Qualcomm's Oryon CPU cores, powering the Snapdragon X processors, are based on the Armv8 instruction set architecture (ISA), but according to Gerard Williams III, a lead developer, they utilize "one percent or less" of Arm's original technology. This suggests the cores are almost entirely custom-built.
Nuvia and the Origins of Oryon
Qualcomm's Oryon cores originated from Nuvia, a company co-founded by Gerard Williams III in 2019. Nuvia originally aimed to design high-performance, energy-efficient CPU cores (codenamed Phoenix) for datacenters. The company acquired both a Technology License Agreement (TLA) and an Architecture License Agreement (ALA) from Arm.
While the TLA permitted the reworking of existing cores, Nuvia's primary objective was always custom core development. The Nuvia team designed their microarchitecture from scratch, minimizing their reliance on Arm's proprietary circuit blocks and other IP beyond the instruction set architecture itself. This resulted in the creation of custom pipelines, execution units, and cache systems.
Legal Dispute with Arm
Qualcomm acquired Nuvia in 2021 for $1.4 billion. Arm subsequently requested a renegotiation of licensing terms, which Qualcomm refused, asserting that their existing ALA covered Nuvia. Arm then claimed Qualcomm breached its licensing agreement and demanded the destruction of all pre-merger Nuvia designs. In 2022, Arm revoked Nuvia's licenses and later terminated Qualcomm's Architecture License Agreement (ALA) in October.
The current legal dispute centers around whether Nuvia’s architecture license and custom designs could be transferred to Qualcomm after the acquisition. Arm claims the licensing agreement defines all Nuvia’s work as ‘derivatives’ of Arm’s TLA, while Qualcomm emphasizes Nuvia’s innovations and limited use of Arm IP.
