power sector—still, why should we care?

Well, during this event, the CEO revealed a little hint that will make its investors happy—a multi-year deal with an as-yet unnamed OEM, or original equipment manufacturer.

The EETimes reports:

“Don’t get excited about any revenue on this deal as it’s all tied up with future technology and the revenue will be recognized over several years. But it is very important as far as we’re concerned in terms of securing design wins with that particular OEM and also in the mobile space altogether,” said Warren East, CEO of ARM, at an analysts conference.

So who’s our mystery winner? All signs seem to point to Apple, says Electronista:

Speculation points to Apple as a potential candidate for the license. The company already uses a Samsung ARM processor at the core of the iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod touch and is increasingly turning towards custom-designing its components. The California electronics label recently acquired PA Semiconductor with the intent of using its expertise to design custom components and is notably buying out a firm best known for its low-power, embedded designs.

Such a license is rare irrespective of the final buyer; while companies such as Samsung often license ARM architecture for themselves due to their sheer range of products and manufacturing scale, Apple and most smaller electronics companies have often had to purchase generic chips from these companies and thus lose out on optimizing their devices for more features or better performance.

So is there a better chip powering the iPod and iPhone in our future? Here’s to hoping so, because my iPhone tends to run out of juice a little faster than I’d like.


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