Arm to Manufacture Its Own Prototype Chips

pcmag.com:

Semiconductor and software design company Arm is planning to manufacture its own prototype chip.

As the Financial Times reports(Opens in a new window), the Cambridge-based chip designer is currently looking for manufacturing partners to help develop its own processor. The move comes ahead of a planned public offering(Opens in a new window) on the New York Nasdaq by parent company SoftBank, and is meant to act as a showcase piece of silicon to attract both investors and increase the company's profits.

Rather than manufacturing an existing chip design, "multiple industry executives" told the Financial Times that Arm is planning to produce a more advanced processor not seen before. Although Arm isn't commenting, this chip is expected to only be used to showcase what is possible and the company has no plans to license or sell it as a product.

It's also thought this isn't a one-off manufacturing project, with the company forming a "solutions engineering" team led by Kevork Kechichian (formerly of NXP Semiconductors and Qualcomm) to continue developing prototype chips for different sectors including mobile devices and laptops.

Arm's chip designs are used in the majority of mobile devices on the market today and therefore finding a manufacturing partner shouldn't prove difficult. Only last week, Intel announced a deal which allows it to manufacture Arm processors for customers.

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