Where might that iPad processor take Apple?
One of the most riveting parts of the Apple iPad announcement for true techies was that the iPad runs on an ARM chip designed by Apple. Does this portend Apple chips for Macs instead of Intel chips?
Intel has been in control, more or less, of processors for microcomputers since the dawn of the industry way back in the seventies. Sure, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has proved to be an able challenger to the Intel giant during periods through the decades since microcomputers began to dot the landscape, and Motorola powered a lot of Apple computers for a while, but Intel has never really lost control of this multi-billion dollar industry. Big changes in the processor business may finally be afoot, and Apple may be helping to guide the way.
When Apple bought processor design company PA Semi, rumors quickly followed that the Cupertino giant might be designing a new ARM chip for the iPhone. Although that has not happened yet, it is now not very difficult to see the day when it will. And if we can easily see the day in the future when the iPhone and Touch will be powered by Apple processors, why not the rest of the Apple line, like the iMac and MacBook systems? Those are more complex designs, of course, with multiple cores and much else. But given a few years, what is to stop Apple from powering all of their own systems? The answer is, not much. Just time and money, really, so maybe we just need to wait a few more years.
The Apple ARM chip for the iPad also means that Apple bypassed Qualcomm during the design process for the iPad, which means that there is a lot of competition for Intel in the processor marketplace, when we stop to think about it. That point is made in a Forbes article on the maturing of the processor industry, although it is hard to think of an industry this bright and vital of aging. Regardless, it is maturing and what was once thought to be black magic by most is now fairly straightforward design, engineering, and manufacturing process. Can we look forward to Apple processors in all Apple products by 2012 or 2013?
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February 4th, 2010
We could be on the threshold of many companies making processor chips. Intel and AMD do not hold all the cards and the consumer benefits. Sometimes I really like capitalism.
February 4th, 2010
Consumers win? Are you kidding me? This is the last thing Mac computers need. Going to Intel was a big enough pain for most customers and developers, changing to yet another platform making another generation of Macs obsolete is a horrible idea.
Besides the idea of Apple going into the non-mobile processor business makes little sense. They would have to expend quite a bit of money and resources to develop processors that could compete with Intel or AMD. I doubt it’s something they want to get into.
February 5th, 2010
I feel you are grossly underestimating the complexities of modern CPU design manufacture by suggesting that the leap between acquiring a system on a chip maker to designing and fabricating desktop class processors will only take “a few more years”.
February 5th, 2010
I doubt apple would be able to compete in the processor market outside of small, portable devices. It just wouldn’t make financial sense for them to invest that much money in R&D and manufacturing to try and compete with the IBM, Intel and AMD.
February 5th, 2010
They have acquired a company who specialises in designing and building ARM based chips. ARM is designed for small, mobile devices, not for beefy multicore machines. PA Semiconductors was never bought to replace Intel as a Mac chip supplier in my humble opinion. It is cheaper for them to use Intel’s processors and lay most of the design work onto Intel for the bigger scale chips where Intel are the market leaders.
However, most of the devices Apple sell are mobile devices. If they use their own chips in their iPods, iPhones and iPads then they will save an absolute fortune when compared to costs buying them in, and they can also customise the chips much easier when they design the chips. When Apple are buying in from manufacturers for these parts at the moment, the company who sells the chips will be out to make a reasonable profit. Now that PA Semiconductors is, um, an ‘ARM’ of Apple, they won’t be out to profiteer so much which could reduce Apple’s component costs for mobile devices.
You can’t suddenly turn round and go from making ARM chips to full blown multicore, multithreading processors though. And also think about the repurcussions on Mac OSX – they would have to redesign huge parts of it to optimise it for their own chip, whereas they have already put all the hard work in to optimise Mac OSX for Intel chips. Its just for mobile devices.
February 16th, 2010
The processor chip is branded as slightly newer design amount however it and also the GPU are likely the similar speed as the 3GS. The old Touch using the same CPU and GPU since the 3G was quicker. Besides having the clock pace turned up higher the Contact has less software programs to run since it is not a telephone. It ought to do better than any iPhone to this day in overall performance.