In a strategic move to mitigate reliance on ARM and its associated licensing fees, Qualcomm and Samsung are reportedly developing custom RISC-V CPU cores. The two semiconductor biggies aim to enhance performance and reduce costs by decreasing dependence on ARM’s standard designs. It’s unclear when they plan to introduce their custom solutions.
Qualcomm and Samsung are trying to break up with ARM by developing custom CPU cores
ARM charges a substantial amount from chip companies for its CPU designs and related technologies. For Qualcomm and Samsung, which ship millions of chipsets every year, these licensing fees add up significantly. Now, according to leaker @Jukanlosreve, these companies are independently working on RISC-V cores to cut these expenses.
RISC-V is an open-source CPU architecture that allows companies to design their own processors without paying ARM’s high licensing fees. Given the saturation of ARM-based SoCs in the mobile industry, Samsung and Qualcomm see RISC-V as a viable long-term solution.
Samsung currently uses standard ARM cores in its Exynos processors, but it has previously developed custom ARM-based Mongoose cores. The company licensed IP from ARM and developed the CPU design in-house. However, this experiment was short-lived because of performance and efficiency issues. Qualcomm, meanwhile, still uses custom ARM-based Oryon cores in its Snapdragon flagship smartphone processors.
Going forward, both companies aim to develop custom cores based on the RISC-V open-source CPU architecture. This will allow them to cut expenses on ARM licensing fees. Qualcomm and Samsung have been exploring this possibility for several years now.
However, developing high-performance RISC-V cores that can match ARM’s years of optimization is a challenge that will take time. If they succeed, the mobile industry could see a major shift away from ARM dominance in the coming years. Samsung’s next flagship processor is the 2nm Exynos 2600, while Qualcomm may stick to the 3nm process for the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2.
