Apple engineer who led development of A7 through A12X chip cores departs company

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 53
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    MisterKit said:
    I wonder how this will affect the possibility of there ever being an ARM based Mac. All the years of rumors and now the top brain is leaving.
    If an ARM based Mac is coming it is likely that the initial design maybe even a tap out is already done.  

    On a a side note I see lots of speculation about why this guy left but honestly folks it could be far simpler.   Could be retirement or it could be health issues.  I know if I was in a position to do so I’d retire tomorrow.  
    cornchip
  • Reply 42 of 53
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    mike54 said:
    I hope he enjoys his next move.
    Many prominent talented people have left and size of what were once key teams have been reduced  under the reign of Tim Cook.
    If you don't take this announcement in isolation and look at what's been happening over the last 6 years, you'll notice that Apple is a very different company now and with a changing culture and environment with different priorities. Many are fine with this new Apple as it still makes high profits, but for me, its not the direction I want to see Apple go down.
    Google is building their own custom SoC team as well.  Don't be surprised if he ends up there.  The last prominent Apple chip designer that left ended up there.
    Very talented people with narrow areas of specialization have a limited number of companies they can go work for, so unless they’ve been kidnapped by the Russians or Chinese the guesses should be pretty narrow.
    His options are basically unlimited. 
    cornchip1st
  • Reply 43 of 53
    Seriously he probably just wants to take some time and enjoy his well earned millions. 7 years of high pressure work and sucess and most people would be burned out. Money is no concern and I'm sure Apple offered him a sabbatical if he wanted it. As smart and as driven as people like him are, they're still human.
  • Reply 44 of 53
    hexclockhexclock Posts: 1,240member

    It has been a 7 year stint for myself since 2012 with my iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone X and iPhone XR. For the first time my loyalty to apple products is facing a challenge with the cancellation of AirPower and the departing of Gerard Williams III. I loved every single minute of my journey in appreciating excellence and are still enjoying it but it seems like my sparkle is possibly coming to the end of it’s lifespan. Is their a new sparkle or season ahead? 

    Well it’s been a 35 year stint for me since I bought my first Apple product, an 8100. I doubt you know what that is, but that not withstanding, it was the first of the six Macs I have owned over the years, plus several phones, and other assorted gadgets. The AirPower mat you are crying about is a toy compared to all that other stuff okay? A novelty, hardly a tool for getting any work done. Do you know how many people have come and gone at Apple over the years? Thousands! I saw first hand the dark days of Apple where they were 90 days from becoming insolvent. Apple is light years ahead of where they were back then, so a cancelled wireless mat means nothing. I have no doubt they will continue to make interesting and useful products for a long time. 
    CapeTown1652
  • Reply 45 of 53
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    MisterKit said:
    I wonder how this will affect the possibility of there ever being an ARM based Mac. All the years of rumors and now the top brain is leaving.
    That was my first thought.
    My second thought was:  "Perhaps Apple does not want to ruffle feathers at struggling Intel by cutting them out of the Mac line"  (Because they need the flexibility and additional resources Intel provides since Qualcomm took themselves off the table and politics has taken Huawei off the table.)
    I would be worried if that's the reason why Apple is not moving forward with an ARM Mac.  "You have to break some eggs if you want to make an omelette"
      By not abandoning struggling Intel I didn't mean out of some sense of loyalty or pity.  Rather taking in the bigger, longer range picture and realizing that Intel is still a power house of chip design and manufacture and has been a strong partner for Apple.  And, with the legal and political issues surrounding Qualcomm and Huawei, Intel may be more important than ever over the long term.
    edited March 2019 canukstorm
  • Reply 46 of 53
    mcdavemcdave Posts: 1,927member
    chasm said:
    Still a lot to do with respect to GPU, wireless technologies, AI, ML
    It's possible that the things he is particularly specializing in with core design are done (inasmuch as Apple is likely going to leave ARM chips behind at some point as well) or he didn't fit well with the total SoC team, or a million other possibilities.

    This makes sense.  If they move to their own CPU ISA (to join the rest of the SoC) and only emulate Aarch64 there would be no ARM core design required.  This could explain the lack of performance gain between A11 & A12 as the Vortex (Virtual-Cortex) is emulating ARM.  Of course this means an I-Series SoC could emulate x86/x64 with 1st party software written for AppleISA.

    Roll on 2020 :)
    edited March 2019
  • Reply 47 of 53
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,755member
    ivanh said:
    The engineer’s name deserves to be known and remembered.
    Image result for His name is Robert Paulson
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 48 of 53
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    One person leave a company and the whole world gone mad.

    One product got gancelled and the story now is Apple cancel products left and right.

    One announce services and being accused abandoning hardware and software.

    What are the common ground of all these madness?
    edited March 2019 docno42StrangeDays
  • Reply 49 of 53
    mcdavemcdave Posts: 1,927member
    MisterKit said:
    I wonder how this will affect the possibility of there ever being an ARM based Mac. All the years of rumors and now the top brain is leaving.
    That was my first thought.
    My second thought was:  "Perhaps Apple does not want to ruffle feathers at struggling Intel by cutting them out of the Mac line"  (Because they need the flexibility and additional resources Intel provides since Qualcomm took themselves off the table and politics has taken Huawei off the table.)
    I would be worried if that's the reason why Apple is not moving forward with an ARM Mac.  "You have to break some eggs if you want to make an omelette"

    They could still reach a deal to license the ISA and move away gradually.
  • Reply 50 of 53
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,821member
    kevin kee said:
    One person leave a company and the whole world gone mad.

    One product got gancelled and the story now is Apple cancel products left and right.

    One announce services and being accused abandoning hardware and software.

    What are the common ground of all these madness?
    Ooh ooh, I know - haters gonna hate. 
  • Reply 51 of 53
    chelinchelin Posts: 106member
    tzeshan said:
    Kuyangkoh said:
    cornchip said:
    Better part of a decade is a haul for bright people to be in one place. I'd probably be ready for something different too.
    I don’t think it’s about money, these kind of talent and experience can command what they wanted. He probably got bored...doing sameness 
    A few years ago I heard one engineer left silicon valley because he felt culturally unfit due to large population of Asian engineers. Apple may have exceptionally higher percentage of white engineers. Still during weekend you have less cultural events like his home county. This is probably why the marketing vp chose to leave. 
    Well this could definitely be a factor. But I think that the assumption that Apple has a lower percentage of Asians is probably not the case. As the majority of the population in Cupertino +90% are newly arrived Asians. Just looking at my two kids in elementary school they are pretty much the only white kids in their classes of 25 & 28 kids respectively. 
    And Cupertino is pretty much the most boring town you can imagine. 

    Most of the engineers here in the area are either with Apple or with Google with a few exceptions. Larger companies like Google, Apple and Oracle have a larger factor of H1b workers which in most cases are from either India or China.

    the companies with a noticeable higher fraction of Asian population are smallerish like Netflix, FB.. that doesn’t want to spend so much on lawyer fees etc



  • Reply 51 of 53
    chelinchelin Posts: 106member
    tzeshan said:
    Kuyangkoh said:
    cornchip said:
    Better part of a decade is a haul for bright people to be in one place. I'd probably be ready for something different too.
    I don’t think it’s about money, these kind of talent and experience can command what they wanted. He probably got bored...doing sameness 
    A few years ago I heard one engineer left silicon valley because he felt culturally unfit due to large population of Asian engineers. Apple may have exceptionally higher percentage of white engineers. Still during weekend you have less cultural events like his home county. This is probably why the marketing vp chose to leave. 
    Well this could definitely be a factor. But I think that the assumption that Apple has a lower percentage of Asians is probably not the case. As the majority of the population in Cupertino +90% are newly arrived Asians. Just looking at my two kids in elementary school they are pretty much the only white kids in their classes of 25 & 28 kids respectively. 
    And Cupertino is pretty much the most boring town you can imagine. 

    Most of the engineers here in the area are either with Apple or with Google with a few exceptions. Larger companies like Google, Apple and Oracle have a larger factor of H1b workers which in most cases are from either India or China.

    the companies with a noticeable higher fraction of Asian population are smallerish like Netflix, FB.. that doesn’t want to spend so much on lawyer fees etc



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