Qualcomm’s Oryon general-purpose cores found in Snapdragon X processors are based on Arm’s Armv8 instruction set architecture (ISA), but they incorporate very little technology developed by Arm. According to Gerard Williams III, one of the lead developers behind Oryon and a former Apple chip designer, only 1% or less of Arm’s original technology was used.
The Oryon cores originated from Nuvia, a company co-founded by Williams in 2019, which aimed to design high-performance, energy-efficient CPU cores. Nuvia acquired licenses from Arm for the Technology License Agreement (TLA) and Architecture License Agreement (ALA). Since the goal was always to develop custom cores, Nuvia designed its own pipelines, execution units, cache systems, and other CPU internals, reducing the incorporation of Arm’s proprietary circuit blocks.
After being acquired by Qualcomm in 2021 for $1.4 billion, Nuvia’s cores were initially intended for PCs, not datacenters. Arm requested Qualcomm to renegotiate licensing terms, which the company refused, citing its own ALA covering its subsidiary Nuvia.
The current legal dispute between Arm and Qualcomm revolves around whether Nuvia’s architecture license and custom designs could be transferred or used by Qualcomm after the acquisition. The jury’s decision may define future licensing practices and IP ownership in the semiconductor industry.
Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/qualcomm-says-its-oryon-cpu-cores-have-1-percent-or-less-of-arms-original-technology-cores-in-snapdragon-x-pc-chips-are-almost-entirely-custom