Rumor: Apple hiring former Texas Instruments chip engineers in Israel
In a bid to expand its chip-making business in Israel, Apple has reportedly hired a number of former Texas Instruments engineers living in the country, with the new employees said to bolster the tech giant's research and development resources in the region.
People familiar with Apple's developing Israel-based operations told The Next Web that the company has been hiring "dozens" of engineers to work in the cities of Haifa and Herzliya, the latter of which being the home base of Apple subsidiary Anobit. The Cupertino company purchased the flash memory maker in December of 2011.
The sources went on to say that Apple is picking up former TI employees who were laid off in a culling of 250 jobs at the company's Ra'anana location, which itself is part of a larger global workforce cutdown of around 1,700 employees. According to TI Israel's website, the Ra'anana campus was responsible for wireless connectivity solutions like WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS and OMAP products. OMAP, or Open Multimedia Applications Platform, is a type of system-on-a-chip developed by the Texas-based company currently being used in portable devices like Amazon's Kindle Fire HD.
Apple in April was reported to be gearing up for a major hiring campaign to fill spots at its Israel R&D center located in Haifa's Scientific Industries Center, which boasts a collective of high-tech companies like Google, Intel and IBM. The recent TI Israel hires won't be the first for Apple, as former Deputy CEO Etai Zaitsman is said to be working on the Haifa initiative headed up by Aharon Aharon, a veteran of Israel's tech industry.
In May, AppleInsider discovered a number of listings on Apple's job board for SoC engineers located in the Haifa and Herzliya Pituah regions of Israel.
People familiar with Apple's developing Israel-based operations told The Next Web that the company has been hiring "dozens" of engineers to work in the cities of Haifa and Herzliya, the latter of which being the home base of Apple subsidiary Anobit. The Cupertino company purchased the flash memory maker in December of 2011.
The sources went on to say that Apple is picking up former TI employees who were laid off in a culling of 250 jobs at the company's Ra'anana location, which itself is part of a larger global workforce cutdown of around 1,700 employees. According to TI Israel's website, the Ra'anana campus was responsible for wireless connectivity solutions like WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS and OMAP products. OMAP, or Open Multimedia Applications Platform, is a type of system-on-a-chip developed by the Texas-based company currently being used in portable devices like Amazon's Kindle Fire HD.
Apple in April was reported to be gearing up for a major hiring campaign to fill spots at its Israel R&D center located in Haifa's Scientific Industries Center, which boasts a collective of high-tech companies like Google, Intel and IBM. The recent TI Israel hires won't be the first for Apple, as former Deputy CEO Etai Zaitsman is said to be working on the Haifa initiative headed up by Aharon Aharon, a veteran of Israel's tech industry.
In May, AppleInsider discovered a number of listings on Apple's job board for SoC engineers located in the Haifa and Herzliya Pituah regions of Israel.
Comments
Intel Core i7: $1000.
Apple A6X: $17.50.
Do the math.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SockRolid
Another small step toward the inevitable Intel-free Apple future.
Intel Core i7: $1000.
Apple A6X: $17.50.
Do the math.
You already know those aren't feasible numbers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm
You already know those aren't feasible numbers.
True, but if you can also look at it this way. An Intel Core i7 3610QM starts for $378. Since Apple buys large volumes, let's just put it $300 for comparison sake. The Intel part is 160 square millimeters. That is roughly $1.88 per square millimeter in die area.
If you look at the A6, it is 96.71 square millimeters for a total cost of $17.50. That is $0.18 per square millimeter, or about a factor of 10 cheaper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Beardsley
True, but if you can also look at it this way. An Intel Core i7 3610QM starts for $378. Since Apple buys large volumes, let's just put it $300 for comparison sake. The Intel part is 160 square millimeters. That is roughly $1.88 per square millimeter in die area.
If you look at the A6, it is 96.71 square millimeters for a total cost of $17.50. That is $0.18 per square millimeter, or about a factor of 10 cheaper.
This is comparing apples (no pun intended) to oranges. Intel's process advantage right now is almost one whole node in front of everyone else. If they made A6 on Intel's latest process, it would probably run 1.5 times faster and use 75% the power.
Furthermore, Apple isn't paying R&D costs when it is purchasing those chips from Samsung. Intel has to factor in the price of the billions it spends on R&D when it sells the i7-3610QM.
Finally, if Intel made 3610QMs at the volumes that Apple uses A6s, the price would be far less than $300 since the marginal cost of each additional chip is quite small.
Israel is a pretty nasty country to do business with. If they are going to start using Israeli manufacture for any significant portion of their product they definitely will lose some customers and a lot of public goodwill.
That's like saying I'm paying for Apple's R&D cost when I buy a song on iTunes Store. Sure, a fraction of their total profits get put into R&D and you can use that same ratio to figure out what portion of that $1.29 is going for R&D but that's not what he stated.
Apple isn't paying Samsung for R&D, they are paying them for production of R&D that Samsung has already worked out. You can contrast this to Apple having to invest in their chip production or Apple investing billions with LG to get them to R&D Retina displays.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
Israel is a pretty nasty country to do business with...
Here we go...
I don't see anything wrong with his comment. His focus was on doing business in the country, not with the people. There are clearly some countries that are easier to do business with than others. I personally don't have any experience in this area but I've read about various laws that affect business in negative and positive ways. I would like to hear more specifics about his comment though.
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
I don't see anything wrong with his comment. His focus was on doing business in the country, not with the people.
The "loss of customers and goodwill" pretty much shows what he means.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
I don't see anything wrong with his comment..
Says a country is 'nasty' to do business with, without any elaboration and you think that is acceptable, informed, useful, relevant comment? It's a ridiculous snide pointless and inflammatory comment.
So don't buy anymore Apple products. They don't need your money. Apple doesn't make decisions based on what extremists might think.
As for me, I'm liking Apple even more now.:smokey:
Ah, I didn't read the full comment, only the part AJ quoted.
How exactly did you get "I think it's acceptable, informed, useful, and relevant" from "I don't see anything wrong with"?
Totally unjustified and completely uninformed! This is especially the case when it is obvious that much of the landscape surrounding Israel is suffering from a collapse of social and governmental responsibility.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
Israel is a pretty nasty country to do business with. If they are going to start using Israeli manufacture for any significant portion of their product they definitely will lose some customers and a lot of public goodwill.
I've got news for you, Gazoobee...
http://www.intel.com/jobs/israel/
I think you need to retread the comment. There are all sorts of issues with every country Apple deals with, it isn't a perfect world. However the comment contained a threat that doing business with or in Israel will result in people taking a special exception to that relationship and somehow abandon Apple. That is the problem with the post as it demonstrates a specific hatred for the country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wizard69
I think you need to retread the comment. There are all sorts of issues with every country Apple deals with, it isn't a perfect world. However the comment contained a threat that doing business with or in Israel will result in people taking a special exception to that relationship and somehow abandon Apple. That is the problem with the post as it demonstrates a specific hatred for the country.
If one were to keep up with current events then I doubt you would assume that his/her post demonstrates a specific hatred for the country. Instead it demonstrates a truism in a polarized world.
One could have as easily said the opposite which I suppose we would then have to assume that it demonstrates a specific love for the country.
Different strokes for different folks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
Israel is a pretty nasty country to do business with.
Better or worse than China?