ARM domain purchase leaks pivot to RISC-V - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 12:20:43 am
content: Found on HN:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35405463http://arm2riscv.com/

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 12:31:28 am
content: Either they are pivoting towards RISC-V or (imo) much more likely it's a Microsoft-style FUD campaign ("Linux - Get the Facts Straight" and other examples) against RISC-V listing all the reasons you shouldn't jump ship towards RISC-V. I think Arm are very worried about RISC-V as it's very possible that a free-as-in-freedom architecture could be competitive. It would only take a big OEM, like Samsung or Apple, announcing they were ditching ARM for RISC-V to really rock the boat. Conversely, it would be a fairly open move for Arm to get involved with RISC-V, though probably welcome.I'm also seeing a few job ads in my area for companies looking for ASIC/HDL/verification engineers to develop alternatives to Mali GPUs that interoperate with RISC-V. That could be an interesting area to watch. Specifically, I think this could relate tothis story, where Arm has said that they will not allow alternatives to Mali to be used within ARM devices. IMO, that kind of behaviour is just suicide from a business perspective, for a company that has previously depended upon a very open ecosystem to support them. It's crazy to think how much damage SoftBank may have done to a British engineering institution within a decade. There is speculation that SoftBank's CEO is extremely bitter over the Nvidia takeover deal being canned by the UK government, as it may have given them a way out of the mess they got into in the first place over Arm (it could be argued they paid too much for the company).

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 12:53:15 am
content: So, the whole evidence is that they have the same registrar? Sounds pretty weak.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 12:58:33 am
content: Some may remember ARM's "riscv-basics.com" site in July 2018. It was taken down two days later, and they've even removed it from the Internet Archive, but something has been preserved:https://github.com/arm-facts/arm-basics.com/blob/master/index.mdhttps://raw.githubusercontent.com/arm-facts/arm-basics.com/master/assets/img/riscv-basics.com-screenshot.jpgAt that time the only RISC-V hardware you could buy was SiFive's Arduino-like HiFive1 and their brand new a couple of months earlier $999 HiFive Unleashed quad core 1.5 GHz Linux board.The Kendryte K210 wasn't announced yet. The Gigadevice GD32VF103 wasn't announced yet.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 01:03:45 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on April 02, 2023, 12:53:15 amEverything in the registration is redacted so it's kind of hard to know. Except "Organization: ARM Limited", which I guess anyone could put.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 01:20:09 am
content: And the original arm.com has even that hidden. So, there is that difference.It is also interesting that they can selectively hide some fields. All registrars I used only had an all-or-nothing privacy setting.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 02:17:00 am
content: Should be pretty fun if that happened.But the more fun will be when Microsoft buys Canonical.

author: indolering
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 02:36:01 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on April 02, 2023, 01:20:09 amThere seems to be adomain name transferto that registry shortly after thearm2riscv projectwent up on Github....Does anyone know of other ARM domain purchases that redirect to arm.com? That's the DNS info I want to see....

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 03:36:17 am
content: I'm pretty sure that the project and the domain are not related to each other. The project just seems to be some one-off research thing with very little activity past the release..

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 04:28:06 am
content: It has been pointed out in another forum that in fact ARM *does* own the domain. No question about it at all. They were awarded it in a WIPO trademark claim.https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/case.jsp?case=D2022-1116

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2023, 05:00:28 am
content: So, the transfer happened because they won the claim. They did not actively register it or want it. So, nothing to see here. I bet they own a ton of random domains like that.

author: indolering
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 03, 2023, 08:27:48 pm
content: This was an April Fools joke, but arm2riscv.com actually being owed by ARM and redirecting to their domain is a pretty good self-own in my book : )

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 03, 2023, 10:16:38 pm
content: Quote from: indolering on April 03, 2023, 08:27:48 pmWhile a joke, they should probably reflect on what happened to MIPS before getting too joyful.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 03, 2023, 10:32:09 pm
content: Quote from: indolering on April 03, 2023, 08:27:48 pmOwning it, either preemptively or getting it in a trademark dispute as we have learned, sure. But then simply pointing it to the Arm home page without its own landing page with some short explanation?