ARM is going to develop and manufacture its own chip, according to the Financial Times. To do this, the company has created a new work team, which it has called the Solutions Engineering Team, and which it has entrusted with this task. in front of the group is a former manager of Qualcomm, Snapdragon chip designer: Kevor Kechichian.
The mission of this team, as we have mentioned, is to manufacture a semiconductor capable of displaying the capabilities and functions of ARM designs. It will not be for sale, and its goal is to show customers and companies interested in the company’s designs what they can achieve with them. Therefore, in addition to consolidating the clients that the company has, the purpose of manufacturing this chip is to attract new clients before it goes public, originally scheduled for the end of this year, 2023.
Apparently, ARM started working on the prototype of this chip about six months ago. Several executives have confirmed to the medium that broke the news that the design achieved is more advanced than any of those produced for semiconductors by ARM so far. Apparently, judging by the number of companies outside of ARM that know about the existence of this chip, the project is an open secret within the chip industry.
While ARM doesn’t want to sell the chip, as its line of business is to license its designs to third parties, or other chips should it decide to make them, there are areas of the market where it could make inroads. For example, in the PC industry, since ARM components are not commonly found, apart from some of the latest Mac models. In addition, the company has warned its investors a few days ago of the risk that a concentration of its business may entail.
In 2022, ARM’s top 20 customers accounted for 86% of its revenue. Therefore, from ARM they have already warned analysts that «the loss of a small number of key customers could have a significant impact on the growth of the group«.
But regardless of whether or not ARM sells the chip it’s developing, making it is good for consumers, since the company’s solutions engineering team is also working, thanks to him, in the improving the security and performance of ARM designs. And this is very possible that it will reach the chips that are mounted in the different devices that have chips with the company’s design.
