Tech powerhouse Arm is gearing up to design and produce its own chips for mobile devices, laptops, and other products. According to a report from Reuters via the Financial Times, the company is establishing a new team within its “solutions engineering” division aimed at spearheading the development of next-generation chip solutions and creating innovative intellectual property on the Arm architecture.
One of the initial products being developed by Arm’s newly formed engineering group is currently in the prototype phase. Industry executives have indicated that this prototype is poised to be significantly advanced compared to previous iterations. Although Arm does not plan to sell or license this prototype chip at this stage, this stance may evolve once the chip progresses from prototyping to qualification sampling. For the time being, Arm will continue to focus on supplying intellectual property to other chipmakers until it finalizes its own chip production.
Notably, Intel is expected to produce these Arm-designed chips utilizing its fabrication facilities. The company has recently announced its collaboration with Arm to manufacture mobile-oriented chips featuring Arm’s architecture within its own factories. Historically, Intel has specialized in x86 chip production, making this partnership an intriguing development.
In a related move, Arm and Intel recently formalized a deal to manufacture next-generation mobile system-on-chips (SoCs) using Intel’s 18A process node. However, full-scale production of this process is not anticipated until 2024-2025, as Intel is likely to prioritize its own products before extending the technology to other clients. Thus, Arm’s new offerings may not be available until after 2025.
This new family of SoCs will employ an entirely reimagined Arm architecture crafted from the ground up by the new engineering team, focusing initially on mobile and laptop applications. Further announcements regarding Arm’s chip-making strategy and target devices may be unveiled later this year.
