Qualcomm has single handedly held back mainstream ARM performance for a while now IMO, with pretty much all their chips being embarrassingly slow when compared to something like the M1… A bit like how Intel stagnated with core counts until Ryzen came along and broke open the floodgates
I’m concerned that by QC possibly adopting RISC, everyone else will be somewhat forced to adopt their flavor or whatever proprietary instruction set extensions they choose to implement as the potential market leader, and if they choose to patent those then we end up with another duopoly type situation
I love the idea of taking on a monopoly, but I don’t like that, without regulation, it has a low chance of success, and the consumer gets to suffer as the monopoly fights back.
What’s your basis for presuming low odds? I’m miles away from IT, but my layman’s understanding is that while Arm has terrific IP, Qualcomm isn’t exactly pushing the envelope with their custom designs despite/because of a de facto monopoly on high-end Android chips. The consumer is suffering under the current regime, and if licensing is going to get far more expensive, phonemakers aren’t going to just eat margin.
I’m not a fan of the corporate oligarchy we find ourselves in, but it’s important to accept that sometimes big companies make decisions that are good for consumers — if only because it’s also good for the bottom line. To my mind, this is one such example.
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