Arm Holdings plc plans to cancel a license that gives Qualcomm Inc. permission to use its instruction set architecture in chips.

Bloomberg reported the development today. Qualcomm, the world’s top maker of Android handset processors, acknowledged the licensing dispute in a statement.

An instruction set architecture, or ISA, defines the language in which a central processing unit expresses computations. The “words” of this language are instructions, simple computing operations that each perform a narrow task such as multiplying or adding two numbers. CPUs carry out processing by mixing and matching many billions of instructions every second into complex workflows.

Arm develops the mobile industry’s most widely used ISA. Qualcomm, in turn, makes the popular Snapdragon line of system-on-chips for smartphones and tablets. The company uses Arm’s ISA to power its chips.

Arm licenses its ISA to Qualcomm under a contract known as the Architectural License Agreement, or ALA. It’s the most expensive of the chip technology licensing agreements that the company offers. According to today’s report, Arm has notified Qualcomm that it plans to scrap its ALA within 60 days.

If it materializes, the planned license cancellation could affect not only Qualcomm but also other mobile industry players. The company’s Snapdragon chips power Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s flagship Galaxy smartphone series and numerous other handsets. Its silicon is also increasingly being used in other devices such as laptops. 

Should Qualcomm lose the ability to make processors based on Arm’s ISA, it may have to make broad changes to its engineering workflow. The company might have to scrap some Arm-based processors or develop entirely new silicon based on a different ISA. Such disruptions would affect Android device makers’ access to new chips, potentially making their handsets less competitive. 

Arm’s notice of the upcoming license cancellation comes about two years after it sued Qualcomm over the latter company’s acquisition of startup Nuvia Inc. for $1.4 billion. Nuvia was founded in 2019 by a team that included the former head of Apple Inc.’s CPU design team. Like Qualcomm, Apple uses Arm’s ISA to power its CPUs.

Nuvia launched with the goal of building Arm-based processors for the server market. After its acquisition by Qualcomm, the startup’s team refocused on designing other products such as laptop chips. Arm’s lawsuit charges that the manner in which the acquisition unfolded breached the terms of the ISA licensing agreement it had signed with Nuvia.

Arm is seeking a court order that would force Qualcomm to delete chip blueprints developed by the startup prior to the acquisition. Such an order could halt sales of laptops based on the Snapdragon X Elite, a system-on-chip that Qualcomm debuted last year. The chip includes, among other components, a 12-core CPU that was designed by the Nuvia team based on Arm’s ISA.

The lawsuit is set to go to trial later this year. Qualcomm said in a statement that “this is more of the same from Arm – more unfounded threats designed to strongarm a longtime partner, interfere with our performance-leading CPUs, and increase royalty rates regardless of the broad rights under our architecture license. With a trial fast approaching in December, Arm’s desperate ploy appears to be an attempt to disrupt the legal process.”

Analysts cited by Reuters suggested that the companies may reach an agreement before the trial begins. It’s believed that such a deal could increase the licensing fees Qualcomm pays Arm to use its technology. 

Photo: Qualcomm