Huawei announces global agreement to licence ARMv8 architecture

Huawei has signed an agreement with ARM to license the ARMv8 architecture.

Under the agreement, Huawei can use the ARMv8 architecture to design its own microprocessor cores. This in turn allows Huawei to develop products with improved application focus, greater computing density and increased levels of power efficiency. This agreement significantly strengthens the nine year partnership between Huawei and ARM which started in 2004, and which included the announcement of Huawei as a lead partner for the ARMv8 architecture-based Cortex™-A57 processor late last year.

The value of the agreement has not been disclosed, but Huawei’s investment in the ARM ecosystem since 2004 runs to hundreds of millions of US dollars.

ARM is already a major partner of Huawei. Processors designed and built by ARM are currently used in a wide array of Huawei products across the company’s portfolio of cloud, pipe and device solutions.

“ARM has a long and successful relationship with Huawei,” said Tom Cronk, executive vice president and general manager, Processor Division, ARM. “Working with a company of Huawei’s scale presents an excellent opportunity as it is a market leader in networking and the cloud, areas in which ARM-based technology is experiencing rapid growth. The market deserves energy-efficient networking systems and is poised for transformation as data levels continue to grow and enrich many consumers’ lives.”

Announcing the agreement, Madam Chen Lifang, Huawei Board Member and Senior Vice President said: “This partnership underlines our continued investment in the UK economy, reinforces our place in the global interconnected ICT supply chain and illustrates the fact that our primary objective is always to deliver the very best service and solutions to our customers. Innovative technology companies such as ARM are vital for any economy. Huawei’s continued partnership with ARM is a key element in our ongoing commitment to the UK. We will continue to collaborate with ARM to ensure Huawei remains at the cutting edge, offering ever more innovative products to consumers in the UK and throughout the world.”

ARM is headquartered in the UK with offices in some 36 countries worldwide. It has a rich history of innovation dating back to the earliest days of mobile computing. Low-power, high-performance ARM-based chips have a stronghold in the mobile and smartphone markets and are now being adopted in the enterprise, data centre and cloud sectors.

Huawei is committed to respecting the intellectual property rights of other organizations. As well as developing its own technology, the company complies with international IPR regulations and where it uses another organization’s proprietary technology, it does so through the licensing of patents. Globally in 2012 Huawei paid out over USD$300 million in patent royalties to industry peers.