Slashdot Mirror
Intel To Build Next Gen Processor For iOS Devices
BogenDorpher writes "It looks like Apple will be using Intel as a main processor manufacturer to power the iPad, iPod touch, and the iPhone. Apple, who currently uses Samsung, will focus on making a switch to Intel within a year."
Apple hasn't been happy with Samsung launching android phones, and this is how they're showing their displeasure.
I wonder if they has anything to do with the Samsung and Apply suing each other
How long before they sue Intel?
I'm not sure if it's a good idea... Intel doesn't seem to be very good with battery (duh!).
And it seems like the only article is a Windows/MS obsessed site? Doesn't seem reliable to me...
This seems to be an ongoing pattern for them...
I thought Intel only did x86/64 and Samsung didn't do either. Is this another PowerPC->Intel type move from Apple or am I missing something (quite likely)?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
And patent war gains heavier weapons...
Either: 1. Intel is going to build a non-x86 cpu with their fab -- highly unlikely. or 2. Apple is going to lose a tremendous amount of battery life -- highly unlikely. Maybe several generations down the line we'll see a x86 chip with acceptable power characteristics for a cell phone or tablet, but not next year.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Article was thoroughly slashdotted, but this sounds like complete BS to me. Is apple going to ditch their A[insert number] architecture? is intel going to manufacture and ARM chip for them? this makes no sense.
Doesn't Apple own PA Semiconductor? Why don't they use them?
I've never understood Apple's approach with the iPhone and iPad. They could use PA semi to fab very efficient SOC PPC chipsets, port iOS to PPC and be able to run piles of native PPC programs on these devices.
Intel makes more than one kind of CPU. The site appears slashdotted, but I very seriously doubt is will be based upon the x86 series of processors. Plus it could be that Apple is going to use Intel fabrication facilities to make the A6 chip (or whatever it's called). They eat too many amp-hours.
This is a boring sig
Maybe the i* will get Intel's on chip graphic card included in the deal. That could be a killer feature.
Meanwhile MS has just started chasing ARM.
And by "just started" you mean they've had versions of Windows on ARM for going on near 15 years?
More likely iServer on an ARM.
Considering Apple has recently gone on a company buying spree to bring low power ARM design people and IP in house, put considerable effort into building a software infrastructure on ARM, and that despite their best efforts Intel hasn't been able to demonstrate an x86 processor that matches modern ARMs in consumer electronics power consumption, does this make any sense?
OR is some blog nobody has heard of trying to drive traffic and/or pump Intel's stock?
Its likely Intel would be a contract manufacturer in this case, just manufacturing Apple's custom designed processor. Not something Intel would usually embrace, but with their current impotence in the mobile market, it may be the best they can hope for. They keep Apple close and get back in the ARM game (indirectly). Apple gets world class fabs from someone who isn't directly competing with them at retail.
When Apple switched to Intel chips a few years back, I remembered all the venom spewed toward Intel by all my Apple-obsessed friends over the previous 20 years.
Now they cherish their Intel chips. But they still bash MS. Why, I got an Outlook e-mail from one of my Apple friends just yesterday, sending me a Powerpoint presentation he had made on his Mac, with a funny joke about how lame MS is.
I had no problem opening it in OpenOffice on my AMD-powered CentOS box.
I wonder if they has anything to do with the Samsung and Apply suing each other
Yes, but it's not a vindictive type of thing - it's strategy. "Well Samsung, you have a bit more to lose if you stay on your present course." The law is only one prong of corporate battle - a very slow and costly one. One of my favorite stories from business history is about Cornelius Vanderbilt who was screwed over by (fellow?) Robber Barons. To paraphrase: "The legal system works too slow. I'll ruin you both." And he did just that in less time law suits would have taken.
Don't be surprised if a couple of years from now, Apple signs a deal with Samsung for something.
You can't get where Apple is by being vindictive and petty - contrary to the public rumors about Jobs.
There's a reason why the "Art of War" is so popular among the business types.
Samsung is a vast conglomerate of many businesses in many sectors. The people who make the phones so not share a cafeteria with the people who make the processors, and more importantly the people who make the phones don't always buy their processors from Samsung.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
...Apptel? Inpple?
Yes, running an iServer on your ARM would most likely bring it down fast due to the weight of the server.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If Apple's iDevices runs on Intel processors, what could stop Apple to unify their OSes into a single, "one OS fits all" model? Input methods may be different, but the base OS is the same -- as they are moving with Lion, front-end is looking very similar to iOS. In the end, there will be a good move, as 3rd party devs could also benefit: Same code running on a portable, on a tablet, on notebooks and desktop, with the portable device being an "extension" to the desk/notebook. This is really getting interesting.
It appears from casual googling, that Intel could make the A5 using a smaller process size than the current ARM manufacturers are able to produce.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
just an observation, founded in the truth. good thing we still have the right to remain silent, as almost anything at all that we say, or do, could well be held against us, for eternity, which is what the time seems like when one is being killed slowly by disabling unnatural attacks on the body, mind & spirits of each & every one, excepting many of the babys, so far... the 'atmosphere' of at most fear, is almost here..
what a great time to proceed post haste with the already occurring disarmaments world wide, to avoid that sore thumb appearance we've thoughtlessly acquired. honestly.
Intel is almost a generation ahead of everyone else in process technology. Apple will be able to roll out faster, bester, lower-power chips faster than competitors who all use TSMC. Also Apple can have more faith that their IP won't be stolen, their designs will stay in the USA rather than going to Korea / Taiwan.
Also good news for America. Apple A7... made AND designed in the USA!
just announced that they are also switching to Intel to manufacture their SOC.
early 2012 Intel is going to release 22nm CPU's. Almost every ARM SoC is 45nm. the power and performance improvements are huge. i bet Intel will just fab the A6 CPU instead of Samsung.
or maybe there is a secret Atom 22nm CPU coming soon that will be a lot more power efficient
yup, on samsung made processors... NT-4 for ARM maybe?
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
They are not switching to Intel processors. They are letting Intel build their processors. Big difference.
They will just probably use Intel's advanced 22nm technology to build processors based on ARM architecture. Something they might also design themselves.
Much like GlobalFoundries is not AMD, they just manufacture AMD products.
Who ever posted the story left out the "?" from the original submitter which changes the entire context of the article. The article itself is a speculation based on what Intel is rumored to want to do. There is not a confirmation that they are going to fab Apple's iOS chips.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Maybe they are planning to switch to Windows like Nokia did?
Intel used to do ARM (the StrongARM, which was sold to Marvell).
Once upon a time, Stevee Jobss was the CEO of Applee and the biggest individual shareholder of Disneyy after it had bought Pixarr. And then Disneyy bought Marvell.
But seriously, the article is down (white screen) as I write this, so I can't see whether Marvell Technology is involved in this deal. But it would be interesting to see Marvell and Marvel strike a product placement to get StrongARM processors controlling the armor that powers Tony "Iron Man" Stark's strong arms.
Ugh. Where to start?
Here's just the tip of the iceberg:
1. rectangular electronic devices with/without rounded corners
2, icons: either in rows & columns or all over the place
3. cell phones
4. devices with touch screens
5. multi-touch
6. pinch to zoom
and perhaps the biggest:
7. thinking they invented everything
Engadget has an interesting article that covers some of this: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/apple-vs-palm-the-in-depth-analysis/
And one other interesting article: http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html
The buzzword for the transition half a decade ago was "Macintel".
for fans of Android! I kid, I kid. Seriously though, did Intel get good at power efficiency while I was gone? I seem to remember the xScale being one heck of a power hog, and ARMS kicking their rears pretty badly...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
After taking a massive dump onto their supply chain (Samsung), Apple has declared that Intel is their new chip maker of choice.
Spin. Spin. Spin. Go the revisionist Apple PR people. Spin. Spin. Spin.
They will not even "build" their processors . fabricating a processor is very akin to printing a newspaper, only more difficult, Intel will have no hand in writing the articles, just putting the already assembled design onto Silicon, with the added juice of some larson creek goodness straight onto the substrate. You heard it here First.
I have heard from a few Intel employees that Intel will continue picking up more manufacturing contracts. The company's current line of chips are at best on architecturally on par with everyone else, but most likely they are lagging. Intel has been taking lack luster architecture for years and through improved manufacturing processes they have been able to increase the performance of their chips.
Taking contracts like this to produce the Apple Ax series of processors keeps Intel at volume and further reduce the price to manufacture iOS devices. This should make it even harder for other vendors to make cost comparable iDevices.
Looking back, This probably didn't help the relationship....or was a sign it was over.
Some blog nobody has heard of trying to drive traffic and/or pump Intel's stock?
OR you didn't RTFA.
Yeah, it's the second one.
Which is just terrible compared with ARM. Ultra complex ISA compared to ARM. No low power features (such as true predication). etc,etc... It will never happens (if you take into account that Apple just bought PSemi)
It has major advantages, (1) it's all round, not just the corners and (2) it's not rectangular so apple can't sue.
as a developer; it is going to be a royal pain in the rear to recompile our apps to support another processor architecture; unless of course they go down the emulation route; but using x86 and emulating ARM is going to require a lot of processing power. if intel was to build ARM chips; sure - but typically we associated x86 with intel. apple has experience with this with the transition from PPC to x86 for the mac osx environment; i am sure they'll keep that in mind for iOS developers as well. i would only see recompilation as feasible - emulating ARM wouldn't make sense.
What better way is there to learn about a competing processor (i.e., A5) than to make it for them?
Er Didn't Apple buy a chip manufacturer so they could design their own chips? Who makes the A4 and A5 chips? I don't think it's Samsung...
or else!
You should read articles you cite and link to. From the very link you give:
In reality the data shown in the graphic are incorrect
In fact, the iPhone was first shown before the Samsung F700 was first shown, and the iPhone was released before the F700 was released.
IOW, the Samsung F700 was a copy of the original iPhone, and the dates on the graphic from the link you give are a lie.
Check your facts before making such accusations.
You should read articles you cite and link to. From the very link you give:
In reality the data shown in the graphic are incorrect
In fact, the iPhone was first shown before the Samsung F700 was first shown, and the iPhone was released before the F700 was released.
IOW, the Samsung F700 was a copy of the original iPhone, and the dates on the graphic from the link you give are a lie.
Check your facts before making such accusations.
I wouldn't say that's evidence of anybody copying anybody. Unless there's a substantial amount of time between when designs were made public, there's no reason to conclude that somebody copied the other. Certainly, the 1 month difference between when the two were shown is clear evidence nobody "stole" anything, but rather independently came up with their own designs. There's only so many ways you can design a touchscreen mobile phone. It was bound to happen.
If you aren't suspicious of your government's actions, you aren't doing your job as a responsible citizen.
Can someone point out where it says that Apple is abandoning its ARM-based architecture and going x86?
...yeah, didn't think so.
Go to the original EE times article. Read it. There is no claim that Apple is dumping ARM or its own SOC design in favor of x86. Apple is simply changing foundries because they don't trust Samsung any more. Intel is just as capable of making A5s, etc. as Samsung. Apple will continue to design its own SOC; they're just using someone else's fabs.
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
Spoken like someone without a clue. There is fundamentally absolutely nothing in x86 that would cause it to consume more power than ARM.
One something: the instruction decoder in x86 is more complex. Another: The overhead of supporting byte-aligned instructions and data access.
There are many more somethings, but I only needed one to prove you wrong (and that between you two, mellon is not the clueless one).
Nothing in this article has anyone on record from either Intel, Apple (or anyone in between). Link bait and not deserving anyone's time.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Intel spends massive amounts on fab R&D and as a result are usually a node (generation) ahead of everyone else. Intel has had 32nm online and working for quite some time now. All Sandy Bridge chips are 32nm, many gen 1 Core i series laptops are 32nm, and so on.
Other fabs are catching up, GF will probably have 32nm chips coming out fairly soon for AMD, but Intel has been doing it for a long time, has scaled things up and has it working well. Also they are already building their 22nm fabs.
Only time Intel got outdone to an extent was with some companies doing a 40nm half-node. TSMC scaled down the 45nm process to 40nm and it is what all the GPU makers use now. Fine but it was fraught with problems and took a long time to get it working right and producing in volume. By that time Intel had 32nm parts on the market.
Same thing may happen again, a number of companies like TSMC are looking at skipping 32nm and going for a 28nm half node, based on 32nm scaled down. If they get that producing this year as they think they can, then they'll temporarily be ahead of Intel until Intel brings 22nm online.
However over all, Intel is always ahead on this shit. They spend a lot of money to stay that way.
i wonder if this means iOS will be modified for the x86 architecture...
And by "just started" you mean they've had versions of Windows on ARM for going on near 15 years?
Yeah, I know, right? I was just about to fire photoshop up on my HD2 running Windows Mobile and edit some... er, wait.
It makes sense. Rumor is that MS is planning on making future desktop OS and mobile OS options more compatible, why wouldn't Apple be moving this direction as well (and possibly getting there first)?
Also, buying parts from fewer manufacturers can give you a better price point from those you choose.
This is like Ford paying Chevy build their cars. Makes Samsung's cutting and pasting copies of Apples products too easy. Apple designed the chips around Arm cores, so they can switch to any fab they want, even if Intel fails to come up with better designs.
In fact, the iPhone was first shown before the Samsung F700 was first shown
You are right, however there was 1 month between them, clearly they were designed in parallel so the design is so simple it's just obvious. No-one copied anyone, they were both original and considering the basic and simplistic design as well as the timing it's hardly a stretch to imagine this is just coincidence.
If Apple wants to have some common code between iOS and Mac OS X, using an Intel CPU on the iOS side would make things easier. Depending that is, on how similar the iOS cpu is to the x86 cpu's in the Mac OS X machines.