Arm, the world's largest semiconductor intellectual property (IP) company, is expanding its collaboration with Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) to improve AI chip system efficiency. As memory has emerged as a key factor determining performance across various computing markets, the company is focusing on memory optimization in system design.
Will Abbey, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Arm, told The Seoul Economic Daily at the HumanX AI Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, "We started thinking about memory optimization due to soaring memory prices."
Arm is an IP company that provides architecture—guidelines that define how chips such as central processing units (CPUs) operate—to fabless semiconductor design companies in exchange for licensing fees. The company dominates the mobile chip system market, with 99% of smartphone processors following Arm architecture. It also provides automotive chip IP to automakers for autonomous vehicles.
While Arm previously sold IP only for core components such as CPUs, it introduced Compute Subsystems (CSS) two years ago to supply solutions across the entire chip ecosystem. When Arm provides CSS combining optimal elements including CPUs and memory controllers, customers can design based on these subsystems, saving time and costs.
When asked about solutions to the recent memory shortage, Abbey emphasized, "We will continue to collaborate with Korea, home to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, from the R&D stage to optimize memory and find ways to utilize it effectively. This issue will become even more important due to the various challenges facing the memory industry."
Arm unveiled its first in-house chip, the "Arm AGI CPU" for AI data centers, last month, and also expressed willingness to work with Samsung Foundry. "We decided to produce our in-house chip at Taiwan's TSMC, but this is for initial customer testing," Abbey said. "The market is wide, and Samsung also has a capable foundry. We will continue to seek other foundries beyond TSMC."