On: SoftBank’s plan to sell Arm to Nvidia is hitting a...

[IshKebab]

They might want to make changes to the standard ISA which only ARM can do currently.

But it's nVidia. No way they are going to do anything good.

[colejohnson66 → IshKebab]

Doesn’t the ARM ISA license already allow for extensions? I know Apple’s chips are full of them.

[wmf → colejohnson66]

Apple's extensions are non-standard. Nvidia could make changes to the standard itself, not extensions. How much money this is worth I don't know.

[IshKebab → colejohnson66]

Sure but those wouldn't be standard instructions that other people have to implement.

[colejohnson66 → IshKebab]

Is a custom core required to support the full standard instruction set? I thought I could license the rights to have my own, say, A53, and then I’d be able to customize it (as long as I don’t call it an A53 core). Is that not the case?

[IshKebab → colejohnson66]

I wouldn't be surprised if their licensing terms require your chip to pass some kind of compliance test for the standard ISA, but probably only the licensees know that. I'm sure you can't use the ARM trademarks if it isn't compatible thought - that's pretty standard.