“Besides Apple’s stock prices and Steve Jobs’ reputation for visionary entrepreneurship, something else is riding on the success or failure of the new iPad: The future of the semiconductor industry,” Lee Gomes reports for Forbes.
“The chip inside the new iPad is a microprocessor called the A4 that was designed in-house by Apple, most likely using the expertise it acquired via its 2008 acquisition of PA Semi, a Silicon Valley start-up. Selection of the A4 was described as a blow to both Intel and Qualcomm, since products from those companies were spurned in the process,” Gomes reports. “It certainly was that, but it also suggested that semiconductor technology has matured to the point where for many applications, the Intels of the world might not be necessary anymore.”
“It’s clear that this ‘democratization’ process is occurring right now in semiconductor design,” Gomes reports. “The iPad is a relatively high-end device, yet Apple believed it didn’t need to look outside its own walls for a CPU, and thus could forgo paying any form of ‘Intel tax.'”
Gomes reports, “Of course, Apple is a very big company and, especially for the sort of high-volume product it hopes the iPad to be, it can afford the sorts of up-front engineering expenses that would make smaller companies reel. But if it can afford to make an in-house chip good enough for the iPad in 2010, might it not also be able to make one good enough for the Macintosh in 2013? And if it can do so by then, why couldn’t Hewlett-Packard and Dell also?”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple is worth more than HP and Dell combined. HP (worth 4.5 times that of Dell) maybe, but a slim chance at best. Dell has no chance; Mikey’s just struggling to find a reason to keep the lights on.
I expected that the Apple vs. Intel angle was going to be worked a lot more than this. Is the tech media falling asleep or something? Could it possibly be that there’s not much of a story there? Nah…that was never a pre-requesite.
I had a question regarding the iPad that I cannot find an official answer to: Will the iPad’s Bluetooth capability be able to connect to my iMac’s wireless Keyboard, so that I don’t have to purchase the stand+keyboard and can just purchase the stand, or is the keyboard+stand option the only option that allows you to use a physical keyboard with the iPad?
It’s not so much about having the money. More about having the smarts. sorry, Apple wins.
no body really knows until it starts going out for Tech review writers to report on. I have had the same question because i have an extra wireless keyboard laying around.
My understanding is that, yes, the bluetooth keyboard will work with the iPad. I remember reading it somewhere but can’t find it now.
Thanks to all who replied to my Q. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one feeling under-informed about the full capabilities of this machine. It seems more and more that Apple intentionally didn’t disclose its full capabilities, so that we can rumor for the next two months, and that they get even more hype on launch day when they disclose MORE things the iPad can do (like printing, camera?). I hope I’m right.
Apple designed the A4 chip… but who is manufacturing it?
Apple did say that it was a mobile devices company, and the iPad is clearly a mobile device. I could see an A4 finding it’s way into their MacBook Pro line with the MacBook Air being the most logical first choice.
Would be interesting to see benchmarks on a jail-broken iPad running OS X. You know someone is going to figure out a way to do it.
iPad keyboard — see Q&A;#10 here:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/apple-ipad-top-21-reader-questions-answered/
Their own CPU is a start, now let’s see Apple start producing parts of it’s products in it’s own back yard. Every country has it’s minimum wage workforce that’s dying to have the chance to work and even though they are at the bottom of the pile they then at least have a reason for waking each day. So, do the right thing Apple and give some employment to your countrymen. Yours a disaffected uk mac buyer.
HP Yes, Lenovo Yes, Apple Yes for Dell and the rest the answer is not likely. Sony and even Microsoft for example would have no clue as to where to start in building a special purpose gaming chip sets. Microsoft is so bad at hardware concept and design that the xBox 360 being made today still suffer from the Red Ring of Death and the Zune HD’s suffer from overheating and the screens are experiencing image burn in problems a long with Blue color death in less then 18 months of use and complete Color death before the 24 month mark. OLED displays in portable devices according to the manufactures should be limited to short duration usages to prolong their life. The OLED displays the Blue color life is rated at just 5,000 hours, with Green color life rated at just 5,500 hours and Red color life at just 6,000 hours. OLED makers also warn device makers that screen burn in can be an issue as well with the only solution being to replace the screen once the burn-in occurs. Manufactures using small OLED screens have all been warned of the issues and have all dismissed them as not relevant.
Why Apple is about Quality and why OLED currently fails Apple’s Quality test. An OLED manufacture stated (in an interview with pacific trade news publication from AU) that Apple had looked and purchased some of their OLED panels for testing. Apple then rejected the Panels as not suitable. The reasons given were, screen burn in issues and short color life span of the panels. The manufacture was told by Apple that the OLED Panels need to retain their colors, brightness and contrast without burn in issues for no less then 50,000 hours (with is the current standard for LED LCD Panels).
So, for everyone hoping to see an OLED Panel is the Next iPhone I wouldn’t be holding my breath.
This is a much bigger story than the iPad itself. Think about where we’re going- computers are becoming more portable, and those are the new computers that most people buy. Apple has plainly stated that We’re Handling Mobile Processors, thanks, and they will continue to develop power-savvy chips that are optimized for the portable environment.
SUre, Intel might build the most heavy-duty desktop chip, and that chip might run the heart of an iMac for a while, but lift the screen off the iMac and an Apple chip takes over, and more efficiently runs the lower-power, touch-focused environment.
This is big.
Daniel Eran Dilger mentioned that it would a Bluetooth keyboard on one of his iPad articles. Not sure if he meant any, or just Apple’s.
I don’t see Apple turning it’s back on Intel anytime soon for laptops or desktops. They just recently finished migrating TO Intel chips, and all the pain that was involved. The ability to run Windows natively is also big selling point.
Handheld devices are a different story. Since the iPhone and iPad are so young, and they control the entire ecosystem, Apple has a lot more freedom in choosing chips. Having all that ‘spare’ cash sitting around doesn’t hurt either
@ MacArch
Pain? You mean the millions of people who started buying Mac because they had Intel chip?
I would LOVE to see Apple designing all of their CPUs again…
the wireless keyboard is supported. Apple’s design page specifies that it is.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/design/
Actually, in semi-conductor unit terms Apple is a very small company. Because of this Apple cannot get chips designed with the features or capabilities that they need by the large Fabs like Intel and Qualcomm. This is exactly what happened with Power PC.
Apple is doing it’s own design out of necessity.
The main thing to remember here is Apple will most likely NOT be selling their chips to other device makers. The chips from Intel, AMD, ARM, IBM, etc are pretty much available to any OEM. I see Apple sticking with Intel till OS XI is introduced (in 5 years or so). By that time the need for Intel chips to run Windows will have lessened due to fewer users needing backwards compatibility with their old windows ecosystem (Autocad etc). OS XI will most likely be a convergence of “iOS” and OS X and right sized for an A4-“A5” style chip. Keep in mind Intel and AMD make hella good desktop/laptop chips so only time will tell.
In my 25 years or so in computer support, I’ve watched lots of alternatives to the Intel CPU emerge and disappear: the Zilog, Motorola’s 68x, IBM’s PowerPC, Dec’s Alpha, HP’s PA-RISC. All fell by the wayside and we’re left Intel and AMD, plus a few SOC manufacturers like nVidia.
Unlike Dell (uh, how many patents are *they* holding?), Apple has lots of system experience – including working on chips with Motorola and IBM – and the resources to buy whatever expertise it needs.
“Apple is doing it’s own design out of necessity.”
It is only necessary from the view that they want to offer products with features their competitors can’t. That is impossible if Apple used the same chipsets.
I don’t see Dell or HP or any PC manufacturer finding significant value in designing their own chips. Part of what makes the thing work for Apple is that the OS designers and chip designers are under the same roof (so to speak) and the chip can (and OS) can be optimized to play particularly well with each other. Apple even has said as much. Unless Dell or HP are going to write their own OS then I don’t seem them getting the same value from designing their own chip as Apple does.
@Raymond in DC
If you’re talking about Desktop Chips, yes. But in mobile and embedded systems, Intel is the new kid trying to get on the block. ARM rules the roost for the mobiles, and PowerPC is the architecture for the embeddeds.
Intel just isn’t very good in these areas. So it’s really a non story.
Apple provided only a (likely small) part of the IP of the design on the A4 – chiefly to do with energy conservation and possibly to customise the design in proprietary ways. It is essentially a hybrid of ARM CPU and a GPU in SoC.
That said, it is good to see Apple moving to distancing themselves from competitors in this way.
Also a very poorly written article.