“One of Intel’s top technologists revealed Monday that the chip giant will not win a spot on Apple’s iconic iPhone anytime soon, even as he outlined Intel’s plans to keep growing as it turns 40 on July 18,” Brian Caulfield reports for Forbes.
“‘Apple chose not to take that road map at their next generation of platform,’ said Patrick Gelsinger, general manager of Intel’s digital enterprise group, referring to Intel’s plans to churn out smaller versions of the so-called x86 processors that power most of the world’s PCs and servers. ‘That was disappointing,'” Caulfield reports. “Despite the setback, Intel has a plan to use its long history inside desktop computers to its advantage, even as the action shifts from the PC to wireless gizmos like Apple’s iPhone…”
Caulfield reports, “Apple appears to be going it alone for now, buying chip designer P.A. Semi for $278 million in cash earlier this year to help it design the processors that will power its next generation of phones and digital media devices.”
Caulfield reports, “Intel’s PC processors may own the desktop. But the semiconductor giant’s x86, or Intel Architecture design, is far from the most ubiquitous. Booming demand for mobile phones has made variations on U.K.-based ARM Holdings’ design far more ubiquitous.”
More in the full article here.
Maybe next time…
Brian Caulfield, lay off the ubiquitous use of the word ubiquitous and invest in a thesaurus.
I wonder what Apple dislikes about Atom?
Atom wasn’t ready in time. Apple must have selected the processor well over two years ago. When did we first hear of this Atom?
@Famous Grouse:
Apple didn’t take Atom because:
a) They thought they could do better with PA Semi
b) they didn’t want to be beholden to a 3rd party for the crown jewels. This way instead of buying chips, they make them themselves, control the process, can iterate faster, and likely increase their profit (in the long run).
Sorry – meant to address R2 in that last post…
Intel’s processors still take too much power for the performance they give. ARM processors are much more efficient. Intel is improving there, but ARM is too.
“make the whole widget”
Brian Caulfield, lay off the ubiquitous use of the word ubiquitous and invest in a thesaurus.
If Mr. Caufield was a Mac user, he would have a thesaurus in his computer. It’s part of Dictionary.app.
It is very easy to use.
Atom is a power hog in comparison to ARM
@R2,
“I wonder what Apple dislikes about Atom?”
Maybe they are too elementary?
does anybody remember apple’s investing history in ARM? do they still own stock or did they sell all of them. i remember one year selling shares of ARM was a substantial part of revenue in one quarter. maybe 2001/2002.
Another thing for Arm and the PA Semi purchase, they can lock the OS to a custom designed chip, instead of leaving the possability open for someone to copy the iPhone hardware (at the chip/board level at least) and just grab the iPhone software as they will. And maybe Intel can still get in on it by being the manufacturer of the chips that Apple designs.
I believe they sold all of their holding in ARM which raises a few questions that would be interesting to answer. Did Apple not see the scope of at least part owning a chip designer then, did they not visualise the scope of such chips in their plans at that time or did they simply not see it as the right investment for such chips for the plans they did had. Obviously they didn’t need the money.
Power consumption is critical for mobile devices, so Apple has to choose a chip which can do the work but be skimpy on power use. Intel chips have never been low on power consumption, and while they’re improving, they’re obviously not ready for the iPhone yet.
Apple must not believe that Intel will have a chip ready in the near future either, or it wouldn’t have purchased PA Semi. There may be other advantages for Apple to controlling the entire chip process, but Apple wouldn’t have bought the company if it felt Intel was close to something of its own.
Apple wants to be the only “buyer” who can acquire the chips powering future iPhones, because it owns company that will design those specialized chips.
Apple has always angled for a way to build products that no one else can build. Macs are the only (mostly) computers that can run Mac OS X. iPods are the only music players that have iTunes. Apple competes best by cleverly avoiding direct competition.
iPhone is currently the only smart phone with the incredible touch interface, and the competition can’t match its software. But they may catch up eventually. So that’s when Apple will begin to differentiate the iPhone based on hardware that no one else can match, using chips designed just for the iPhone.
And if that plan does not work, it will do what it did for the Mac and buy from Intel (or whoever is the leading supplier). It’s possible that Apple will maintain the software edge and not need specialized hardware components.
@ MacMan
agreed. in most reference books in universities today, Apple is considered the most innovative company. It is also said that it controls most parts of the supply chain, which is why Apple is so successful.
Apple can use what ever processor it wants in its portable devices as long as the OS relies on some custom ICs from PA Semi. It does not have to design its own processors.
x86 Processors suck