How ARM licenses it's IP for production
Part 2: Royalties and Physical IP make for a complex brew
by Charlie Demerjian
SemiAccurate (Aug 8, 2013)
The up front licensing costs are actually the simplest part of the story, from here it gets a little tricky. Given the 6-24 months ARM says it typically takes to negotiate a licensing deal you can probably guess that they are pretty comprehensive. Picking which type of license you want to buy is the work of an afternoon, once you get the lawyers involved things slow down. A lot. The complexities start out with the royalties, and this area is where ARM makes most of its income.
The license types just get you a design, actually making silicon that contains the cores in question involves royalty payments to ARM for each device sold. These are typically 1-2% of the selling price of the end chip or SoC but ARM has indicated that the V8 class chips will raise this a bit. That means the A53 and A57 will have a maximum royalty rate of 2.5% and likely a higher minimum too but both numbers can vary a lot within some rough guidelines
E-mail This Article | Printer-Friendly Page |
Related News
- IPO Arm, says Qualcomm boss, and we'll buy in
- Moortec Provide Embedded Monitoring Solutions for Arm's Neoverse N1 System Development Platform on TSMC 7nm Process Technology
- Control of Arm's China business transferred to Chinese investors
- Spansion Licenses ARM's High-Performance Cortex-M7 Processor
- A long look at how ARM licenses chips
Breaking News
- Thalia's AMALIA 24.2 introduces pioneering estimated parasitics feature to reduce PEX iterations by at least 30%
- TSMC plans 1.6nm process for 2026
- Qualitas Semiconductor Partners with TUV Rheinland Korea to Enhance ISO 26262 Functional Safety Management System
- M31 has successfully launched MIPI C/D PHY Combo IP on the advanced TSMC 5nm process
- Ceva multi-protocol wireless IP could simplify IoT MCU and SoC development
Most Popular
- Controversial former Arm China CEO founds RISC-V chip startup
- Siemens collaborates with TSMC on design tool certifications for the foundry's newest processes and other enablement milestones
- Credo at TSMC 2024 North America Technology Symposium
- Synopsys Accelerates Next-Level Chip Innovation on TSMC Advanced Processes
- Kalray Joins Arm Total Design, Extending Collaboration with Arm on Accelerated AI Processing