Apple has begun accepting RISC-V programmers, which is – given the fact that the company’s portfolio does not include a single product using this architecture – the first indications that the company is beginning to tap into an open-source architecture as a possible alternative to existing ARM.
The media points to two reasons that Apple may lead to exploring new possibilities. The first is ARM’s license fees and the second concerns concerns about the acquisition of ARM by Nvidia. Although it claims that in the event of a successful completion of the acquisition, it will continue with ARM’s current licensing policy, but there are some concerns. They usually point to the fact that Nvidia needs to offer processors in addition to professional accelerators (which AMD and Intel do) in order to maintain its position, and will therefore use motivated ARM in a way to gain an edge over new companies that use ARM architectures.
Of course, this is quite a big risk for all existing ARM customers (their competition would keep their hands on the tap of the technological water supply), so it would not be surprising if Apple also explored other possible routes.
Society obviously has no problem with changing architecture. In June 2005, it announced the transition from PowerPC (IBM / Motorola) to x86 (Intel), and at the turn of 2020/2021, Apple began the transition from x86 (Intel) to its own SoC with ARM processor cores in the form of its own implementation. So while launching a RISC-V deployment survey doesn’t mean we’re going to write about iPhones with new architecture in five years, nor does it mean when such a transition will occur at all, it certainly means that such a transition can and will not happen to Apple. Like the continued use of ARM architecture, such a possibility will be quite real.
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The job advert suggested that Apple are already developing with RISC-V.
No company wants to pay license fees and royalties (even if they do pass the cost onto their customer), especially when those costs enrich a competitor. And there’s no advantage for Apple in doing so – they have their own silicon developers. In fact; Arm holds them back, because they have to get their designs ratified.
RISC-V presents:
– a clean, easy to use ISA, which is quickly gaining in maturity.
– No constraints about what anyone is allowed to do. And
– it’s already proven to be at least as good as ARM, in terms of PPA.
Of course Apple are looking at RISC-V! It’s a pity it’s taken the uncertainty surrounding this potential acquisition for them to see the advantages of the new ISA.