Chipset Designer retracted its earlier announcement that it would stop all dealings with Huawei. Earlier this year, it was reported that ARM allegedly notified personnel to end any dealing with the Chinese technology giant. Owned by Softbank, the chipset maker recently confirmed it would provide present and future processor core designs to Huawei.
In a report, ARM said it would "provide support to HiSilicon for the ARMv8-A architecture" and the following generation of the architecture after an extensive evaluation of both architectures, which have been identified as a non-U.S. origin.
Good News for Huawei and Its Users
In connection to ARM's reversal, Huawei was obliged to divulge the leading Mate 30 Pro without Google Maps, Google Play, YouTube, and some of the other vital services of Google. The fast-growing mobile phone maker also announced it was able to find substitute suppliers for different mechanisms and make its trademarked Kirin 990 mobile processor for Mate 30 employing the design architecture of ARM.
Essentially, Huawei is doing well, even without Google services. In fact, its revenue even increased amidst the U.S. sanctions. It was the middle of this year when the American government placed a ban on this tech giant and more of its affiliates, referring to national security concerns.
The Story behind Huawei's Case
ARM's latest announcement is undeniably good news for Huawei as it lets the company continue creating its own chips for its wireless devices through HiSilicon, a semiconductor company. While Huawei products such as Kirin 990 processor, as mentioned, are designed for in-house use, they depend heavily on the designs of ARM for both GPU and CPU.
Without the licensing from ARM, Huawei won't be able to come out with new processors effectively. Huawei would effectively be not able to produce new processors, "making the decision a remarkable one regarding the ability of Huawei to produce more new phones." Earlier on, ARM cut its ties with Huawei, following Trump's trade ban due to apprehensions that its chip designs might have US-origin technology content.
Based in the UK, ARM is owned by SoftBank Group from Japan. However, it also has offices in Texas, the United States, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Washington. These offices are where the employees are helping in the development of the processor designs. Now, with a conclusion of ARM that its chips are origins of the UK, the company is claiming that it is not part of the US ban.
However, ARM's decision to continue with the licensing of the chipset doesn't mean it's the end of the problems for Huawei. New phones which the company sells still cannot offer the apps and services of Google, including the PlayStore, which are crucial for selling Android gadgets outside China.
