Bad quality assurance of Skylake reportedly accelerated Apple’s plans to ditch Intel
Quality assurance for the Skylake chip was “abnormally bad”, apparently hastening Apple’s plan to start using its own in-custom chips in Macs.
Semiconductors
5nm A14 chips for this year’s iPhones will reportedly enter production in the second quarter
According to DigiTimes, TSMC will remain Apple’s sole foundry partner for the chips that will power the upcoming iPhone and iPad models to be released later this year.
Intel’s new 10nm Ice Lake chips may significantly speed up video compression, encoding and decoding on 2020 Mac notebooks
Intel yesterday unveiled its tenth-generation processors code-named “Ice Lake” that while bringing only modest compute improvements accelerate tasks such as machine learning, encryption, video compression, encoding and decoding by a large margin.
Kuo: Apple could complete 5G modem development by 2022 or 2023
Apple could do without Qualcomm’s wireless modems in iPhones as soon as 2022, a reliable analyst has it.
Chipmaker Broadcom extends its supply deal with Apple for another two years
Broadcom today announced a renewal of its supply deal with Apple for another two years.
A unique look at how Apple is testing its own iPhone processors against hacking
Here’s a fascinating insight into the great lengths Apple goes in order to keep your iPhone data private, including spending big bucks on custom silicon development, and special labs on its campus filled with pricey equipment used to test its chips against hacking before they’re released in the wild.
An in-depth look into Apple’s frustrations with Intel’s modems
In an in-depth report detailing Intel’s modem struggles, The Information claims Apple is not expected to finalize its own in-house designed cellular modem for iPhones before 2025.
2020 iPhones could be powered by a smaller, faster 5-nanometer processor
It is now safe to assume that the A14 Bionic chip that’ll power the 2020 iPhone and iPad models will be manufactured on TSMC’s cutting-edge 5nm process technology, yielding faster performance and lower power consumption.
2020 iPhone to see another miniaturization leap as TSMC is said to build 5nm A14 Bionic chips
The A12 Bionic is the world’s first seven-nanometer mobile processor but 2020 iPhones will run a new chip built on TSMC’s cutting-edge five-nanometer technology.
Intel officials expect custom Apple chips in Macs as soon as next year
Intel officials and several developers in the know told Axios that first Macs powered by ARM-based custom chips should be expected no later than 2020.
Apple accelerates in-house modem development ahead of 5G iPhone
Future iPhones may combine Apple’s own cellular modems with the main processor to save space and battery life, which is what Samsung, Huawei and others have been doing for some time.
Apple’s chip wizard Johny Srouji is allegedly being considered for the CEO job at Intel
Apple’s boss of hardware and chip technologies is being considered as Intel’s new chief executive following the resignation of the previous CEO, Brian Krzanich.
