Arm could be changing its licensing model that will make it difficult to make custom chipsets
Pretty much all the mobile chipsets you see in the market today used by smartphones and tablets are based on Arm’s design and architecture. Companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, Google, Apple, MediaTek, and so on while making custom chipsets still rely largely on Arm’s designs.
But it seems that in the future, it might get tricky. According to a recent report by SemiAnalysis, it appears that Arm might be looking to change its licensing model. Apparently in order to get a license to use its designs, companies that make chipsets might have to license all of Arm’s IPs.
This means that companies like Qualcomm and Samsung who use their own custom GPUs will no longer be able to do so, and will have to license whatever Arm is offering if they want to be able to continue using their designs. Keep in mind that Arm has not announced any changes to its licensing agreements just yet.
As 9to5Google notes, most of this information is gleaned from Qualcomm’s counterclaim against Arm which seems to allude to potential changes. Either way, it looks like something we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out.
Source: 9to5Google