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Apple's Internal Hardware Team Is Working On Modems That Will Likely Replace Intel (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple will design its own modems in-house, according to sources that spoke with Reuters. In doing so, the company may hope to leave behind Intel modems in its mobile devices, which Apple has used since a recent falling out with Qualcomm. According to the sources, the team working on modem design now reports to Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies. Srouji joined Apple back in 2004 and led development of Apple's first in-house system-on-a-chip, the A4. He has overseen Apple silicon ever since, including the recent A12 and A12X in the new iPhone and iPad Pro models.
Before this move, Apple's modem work ultimately fell under Dan Riccio, who ran engineering for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. As Reuters noted, that division was heavily focused on managing the supply chain and working with externally made components. The fact that the team is moving into the group focused on developing in-house components is a strong signal that Apple will not be looking outside its own walls for modems in the future. In recent years, Apple has been locked in a costly and complex series of legal battles with Qualcomm, the industry's foremost maker of mobile wireless chips. While Apple previously used Qualcomm's chips in its phones, the legal struggles led the tech giant to turn instead to Intel in recent iPhones.
Before this move, Apple's modem work ultimately fell under Dan Riccio, who ran engineering for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. As Reuters noted, that division was heavily focused on managing the supply chain and working with externally made components. The fact that the team is moving into the group focused on developing in-house components is a strong signal that Apple will not be looking outside its own walls for modems in the future. In recent years, Apple has been locked in a costly and complex series of legal battles with Qualcomm, the industry's foremost maker of mobile wireless chips. While Apple previously used Qualcomm's chips in its phones, the legal struggles led the tech giant to turn instead to Intel in recent iPhones.
I'll be interested in seeing how this turns out. Apple has had great success with their ARM SoC design, and I don't doubt they can design a modem and baseband, but will they be able to design something that provides similar performance to what Qualcomm produces. Intel hasn't had a lot of success outside of x86, so I don't know how much of their failings can be pinned on the company, but rolling your own hardware is no small task.
If nothing else, I suspect that there are some Qualcomm on Intel employees who work on these designs that are about to receive some job offers with very attractive salaries.
they're trying to compete with hardware companies on hardware chips. This will not end well.... for Apple.
Given that it’s already going well for Apple with their A-series chips, I’m inclined to think you’re a bit out of touch with reality. Please re-sync with reality at your earliest convenience.