“Apple has long attracted some of the biggest, brightest silicon talent in the industry. So, if accurate, this comes as no surprise: ‘Apple has a secret in Washington County. They’ve hired close to two-dozen people in a hardware engineering lab there, raiding Intel and other Oregon tech employers for a variety of roles, according to job postings, social media profiles and an individual familiar with Apple’s recruiting efforts,'” Rene Ritchie writes for iMore. “Simply put, for the reasons elaborated on below, from the best up-and-comers to legends in the field, the environment Apple offers is compelling. Probably especially so now that Intel is hurting post 14-nanometer.”
“In 2010, Apple launched the iPad with A4, the companies first in-house system-on-a-chip (SoC). In 2012, Apple shifted from licensing the ARM design to licensing the ARM instruction set, making A6 the first Apple designed SoC,” Ritchie writes. “In 2013, the Apple A7 was the first 64-bit mobile processor. It caught everyone from Qualcomm to Samsung not just flat footed but flabbergasted and, in many ways, they’re still struggling to catch up.”
“In 2016, Apple A10 Fusion still mopped the floor with both the Samsung Exynos 8895 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 found in the Galaxy S8 when it came to single-threaded operations,” Ritchie writes. “Apple had obviously seen the value in over-delivering on single threaded operations and it shows. For things like interface and interactions, that’s often the bottleneck. No matter how fast modern chipsets can swap, if the experience feels slow then the phone feels slow. In other words, it’s really no mystery why iPhone scrolls better and feels more responsive than anything else on the market — monstrous single-threaded processing enables it to.”
“Apple’s platform technologies team doesn’t have to worry about being hobbled or constrained in any way — all they have to do is run iOS and iOS apps faster than anything else on the planet. That’s their only customer,” Ritchie writes. “It makes for an incredibly appealing work environment for legends of the industry and the best and brightest new minds, a startling number of whom have now found a home at Apple. It’s a dream job that doesn’t just let them dream but actively encourages them make those dreams into a reality.”
Much more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we just wrote:
Imagine, after being stuck toiling on x86 for umpteen years, finally being able to work on something powerful, modern, and efficient. That sentiment goes for the former Intel employees nearly as much as for portable Mac users.
SEE ALSO:
Apple poaches Intel employees for secret Oregon engineering lab – May 31, 2018
How Apple might approach an ARM-based Mac – May 30, 2018
Pegatron said to assemble Apple’s upcoming ‘ARM-based MacBook’ codenamed ‘Star’ – May 29, 2018
Intel 10nm Cannon Lake delays push MacBook Pro with potential 32GB RAM into 2019 – April 27, 2018
Why the next Mac processor transition won’t be like the last two – April 4, 2018
Apple’s ‘Kalamata’ project will move Macs from Intel to Apple A-series processors – April 2, 2018
Apple plans on dumping Intel for its own chips in Macs as early as 2020 – April 2, 2018
Apple is working to unite iOS and macOS; will they standardize their chip platform next? – December 21, 2017
Why Apple would want to unify iOS and Mac apps in 2018 – December 20, 2017
Apple to provide tool for developers build cross-platform apps that run on iOS and macOS in 2018 – December 20, 2017
The once and future OS for Apple – December 8, 2017
Apple ships more microprocessors than Intel – October 2, 2017
Apple embarrasses Intel – June 14, 2017
Apple developing new chip for Macintosh in test of Intel independence – February 1, 2017
Apple’s A10 Fusion chip ‘blows away the competition,’ could easily power MacBook Air – Linley Group – October 21, 2016