Samsung, Qualcomm, Huawei and perhaps others are able to integrate their modems into the same silicon as their processors. Apple can't currently do that, as they have no native cellular design ready. Until they do, they're stuck producing iPhones with a cellular chip bolted to the A-family SOC. By chip count alone, that increases cost, power consumption and PCB area.
It makes sense for Apple to both accelerate internal modem development and bulk up their defensive IP position. The end goal is for an A-family SOC with 5G on-chip. There is no way for Apple to do this but on their own.
That may also explain why an ARM Mac is out of question. Licence x86 instead of letting the Mac platform shift entirely to ARM. Just an uneducated guess...
They don't need to license x86 they just need to license the bus between the x86 and the platform hub.
Then Apple T series takes over full platform duties on every mac including iGPU and all they need from intel is just pure x86 cores.
That may also explain why an ARM Mac is out of question. Licence x86 instead of letting the Mac platform shift entirely to ARM. Just an uneducated guess...
License an architecture that Intel hasn’t been able to move forward for the past six years?
Samsung, Qualcomm, Huawei and perhaps others are able to integrate their modems into the same silicon as their processors. Apple can't currently do that, as they have no native cellular design ready. Until they do, they're stuck producing iPhones with a cellular chip bolted to the A-family SOC. By chip count alone, that increases cost, power consumption and PCB area.
It makes sense for Apple to both accelerate internal modem development and bulk up their defensive IP position. The end goal is for an A-family SOC with 5G on-chip. There is no way for Apple to do this but on their own.
What they really need is 4G on chip with interface to 5G/6G.
5G/6G on chip can follow down the track if you consider that variations will be needed between Watch and Macbook scale.
Betterer still Apple add (what a field array) processor to the Aseries so it is only a matter of software and antenas.
Intel bought Infineon Technologies wireless modem business in 2010 for $1.4 billion. Apple will likely have to pay north of $1 billion for it now but I think Apple will achieve much more with it than Intel.
Good for Apple, Good for the engineers, Good for the Infineon modem technology.
That may also explain why an ARM Mac is out of question. Licence x86 instead of letting the Mac platform shift entirely to ARM. Just an uneducated guess...
Intel bought Infineon Technologies wireless modem business in 2010 for $1.4 billion. Apple will likely have to pay north of $1 billion for it now but I think Apple will achieve much more with it than Intel.
Good for Apple, Good for the engineers, Good for the Infineon modem technology.
Infineon was well-respected in the 2000's, up there with the likes of Motorola and Qualcomm for modems.
Under Apple's leadership, if an Apple modem chip emerges, it will enable far more Apple devices to have 3G/4G/5G connectivity, as ubiquitous as wifi is today (think all iPads, MacBooks, and Macs/iMacs).
That may also explain why an ARM Mac is out of question. Licence x86 instead of letting the Mac platform shift entirely to ARM. Just an uneducated guess...
good to know finally the vertical integration is in focus for performance improvement and cost cutting - short cut for apple to achieve its superiority (much easy on design and platform if you control at components level - not rely on someone else' roadmap). 1B is a steal. Long term benefit is far reach (provide Apple can integrate the intel team well ;-). IMHO.
Intel bought Infineon Technologies wireless modem business in 2010 for $1.4 billion. Apple will likely have to pay north of $1 billion for it now but I think Apple will achieve much more with it than Intel.
Good for Apple, Good for the engineers, Good for the Infineon modem technology.
That may also explain why an ARM Mac is out of question. Licence x86 instead of letting the Mac platform shift entirely to ARM. Just an uneducated guess...
Comments
It makes sense for Apple to both accelerate internal modem development and bulk up their defensive IP position. The end goal is for an A-family SOC with 5G on-chip. There is no way for Apple to do this but on their own.
Yup, they’ll get right on that.
This will help Apple hit the ground running with engineers and technology.
Apple will likely have to pay north of $1 billion for it now but I think Apple will achieve much more with it than Intel.
Good for Apple, Good for the engineers, Good for the Infineon modem technology.