Compared with models running on x86 chips from Intel and AMD, though, Arm-based PCs have suffered from performance and software compatibility shortcomings.
The M1 chips offer not just good battery life, like Qualcomm's Arm chips in some Windows laptops, but also good performance.
"What we're starting to see now is real innovation going on in a market where there hasn't been a huge amount of innovation," Segars said in an interview during the CES 2021 technology conference.Part of that innovation comes from Arm itself, which is pouring new engineering resources into PC chip designs, he said.AMD's Ryzen 5000 series of laptop chips will offer up to 17.5 hours of general use on battery power, CEO Lis Su said Tuesday.
It's been difficult to crack into the PC ecosystem of component makers, software and PC makers, Segars acknowledged.Chipmakers can license Arm's full chip designs or just the instruction set that software uses to communicate with Arm chips, an approach that lets chipmakers design their own processors however they want.
"There are more people licensing our CPU implementation technology than there were a few years ago," Segars said.
Fujitsu designed its own supercomputing chips, and on Wednesday, Qualcomm announced it acquired startup Nuvia to breathe new life into its Arm chip designs.