Intel Gets Chip Order from Apple, Its First Major Mobile Win
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Still interesting, but not as much as Intel fabbing the A10 would have been.
These guys basically print money through licensing. It's a dream revenue model imo.
ARM: "Hey Apple, let's talk about what you're buying next year!"
Mr. Apple: "Well, I've been talking to Intel and actually just bought some of their spiffing chips, how much did you want again? Because, you know, Intel said they were totally in to that thing you said no to..."
This is not something INTC has every historically been keen to do, and it doesn't appear that's what going on in this instance either.
Intel gave up the ARM business. They have the best fabs in the world and could dominate the business... but not without cannibalizing the x86 business.
The problem is, Chromebooks running ARM are starting to be competitive with x86 ( http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-its-time-to-take-googles-pc-... ).
And now that ARM 64 is in widespread use, it can address lots of RAM, and servers could be on the horizon.
ARM devices are going to keep replacing x86 devices, ARM is going to keep moving up into higher-end devices, and the impact on Intel is going to worsen.
At some point Intel might throw in the towel and start supplying ARM chips, but at that point they will just be another (very good) fab, not an x86 monopolist.
ALMOST true, but not entirely true.
The Asus Zenphone 2 shipped with an Intel Atom SoC and was actually a pretty decent mid-range smartphone.
Doesn't Apple have an ARM architecture license, freeing it of having to "license the IP" now?
Further, ARM was founded as a joint venture between Apple, VLSI Technology, and Acorn Computers. Their history goes back to the day the company was created. (ARM chips powered Apple Newton.)
Apple doesn't make chips or anything else imo. They outsource it. Just to be accurate.
You'd think Apple could put out just one model when the 1x networks go away.
Just used the eye dropper and deleted the fullscreen container and good to go.
I hope it's not something that the users (and I) will have to worry, if "Intel is inside." That is, I hope that the difference won't be observable in "normal use."
Intel and Apple probably signed this contract quite a while ago, though, maybe at least 18 months ago. If Intel wouldn't have gotten this, it would've probably shut down the entire mobile operation, including the modem division (it would've probably sold it off).
In reality, Intel is killing Atom, because Skylake has more or less spec'd it out of existence. Atom was an attempt to do x86 with a low power, smartphone/tablet budget, and it sacrificed a lot of performance in order to fit into that budget. The result is a 2.5w Airmont chip.
Intel have also been focusing on low power with their Sandybridge/Haswell/Skylake Core line. And the result is a 3.5w Skylake chip, that has over twice the performance of the Airmont chip. 3.5w is still a little large for a phone but it's small enough for a tablet. In the next generation or two, intel will shrink the Core architecture down to something which fits in the 2.5w power budget for a smartphone.
Basically, Intel are killing Atom because it's no longer better than Core in any way. They will regroup and launch new SoCs in the future.
Of course, uBlockOrigin's "block element" makes short work of this.