Per [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture) the ARM architecture is developed by Arm Holdings, a British company. Given that the Apple M1 chip is an ARM-based chip, did Apple simply do minor customization on work mostly done by Arm Holdings or did it actually design substantial elements of the new chip?
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Among other things, the architecture isn’t the implementation. A great very early example of this was the IBM System360 range of computers: five computers designed by different divisions, but all using the same architecture. Each division was given a different price and performance goal: one was designed to be as cheap as possible; another to be as fast as possible, and so on.
Every sub-component a computer chip can be ‘tuned’ for power, performance, or size. If a big company knows ahead of time the software they want to be extra-optimized, and they also control the compiler and “toolchain”, they can ensure that the bits of the chip that are most heavily used by the software are optimized for speed.
For example, JavaScript code has a weird rounding mode. Most software has to just suck it up, and do a bunch of work to make the rounding mode work correctly. The Apple M1 chip is reported to have a special opcode just to handle that particular rounding mode. Result: JavaScript code would presumably run faster.
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