Qualcomm Invests in Non-Arm Chip Designs

Qualcomm is one of several major electronics companies teaming up on a new joint venture to advance the RISC-V architecture. RISC-V is an open-source alternative to the Arm architecture, which is the basis for the chips that power most mobile devices today. Arm is a British company that develops reference designs for the cores at the heart the chips that power most phones. Both Qualcomm and Apple currently license Arm designs for their own chips. Earlier this year, Google announced long-term plans to make Android compatible with RISC-V architectures. Qualcomm says "initial application focus will be automotive, but with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT." The new company will be based in Germany. Other partners in the joint venture include Bosch, Infineon, Nordic Semiconductors, and NXP.