Article ARM Considers Acquisition of Ampere

NTMBK

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Nov 14, 2011

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Arm considers acquiring Ampere Computing to expand datacenter business

Ampere designs processors for data center systems based on Arm's architecture

www.tomshardware.com

Feels like a weird decision, because it would put ARM in direct competition with their licensees.

 

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soresu

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Dec 19, 2014

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NTMBK said:

Feels like a weird decision, because it would put ARM in direct competition with their licensees.

Click to expand...

I mean, depends on what they do with it.

Could be that Ampere has some patents or engineering staff they would like to acquire.

Or they want to actively set up a more robust desktop PC (ATX ish) like ecosystem around ARM to expand the reach of the ISA and get a foothold before RISC-V gets there first, and Ampere has the expertise for it.

 

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soresu

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Given they are rumoured to be eyeing discrete Mali GPUs the latter explanation sounds quite plausible.

Once they have a reference platform that will make it all the easier to get partners interested in making mobos, GPUs and CPUs for it.

Having a single socket for multiple SoC vendors would be crazy.

 

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itsmydamnation

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could this be to stop oracle doing a Qualcomm ?

 

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gdansk

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itsmydamnation said:

could this be to stop oracle doing a Qualcomm ?

Click to expand...

Oracle has a large share of Ampere but I don't see how they'd "do a Qualcomm" since Oracle does not have an ALA which would be needed to cover such a move. Nor do I see how Oracle would benefit as they're not paying higher fees for standard ARM cores like Qualcomm was.

But despite all that, it seems plausible to me it is to preempt an Oracle acquisition. No one wants to renegotiate a contract with Oracle if they can avoid it.

 

adroc_thurston

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Jul 2, 2023

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NTMBK said:

Feels like a weird decision, because it would put ARM in direct competition with their licensees.

Click to expand...

That was always the end goal. Poison the well and pull the licensing plug the moment ARM itself ships merchant Neoverse Si.

 

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StefanR5R

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Dec 10, 2016

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Tom's headline, and thus the topic of this thread and the rest of the OP are likely wrong.

The rumor is that SoftBank might acquire Ampere.

 

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DrMrLordX

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StefanR5R said:

Tom's headline, and thus the topic of this thread and the rest of the OP are likely wrong.

The rumor is that SoftBank might acquire Ampere.

Click to expand...

https://www.reuters.com/technology/softbank-arm-weigh-acquiring-ampere-computing-bloomberg-reports-2025-01-09/

Appears you may be right.

 

Gideon

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Nov 27, 2007

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Well that's more likely. Still an absurd conflict of interest with ARM

 

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