Friends with benefits
Talking to Brown at the event (pictured below), it was clear that ARM is delighted that TSMC and the rest are facing an increased level of competition.
ARM's revenues are split roughly down the middle between the up-front license payments it receives for its IP and the incremental royalties it is paid every time a product containing that IP is sold. So ARM has an unquestioned vested interest in the proliferation and success of its ecosystem, which is why it tries to be as pro-active as possible in supporting it.
Any problems in making SoCs will directly impact ARM's bottom line, so it not only wants to facilitate this process, it also wants to ensure security of supply.
On top of this, the other looming threat to ARM's ecosystem is Intel and its projected move into the SoC market. It would be foolish to underestimate the potential threat posed by the world's biggest chip maker and that applies to those companies it partners with to achieve this aim.
So when Intel announced earlier this year that it was going to to partner with TSMC to create SoC implementations of its Atom low-power processor, it must have made ARM feel closer than ever to this new alternative with the rich Middle Eastern backers.
While Brown's presence at this event was ostensibly to present ARM's interest to the assembled journalists, it was clear he was on a fact-finding mission of his own. ARM obviously likes the concept of GlobalFoundries but, as with any courtship, they have to spend some quality time together before they can decide to fully commit.
