https://www.anandtech.com/show/16553/qualcomm-completes-acquisition-of-nuvia [p] [logo2] [ ] [search] Welcome Log out Login Register [icon-twitt] [icon-faceb] [icon-rss] * ABOUT * BENCH * FORUMS * PODCAST [logo_resp] [ ] [search] ABOUT BENCH FORUMS PODCAST LOGIN REGISTER PC ComponentsV * CPUs * GPUs * Motherboards * SSDs * Cases/Cooling/PSUs * Memory * NAS * Storage Smartphones & tabletsV * Smartphones * Tablets * Huawei * HTC * Samsung * Google/Android * Microsoft * Apple * SoCs SystemsV * Notebook Reviews * Desktop Reviews * Mac Reviews * Ultrabooks ENTERPRISE & IT GUIDESV * Best CPUs * Best SSDs * Best Laptops * Best Android Phones * Best Video Cards * Best PSUs * Best Motherboards * Best Gaming Laptops * Best Mechanical Keyboards * Best Consumer HDDs DEALS * Home> Mobile [ ] Menu * PC ComponentsV + CPUs + GPUs + Motherboards + SSDs + Cases/Cooling/PSUs + Memory + NAS + Storage * Smartphones & tabletsV + Smartphones + Tablets + Huawei + HTC + Samsung + Google/Android + Microsoft + Apple + SoCs * SystemsV + Notebook Reviews + Desktop Reviews + Mac Reviews + Ultrabooks * Enterprise & IT * GuidesV + Best CPUs + Best SSDs + Best Laptops + Best Android Phones + Best Video Cards + Best PSUs + Best Motherboards + Best Gaming Laptops + Best Mechanical Keyboards + Best Consumer HDDs * Deals * TRENDING TOPICS * CPUs * Intel * AMD * Storage * Mobile * SSDs * GPUs * Smartphones * Motherboards * Home> * Mobile Qualcomm Completes Acquisition of NUVIA: Immediate focus on Laptops (Updated) by Andrei Frumusanu on March 16, 2021 11:45 AM EST * Posted in * Mobile * CPUs * Apple * Qualcomm * Laptops * SoCs * NUVIA 18 Comments | Add A Comment 18 Comments + Add A Comment [Nuvia-QC_6] Today Qualcomm is announcing that the company has completed the acquisition of NUVIA, a start-up company consisting of industry veterans who were behind the creation of Apple's high-performance CPU cores, and who were aiming to disrupt the server market with a new high-performance core called "Phoenix". The acquisition had been announced only several weeks ago in mid-January, so the whole process has been extremely speedy in terms of timeline. "Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., has completed its acquisition of the world-class CPU and technology design company, NUVIA for $1.4 billion before working capital and other adjustments." Today Qualcomm even went as far as put out a concrete roadmap for new SoCs using the newly acquired IP from Nuvia: "The first Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms to feature Qualcomm's new internally designed CPUs are expected to sample in the second half of 2022 and will be designed for high performance ultraportable laptops. " Sampling in late 2022 would require a tape-out in early 2022, and a design-in essentially as soon as possible following the acquisition today. The whole process seems extremely fast and aggressive in terms of timing, pointing out that Qualcomm is putting a lot of emphasis on the project. Qualcomm had shown a lot of positive reaction to Apple M1, I quote our interview with Alex Katouzian from back in December in terms of their reaction to the competitor design: "[...] the laptops these days are really moving towards mobile. The camera is super important. The audio is super important. The battery life is super important. Not having a fan is super important. Portability, thinness, connectivity, always-on always-connected, all those traits of mobile are moving to the PC. And people say, imitation is the best form of flattery. Look at look what happened with the [Apple] M1. Their product pitch is almost a duplicate of what we've been saying for the past two or three years." NUVIA's prompt acquisition and immediate disclosure of plans to tackle the high-performance ultraportable laptop market could be seen as Qualcomm's direct response to the new Apple M1 powered laptops and to compete with their high-performance CPU cores. Article Update: We had the opportunity to have a call with Qualcomm's Keith Kressin, SVP and GM, Edge Cloud and Computing, answering several questions as for company's current plans for the NUVIA team. Qualcomm views the acquisition as an important strategic addition to the company's design capabilities, filling a gap in IP design where the company for several years now had been relying on external IP such as Arm's Cortex cores. Keith made important note of this ability to have total in-house design control over every IP block in an SoC, allowing the company better flexibility to respond to market demands and creating competitive products. The immediate goals for the NUVIA team will be implementing custom CPU cores into laptop-class Snapdragon SoCs running Windows, and enable the company to offer higher performance CPUs than would have been otherwise possible. When asked about plans for other product stacks and the possibility of using both in-house CPUs as well as continuing to use Arm Cortex CPU IP for lower segments, it was stated that Qualcomm will continue to evaluate every metric and choose the best fitting design that makes the most sense for that product category. We asked the team if Qualcomm would continue to invest into NUVIA's original plans to enter the server and enterprise market, with a response that this wasn't the main goal or motivation of the acquisition, that Qualcomm however would very much keep that as an open option for the future, and let the NUVIA team explore those possibilities. Keith here acknowledged that it's tough market to crack, and that Qualcomm had made no definitive decisions yet in terms of long-term planning. Related Reading: * Qualcomm to Acquire NUVIA: A CPU Magnitude Shift * NUVIA Completes Series B Funding Round: $240M * NUVIA Phoenix Targets +40-50% ST Performance Over Zen 2 for Only 33% the Power * NUVIA: New Server CPU Startup Going After Intel and AMD Source: Qualcomm Press Release Tweet PRINT THIS ARTICLE * Post Your Comment [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Please log in or sign up to comment. [ ] [Submit Comment] [ajax-loade] POST A COMMENT 18 Comments View All Comments * SarahKerrigan - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link I was really excited about Centriq - talked to some people who had spent quality time with it and all the omens seemed to be positive. I hope the Nuvia design group doesn't suffer QDT's fate. Reply * Raqia - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link The cancellation was most directly related to the attempted hostile takeover of Qualcomm by Broadcom (now being run more like a asset roll-up company than tech company) led by Hock Tan and private equity firm Silver Lake after Qualcomm share prices were crippled by their licensing dispute with Apple, which was throwing its weight around in an attempt to reduce its input costs. In an attempt to rebuff this takeover, Qualcomm pledged unfortunate cost cutting measures including scrapping Centriq and laying off most of its CPU design HQ in North Carolina to appease various shareholder advisory firms who generally guide how large mutual funds holding most of the shares will vote. In the end, that didn't sway those advisory firms, and only the US govt. invoking CFIUS powers kept an essential cellular R&D house from going on the chopping block and being sold off for parts. It had nothing to do the technical merits of Centriq itself, and it's good to see them re-establish their once thriving CPU division in their resurgence after an almost complete legal victory over all of Apple's misleading claims. The one thing Apple did succeed in was lowering cellular licensing fees for its 5G push where it needed Qualcomm. Reply * jeremyshaw - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link Do you know what happened to the NC team? Did most of them move out of state, or did someone scoop them up (like what briefly happened to AMD's Austin team with Samsung, before SARC wound down [though there is some indication people were leaving SARC long before that]). Reply * eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link I see QC's acquisition of Nuvia also as taking out insurance against being dependant on NVIDIA/ARM for CPU core designs. Using stock ARM IP in one's SoC has upsides, but also the principal downsides of that design being available to others (Samsung, Mediathek, others), and depending on a key competitor for that. QC and NVIDIA compete more and more in AI/deep learning acceleration, autonomous driving and related driving assistants and more. And while there are legal firewalls in place to avoid IP "leakage", it's still an uncomfortable relationship. Plus, Apple being perennially ahead in perf/W by about one generation probably chafes a bit, too. As for the question if a Nuvia-based SoC ultra portable will see the light of day, that'll depend a lot on how much effort Microsoft puts into Windows 64 bit on ARM; with enough native 64 bit software, it'd be highly competitive with x86/x64 solutions in the low and very low power space (below 10 W and below 5 W); Apple's M1 demonstrated what is possible with a ARM-based design and native OS support. Reply * Yojimbo - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link The greater risk to the development of ARM cores is from NVIDIA not buying ARM, not from NVIDIA buying it. ARM is in flux right now and so its future is unsure. It can't be assumed that ARM, let's say post IPO, is the same as ARM under SoftBank, who increased R&D beyond what an independent ARM answering directly to shareholders likely would be able to maintain. The reason Qualcomm doesn't want the merger to happen is because they don't want a (mostly future) competitor to be stronger than it otherwise would be. If Qualcomm were really worried about ARM itself under NVIDIA then they wouldn't be further committing to the ARM ecosystem by buying Nuvia. Reply * Yojimbo - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link Let me add more context to my comment. Qualcomm, if you remember, used to develop their own ARM cores. Lots of companies did. Eventually ARM's own cores took over much of the SoC market as the companies found it cost-ineffective to duplicate ARM's efforts under SoftBank. Now Qualcomm no longer has the team or the up-to-date designs it once had to develop their own cores. Seeing the possibility that they will need to begin doing it once again (because ARM is in flux and may not be investing so much in CPU core R&D as they did under SoftBank) and seeing Nuvia available, which presumably has cores that impressed them, they decided to buy Nuvia rather than start over again. Reply * Ppietra - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link If no company comes out with an ARM SoC that can compete with Intel on desktops PCs, then I doubt things will change much in terms of native ARM software availability, which will render ARM Windows computers a small niche in the market for a long time. Reply * webdoctors - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link Some ARM Chromebooks were supposed to, but at least Samsung's offerings there were pretty weak. Reply * webdoctors - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link I'm confused, in the prior article NUVIA was started because the founders couldn't do a server chip at Apple only laptops and phones. Now QCOM bought them and have them not do server chips but do laptops? er ok. Reply * Yojimbo - Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - link The company founders are getting a heck of a lot more money from Qualcomm to not make server chips than they would have got from Apple to not make server chips. Reply * 1 * 2 * > PIPELINE STORIES + Submit News Micron Abandons 3D XPoint Memory Technology [dell_revea] AT Deals: Intel Core i7-10700KF Now $264 at Amazon Qualcomm Completes Acquisition of NUVIA: Immediate focus on Laptops (Updated) * NVIDIA Fumbles, Releases GeForce RTX 3060 Driver Without Anti-Mining Throttle * AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 Mobile: Zen 3 comes to Commercial Notebooks * ASUS Reveals ThunderboltEX 4 Expansion Card, Dual Type-C & Mini-DP * AT Deals: Corsair CV Series CV450 Down To $25 After Rebate at Newegg * Sponsored Post: What COVID-19 Means for the Future of Retail * AT Deals: Asus ROG Strix 17-inch Gaming Laptop, with Core i7 and RTX 2070, Down to $1399 * Best Android Phones: March 2021 * Seagate's Roadmap: The Path to 120 TB Hard Drives * AT Deals: LG 27-Inch 4K IPS Monitor Drops to $359 TWEETS [twiiter_bi] * IanCutress: @fiecila @powerslideita @TheMalcore @AMD @AMDServer AMD is with Mercedes now * RyanSmithAT: @BoildownAH No. NVIDIA said it was a multi-factor system incorporating the silicon, BIOS, and driver. Which is all... https://t.co/zOiq4xVSjX * IanCutress: Level1Potato back on the air, simulcast at @TechTechPotato and @Level1Techs. Starting soon! https://t.co/ SPyhd1r03A https://t.co/AXTYW6TcuF * IanCutress: @questionlp @AMD @AMDServer Would people get confused? 10+ years later? * IanCutress: @Nick_Craver @AMD @AMDServer Ice was the first (well, cannon was the first) where the SoC name wasn't also the core... https://t.co/3FILmqk68z * IanCutress: @CHA0SHACKER @AMD @AMDServer I don't think if they used Venice now someone would get confused... :) * andreif7: @blu51899890 @never_released Qualcomm's view on the NUVIA server plans seems to be wait & see, and an option they'l... https://t.co/ISqJC1MiJb * RyanSmithAT: @Tullibardine @anandtech That was admittedly not the first f-word that I thought of when writing the title... * RyanSmithAT: Speaking off the cuff here, it was always going to be a matter of time until someone found a way to bypass the thro... https://t.co/cqJjlkdJVX * RyanSmithAT: The not-so-bad news here is that this is a Windows driver, and it doesn't have *all* of the mining checks removed.... https://t.co/loMXnuDovZ * andreif7: @stuntpants @never_released That situation in this context wouldn't arise unless somehow ACPCs become a *requireme... https://t.co/Y9DWIAZKtw * andreif7: @stuntpants @never_released There are strong competitor alternatives to Qualcomm in the plans. If Qualcomm wins the... https://t.co/CEMAuNFQGm * andreif7: @never_released @unecumbered I would be irresponsible for a company to change plans before an acquisition is finali... https://t.co/RLNNlMT0PL * andreif7: @never_released It's a billion dollar question nowadays. But it's weird that QC doesn't talk about that aspect. * RyanSmithAT: @chrisheinonen @IanCutress @dcominottim @anandtech Glad to hear you were at least able to get a 3070. For your disp... https://t.co/Eyw1PQkAmJ * ganeshts: @bdmurdock Not aware of a standard way, but I have seen simulator wrapper scripts with a `timeout' prefix. Also o... https: //t.co/aIgUTOeXcx * ganeshts: @mikeev @BrettHowse @IanCutress For games, a combination of Powershell + (WinAppDriver / AutoHotKey) works, but it... https://t.co/Fhh8j0VZLa * ganeshts: @mikeev @BrettHowse @IanCutress I use Perl & Python on RHEL for my primary work, and Powershell for all AnandTech-r... https://t.co/7uCllPz9T3 * ganeshts: @mikeev @BrettHowse @IanCutress As a generic scripting language, Powershell may not have any benefit over Perl or P... https://t.co/ttTIO97vrW * ganeshts: @owentparsons @karolgrudzinski @anandtech The LAN port on the far right is a 2.5Gbps one. Follow @ANANDTECH [twitter_do] LINKS * Home * About * Forums * RSS * Pipeline News * Bench * Terms of Use * Contact Us TOPICS * CPUs * Motherboards * SSD/HDD * GPUs * Mobile * Enterprise & IT * Smartphones * Memory * Cases/Cooling/PSU(s) * Displays * Mac * Systems * Cloud * Trade Shows * Guides FOLLOW * [icon-faceb]Facebook * [icon-twitt]Twitter * [icon-rss2]RSS The Most Trusted in Tech Since 1997 * About * Advertising * Privacy Policy purch Copyright (c) 2021. All rights reserved. * TOPICS * FOLLOW * ABOUT [gryBg1] * CPUs * Motherboards * SSD/HDD * GPUs * Mobile * Enterprise & IT * Smartphones * Memory * Cases/Cooling/PSU(s) * Displays * Mac * Systems * Cloud * Trade Shows * Guides [gryBg1] [icon-faceb]Facebook [icon-twitt]Twitter [icon-rss2]RSS [gryBg1] About Advertising Privacy Policy Contact Us Terms of Use Show Full Site Copyright (c) 2021. All rights reserved. BENCH * [bench_li_p]CPU * [bench_li_p]SSD * [gpubench20]GPU 2013 * [bench_li_p]GPU 2012 * [bench_li_p]Smartphone 2011 * [bench_li_p]Mobile TOPICS * CPUs * Motherboards * SSD/HDD * GPUs * Mobile * Enterprise & IT * Smartphones * Memory * Cases/Cooling/PSU(s) * Displays * Mac * Systems * Cloud * Trade Shows * Guides FOLLOW [icon-faceb]Facebook [icon-twitt]Twitter [icon-rss2]RSS ABOUT * About * Advertising * Privacy Policy * Contact Us * Show Full Site * Copyright (c) 2021. All rights reserved. Log in Don't have an account? Sign up now Username [ ] Password [ ] Remember Me [ ] [LOG IN][ajax-loade] Lost your password? We've updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site's updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Quantcast