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?
In: Technology
My understanding is that the particular ARM license being utilized by Apple leaves the actual implementation entirely up to them. An analogy might be as if you licensed the internal combustion engine. This allows you the right to produce your own engine that consists of the basic elements and principals patented by the licensor, while the decisions of materials, optimizations, and the engineering of individual elements are up to you. You are permitted to simply copy the original design in it’s entirety, or you can choose to develop bigger or lighter pistons.
In this way, every or nearly every element of the end design may be further developed by Apple. There’s really no way of knowing how much they actually chose to re-use or re-develop.
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