According to sources, Apple is currently developing at least three new Mac models with custom co-processors, which will be released this year, including a new desktop and an upgraded notebook. Apple observers believe that Apple's complete CPU self-study is only a matter of time. A new chip empire has emerged, and Qualcomm and Intel have to be careful.
In recent years, Apple has never stopped in designing chips and empowering its own products.
This creates a better experience for the user, and Apple also uses it to win the opponent. Recently, due to Intel, Arm Holdings Plc and AMD's microprocessor components are vulnerable to hackers, and Apple has a new opportunity to invest heavily in chip design.
Steve Jobs has always maintained the idea that Apple should apply its own technology to its products rather than relying on the mash-up of parts from other chip manufacturers including Samsung, Intel and Imagination Technologies.
In 2008, the company took a small and important step in the design of chips by acquiring chip design company PA Semi. Two years later, Jobs released the iPad. The world is amazed at the tablet, but the most groundbreaking technology is hidden: Apple's first self-developed A4 processor.
The original "system-on-a-chip" has been replaced by more and more powerful processors. Today, Apple is pushing its own research chips into its product lines: handling artificial intelligence tasks, tracking user behavior, enhancing game graphics, ensuring Face ID or Touch ID data security, running Apple Watch, pairing AirPods with mobile phones, and helping Macs Run in its own way. The result: a chip empire is emerging that threatens the dominance of Qualcomm and Intel.
The picture below shows the history of Apple's independent research and development of chips in recent years:
Image source: Bloomberg
So far, Apple has introduced 13 A-series processors: from the original A4 chip for iPad applications, to its current self-developed chips, which are widely used in iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and other product lines. . The A11 Bionic chip released last year, with its 6-core 64-bit CPU, allows it to integrate higher CPU power.
Piper Jaffrey senior analyst Mike Olson said that by designing its own chip, Apple cut component costs and achieved an early breakthrough in future functions because it controlled research and development. Apple declined to comment.
Apple is not the first company to research its own chips. It is the most successful one. Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, IBM and KoninklijkePhilips NV have chip divisions. These companies have suffered setbacks because the chip manufacturing is extremely difficult, almost "king of the game": very expensive and requires a large scale. Apple is very wise to focus on chip design (Apple uses Arm Holdings Plc's reference design). The manufacturing process is handed over to other companies, including TSMC.
As long as Apple can sell 300 million devices a year, Apple's efforts in the difficult and expensive chip business make sense. Qualcomm is investing in the next generation of 5G networks, and several companies are manufacturing AI chips, and Intel is pushing mobile processors. At the same time, Apple's main competitor Samsung is also a major chip maker.
Apple built a chip building and test facility base in Cupertino, Calif., and Herzliya, Israel. Hundreds of people were hired and managed by Johny Srouji. Johny Srouji previously worked for Intel and IBM. He joined Apple in 2008 and likes to compare chip architects to "artists."
In recent months, Johny Srouji has been digging modem engineers from Qualcomm. Qualcomm manufactures a modem for the Apple iPhone, but because of the patent license and Apple caught a lawsuit. Digging from Qualcomm may mean that Apple plans to eventually build its own modem and connect the phone to the cellular network. According to a report by Bloomberg last year, Apple is currently considering the use of the baseband chips provided by Intel and MediaTek in this year's iPhone product.
Image source: Bloomberg
Last year, Apple expanded its lineup of mobile chips, including a wireless Bluetooth chip, W2, which was used in the latest release of Apple Watch 3, and used an AI chip called the Neural Engine and a custom GPU in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X product lines. . The new iPad, which is expected to be released at the end of this year, may also use Apple's graphics engine and AI chip. Apple's move into the GPU is undoubtedly a fatal blow to the former iOS device chip provider Imagination Technologies.
Image source: Bloomberg
So far, only the MacBook Pro and iMac Pro with Touch Bar use the custom Apple processor in the Mac series. However, according to a person familiar with the matter, Apple is currently developing at least three new Mac models with custom co-processors, which will be released this year, including a new desktop and an upgraded notebook. computer.
Some observers who focus on tracking Apple say that the company's full implementation of CPU self-study will only be a matter of time, when Intel will lose its fifth largest customer in the world.
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