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AMD could enter ARM market with Sound Wave APU built on TSMC 3nm process

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283 points walterbell | 6 comments | 31 Oct 25 03:07 UTC | HN request time: 0.685s | source | bottom
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FuriouslyAdrift ◴[31 Oct 25 14:40 UTC] No.45772467[source]▶
AMD has been making ARM chips for a long time (they bought Xilinx and have been an ARM licensee for forever). This is just their first APU (graphics plus cpu) with an ARM core as the CPU.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/adaptive-socs-and-fpgas/soc....

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1. strangattractor ◴[31 Oct 25 16:37 UTC] No.45773956[source]▶
Maybe it would be better for them to enter the Risc-V market. My working thesis is that SoftBank had milked the Arm cow dry. That is why they took it public to pawn the dregs off onto the retail investor. Paying for an Arm license is wasted money and akin to paying for an OS these days.
replies(4): >>45774199 #>>45774450 #>>45774595 #>>45775106 #
2. rangestransform ◴[31 Oct 25 17:00 UTC] No.45774199[source]▶
Arm IP cores are catching up to Apple silicon now with Arm-C1
3. indolering ◴[31 Oct 25 17:23 UTC] No.45774450[source]▶
This is a "why not both" strategy: ARM has the market share whereas the RISC-V ecosystem is still being built up. Once you have a RISC based chip, it's not nearly as much work to change to another RISC ISA.
replies(1): >>45775091 #
4. klelatti ◴[31 Oct 25 17:39 UTC] No.45774595[source]▶
> The chip is expected to power future Microsoft Surface products scheduled for release in 2026.

They would have to persuade MS to create Windows for RISC-V in this case.

5. ◴[31 Oct 25 18:24 UTC] No.45775091[source]▶
6. runjake ◴[31 Oct 25 18:25 UTC] No.45775106[source]▶
> Maybe it would be better for them to enter the Risc-V market

The demand isn't there for the RISC-V product. AMD is exploring this space[1][2] but they aren't bringing them to market because sufficient demand isn't there yet.

1. https://www.amd.com/en/products/software/adaptive-socs-and-f...

2. https://www.amd.com/en/products/software/adaptive-socs-and-f...