[zepto]

> they could move away from ARM if the Nvidia purchase happens.

The Nvidia purchase is irrelevant to Apple. They have a license that won’t be impacted.

The only thing that would make them move away would be a performance bottleneck in the architecture that necessitates a shift.

[klelatti]

> Still leaves Apple open to potential Nvidia's changes to the ISA's direction (and the ISA won't stand still). I assume a full fork of the ISA isn't on the cards even for Apple.

[zepto]

> I assume a full fork of the ISA isn't on the cards even for Apple.

Why do you assume this?

[klelatti]

If you've seen their license then happy to be corrected but typically an architecture license wouldn't permit them to do precisely what they want with the ISA with no restrictions whatsoever.

[zepto]

I haven’t seen their license but they founded ARM and even though they don’t retain any ownership of the business I have heard that they retain a license that allows them to do pretty much whatever they like with the architecture in their own products.