Arm Holdings has decided to terminate its architecture license agreement (ALA) with Qualcomm as part of its legal battle against Qualcomm that began two years ago, reports Bloomberg. The cancellation could have a substantial impact on Qualcomm's business, particularly in its emerging business of processors for laptop PCs.
Arm has given Qualcomm a 60-day notice of cancellation for its architectural license, which allows Qualcomm to build custom chips based on Arm's ISA. If Qualcomm fails to resolve the issue, Arm will demand it halts sales of numerous products, including processors for client PCs. While all of the company's processors for PCs and smartphones rely on the Arm instruction set architecture (ISA), many of them rely on Arm's off-the-shelf technologies that are licensed on different terms than the ISA. These products, represent a significant portion of its $39 billion in revenue.
