That is why tech giant Intel is working with chip developer Arm

The American chip giant Intel is taking another step towards becoming a contract manufacturer for other providers. Intel announced an agreement with British semiconductor developer Arm on Wednesday.

Intel boss Pat Gelsinger hopes to compete with major contract manufacturers such as Taiwan’s TSMC.

Microprocessors with ARM architectures can be found in almost all smartphones and tablets from a wide variety of manufacturers – and are now also increasingly used in computers, cars and data centers, for example.

Apple swerved

Intel continues to rely on its own chip architectures for its own processors, but also wants to establish itself as a contract manufacturer. The collaboration with ARM should make it possible to develop and produce chips based on ARM designs using Intel technologies.

Intel could at least participate in the company in this way. The group’s own attempts to put their processors in smartphones failed years ago as the hardware manufacturers favored the more economical arm chips.

Intel focuses on processors for personal computers and data centers. In the computer business, however, Apple has fallen out of the ranks of Intel customers and instead uses ARM-based chips developed in-house in its Macs.

In late 2020, the Apple M1 was the first Arm-based System-on-a-Chip (SoC) for Mac computers. The second generation (M2) has been installed in MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with 13-inch displays since mid-2022.

Apple also relies on its own chip developments, based on Arm design, for iPhones, iPads and other devices.

(sda/awp/dpa)