UK semiconductor design giant Arm says its cutting-edge new chip architecture isn’t subject to US export restrictions, and therefore could be licensed to Chinese firms on Washington’s trade blacklists such as Huawei, reported Caixin.
Ian Smythe, Arm vice president of marketing and sales, told the media at a Wednesday launch event that the v9 architecture would not be subject to Export Administration Restrictions (EAR), even though they do contain some US intellectual property. Smythe said that proportion was under 25%.
He said that the company had communicated this to US authorities and that Arm continues “to comply with US Commerce Department guidelines, respective to Huawei and its affiliate HiSilicon.”
The v9 architecture will find its first commercial application as the basis for smartphone chips developed by Taiwan chip-designer MediaTek. These are expected to be available by the end of this year, the company said.