Nvidia-Arm news are obviously taking center stage this week, but several interesting updates also deserve attention in areas such as EDA, prototyping, embedded systems, events, acquisitions and more.
Nvidia-Arm deal
Rumors have been confirmed: GPU market leader Nvidia will acquire Arm from Japanese conglomerate company SoftBank in a transaction valued at $40 billion, what is considered the largest semiconductor deal ever. The official announcement stresses the powerful pairing that brings together Nvidia’s AI computing platform with Arm’s large footprint in many diverse end products and industries, adding that Arm R&D resources in the UK will get a boost as part of the deal. In its statement, Nvidia pledges that “Arm will continue to operate its open-licensing model while maintaining the global customer neutrality that has been foundational to its success.” It remains to be seen how Arm licensees and governments’ regulating authorities will react to the news. The new situation could also potentially change the competition landscape for Risc-V open-source ISA.
