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by SlipperySlope 5530 days ago
Interesting that Intel is seeking to fabricate ARM chips for Apple. I presume that Intel is pitching their best lithography process tech, i.e. 22nm. If Intel wrests Apples ARM CPU fabrication business away from Samsung - who competes with Apple on smartphones - then Intel would become a world leader in ARM CPU fabrication and pay ARM plenty of licensing fees!

Hardly the end of the world for ARM.
1 comments
sliverstorm 5530 days ago
The risk would be once Intel is the world's source of ARM CPU's, suddenly ARM's biggest competitor has a chokehold on the market's access to their silicon.

It would basically come down to whether Intel chose to embrace ARM, or tried to use the new position to quietly strangle it.

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SlipperySlope 5530 days ago
A large number of foundries currently make ARM CPUs, and a number of companies make ARM CPUs for in-house manufacturing. Intel could not get an absolute monopoly but rather a technical superiority advantage such as it currently has over other x86 vendors.

It has been speculated in the financial press that Intel might try to offset its huge annual capital expenditures by offering as much as 20% of its fab capacity as foundry services.

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thebandrews 5529 days ago
Intel did ARM a while back and got out. Not sure what kind of license they still have.
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ephemient 5529 days ago
Wikipedia says "Intel still holds an ARM license even after the sale of XScale." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale

I don't know if it's true five years later now, though.

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