Arm is looking to demonstrate its capabilities with a new chip, which insiders say is the company’s most advanced attempt to make its own chips to date. To do this, Arm has enlisted the help of manufacturing partners, such as Intel, with whom it recently signed a deal. Normally, Arm sells the blueprints of designs to other parties, who then use them in their products. For example, almost all phones on the market use such a design.
The question is whether Arm will actually compete with parties that use its chip designs. In the past, Arm had chips produced, but these were aimed at software developers and were more of a proof-of-concept than an attempt to introduce a commercial product. Now, however, the company may have multiple motives. One of these could be that parent company SoftBank is planning to list Arm on the Nasdaq exchange, and an impressive display of muscle could lead to higher investments.
The Financial Times reports that the company has established a solutions engineering team led by Kevork Kechichian, previously a top executive at NXP and Qualcomm. Experts say that entering into the competition makes it difficult for Arm to stick to the ‘Switzerland model’, where it acts as a neutral party with collaborations throughout the chip industry.
