# Who are the competitors to ARM?



## Beertintedgoggles (Mar 13, 2017)

I haven't been following the mobile market much and I'm pretty much in the dark regarding who the competitors are in that market.  I know there's ARM and Qualcomm (which might just be a manufacturer of the ARM architecture or a competitor.... I don't know) and NVIDIA's Tegra, but are these chips "interchangeable" in that they'll all run certain versions of Linux, Android, etc.?  I know I can look this up but for once, I'd like that take the chance to sit back and get knowledged up by the folks here at TPU that are in the know.  I'm dumb regarding this subject and that doesn't quite sit well with me.


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## xorbe (Mar 13, 2017)

arm has the momentum of a developed ecosystem in that space, much like x86 in desktops/laptops.


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## dorsetknob (Mar 13, 2017)

Intel of Course !!!

Their competitive Product  The Atom chip line up ( but look at their resources they could bring to the Table )


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## TheLostSwede (Mar 13, 2017)

Beertintedgoggles said:


> I haven't been following the mobile market much and I'm pretty much in the dark regarding who the competitors are in that market.  I know there's ARM and Qualcomm (which might just be a manufacturer of the ARM architecture or a competitor.... I don't know) and NVIDIA's Tegra, but are these chips "interchangeable" in that they'll all run certain versions of Linux, Android, etc.?  I know I can look this up but for once, I'd like that take the chance to sit back and get knowledged up by the folks here at TPU that are in the know.  I'm dumb regarding this subject and that doesn't quite sit well with me.



ARM has a few direct competitors, such as MIPS (now a part of Imagination Technologies), ARC (owned by Synopsys), SuperH (by Renesas), Tensilica and others. The common thread here being that these companies (with the exception of Renesas) only creates the IP and not actual chips based on their IP.

Qualcomm, Broadcom, TI, MediaTek, Apple, Nvidia, etc. license IP from ARM and then design their chips around it. 

Processors based on the same IP are "interchangeable" to a certain degree, but you can generally not swap say a Qualcomm chip for an Nvidia chip without extensive software customisation, as the OS for most of these types of devices are not general purpose in the same way that Windows works on x86 hardware. 

Admittedly Microsoft has to do a fair bit of work on Windows to make it work with all the hardware that it supports, but at the same time, Intel and AMD are seemingly doing a lot more work in terms of drivers etc. than you see from many of the smaller ARM licensees, especially many of the Chinese ones like RockChip, AllWinner etc. which often have poor software support, whereas companies like Qualcomm, Broadcom and TI offer quite good support.

Was there a specific question you had in mind?


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## xorbe (Mar 14, 2017)

Personally I think arm arch is highly overrated, it's a mess now.


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## dorsetknob (Mar 14, 2017)

xorbe said:


> Personally I think arm is highly overrated


So Overrated that i expect your phone has one


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## Ferrum Master (Mar 14, 2017)

TheLostSwede said:


> ARM has a few direct competitors, such as MIPS (now a part of Imagination Technologies), ARC (owned by Synopsys), SuperH (by Renesas), Tensilica and others. The common thread here being that these companies (with the exception of Renesas) only creates the IP and not actual chips based on their IP.
> 
> Qualcomm, Broadcom, TI, MediaTek, Apple, Nvidia, etc. license IP from ARM and then design their chips around it.
> 
> ...



You only forgot PowerPC arch that is still used broadly in some high end routers... and other expensive toys like F35(cough)...

MIPS is still alive too and very powerful.

ARM is not a mess... companies like screwed nvidia adding their tegra part that is closed source causes fragmentation, same goes for many other devices too. The arch itself is mature enough. Accelerated X86 emulation module should appear soon, shame Intel bought Transmeta and killed it... they nailed it first.


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## xorbe (Mar 15, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> So Overrated that i expect your phone has one



Yeah but have you ever tried to deal with arm ltd, or design one from the ground up.


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## R-T-B (Mar 15, 2017)

xorbe said:


> Yeah but have you ever tried to deal with arm ltd, or design one from the ground up.



So your complaint is licensing?  If so, I don't know, I picture using anyones intellectual property is going to be a pain and cost money.


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## silentbogo (Mar 15, 2017)

xorbe said:


> Personally I think arm arch is highly overrated, it's a mess now.


ARM cannot be a mess. It's like a LEGO set, which "licensees" use to build CPUs and SoCs with tools provided by ARM.
Some make cool castles and RC cars, and some make rainbow-colored bricks of ugliness...



Ferrum Master said:


> companies like screwed nvidia adding their tegra part that is closed source causes fragmentation, same goes for many other devices too.


For me the worst example - is Allwinner. This company makes broad and loud claims about OpenSource support and contribution, yet even older SoCs still don't have proper Linux drivers or all the info needed to develop one, only random binary blobs and some vague tech reference materials.
NVidia is #2, but they have a completely different workflow and auditory. NV makes their own consumer devices, and provides all necessary tools for developers. My cousin worked on a project, which involved Drive CX, and at least from his perspective it was more comfortable to work with, than a previous project which was tested on Freescale iMX6 dev kit.


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