As a semiconductor guy, this seems like a very bad move. It will all but guarantee they will always be at least one, if not two, generations behind the leading edge.
Just cut a check to TSMC or etc and buy allocation.
What is this macrumors, a freshman psych paper? Buy the report if you're going to quote all of its pertinent information.
This is going to get interesting. *Grabs popcorn*
As a semiconductor guy, this seems like a very bad move. It will all but guarantee they will always be at least one, if not two, generations behind the leading edge.
Just cut a check to TSMC or etc and buy allocation.
That's what I say.
I'm also a chip guy and worked running a design center for a FAB house for a while.
Buying and running a FAB and keeping it competitive is not for the faint of heart.
Qualcomm sells more radio chips and processors than anyone and still does not have a FAB, nor is it a good idea.
Not only would Apple need the fab, they would need to hire process engineers and buy or develop the next shrink technology. There is an army of people that get the next node viable and to market.
They would also need a company/companies like Dolphin or ARM develop cell libraries, memories, analog phy's, pll's, dll's, etc and all the pieces that go into making a chip.
Apple does not currently develop all the pieces that go into a chip.
Companies that develop all the other IP, exist for a reason.
Dolphin, ARM, and other IP companies will need to port their stuff to Apple's FAB process. Unless Apple is willing to throw ton's of money at them, and remember this is supposed to reduce cost. The companies not only want cash up front, but often a royalty on parts moving forward. Try getting something in 28HPL (not the mot popular process) at TSMC and see if all the IP you want is there? The IP vendors go where they can leverage the IP in to as many design wins as possible while they amortize the cost over the widest audience. This drives their profit up and overall cost to deploy down.
As a person that works in the semi-conductor industry, I can't see how this rumor makes any sense or leverages Apple in any positive way.
Yea, they shipped 600 million processors since 2007 and Intel has only shipped 50% of that. The difference is that Intel has one competitor for x86 and that competitor is fabless, and even AMD spun off their FAB arm as Global Foundries. They spun it off because trying to keep pace in FAB technology was killing their bottom line.
I'll believe it when Apple starts hiring ton's of PHD's in thin film and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology. When they start a research arm in advanced semiconductor physics and process technology, I'll believe the FAB story.
How will I know? Since I work in the industry, I'll see people I know getting crazy offers to leave their current jobs and jump ship to Apple.
You don't start up a FAB without it affecting the salary and hiring practices of others in that industry.
It's like this. You can't make 600 million phones without buying 600 million, LED's, screens, buttons. screws and everything else that went into making the device.
So I haven't seen the spike, so I'm a skeptic.
This claim only makes sense under two hypotheses:
(a) Apple doesn't know how to run a fab AND
(b) What fabs produce is a perfect match to Apple's needs (or at least good enough)
Neither of these are obviously true.
(a) Few thought, the day before the A6 was announced, that Apple would have the skills to create not just an adequate ARM CPU, but a leading edge ARM CPU.
(b) Even though Apple can now control the design of their SOC, they cannot control the power/performance tradeoffs of the fabs to whom they subcontract. It's not at all obvious that these fabs are INEVITABLY going to do what Apple wants. The historical pattern is that Apple sees further into the future than everyone else, and has to struggle to bring their partners along. Apple had to work damn hard to get Intel to take power as the most serious metric of CPUs (and Intel's failure so far in the phone space tells us something about how seriously Intel took this five years ago WITHOUT Apple forcing the issue).
To my eye (yeah, yeah hate as much as you like) the transition to quad-core CPUs (which are simultaneously starved of memory bandwidth) by some ARM vendors shows that already we have designers who don't know how to move forward, what really needs to be done. Apple (and apparently only Apple) have the foresight to do things like
- work on a REALLY low power (and slow) CPU which, however, has fast bluetooth and maybe WiFi --- the right CPU for an iWatch, which needs some interesting display/GPU capabilities, some wireless capabilities, but practically no compute capabilities (because all that will happen on the phone) OR
- pay the money to do something everyone talks about and no-one does, to develop 3D interconnects to replace PoP OR
- license from IBM, or invent their own process for creating eDRAM, allowing their ARM SOC to both run that much faster and at lower power.
All three of these require process innovations which don't appear to have happened in the shared fabs, and which Apple has no interest in researching for a partner, who will then use to for competitor's chips.
The rumor is NOT that Apple are creating a fab from scratch, it is that they have bought a (presumably substantial) share in an existing fab.
The point is to gain CONTROL over the direction of the fab, not to start from zero.
This claim only makes sense under two hypotheses:
(a) Apple doesn't know how to run a fab...
(b) What fabs produce is a perfect match to Apple's needs (or at least good enough)
Neither of these are obviously true.
...snip a lot of stuff...
It's really not.
Samsung supply a LOT more than iPhone parts. They were the ones who made the working Retina Display (after LG messed it up). A good chunk of your Mac will contain Samsung parts.
Wow you think apple can just build x86/64 code cpus when intel owns every single patent on it?
No way in hell would intel license it out either
Hey, I own plenty of Chinese knockoff products that are clearly ripped straight from the original. It doesn't make them worse.
eeeh.... even if he/she grows own food...god/nature already designed it unless its a gm food![]()
Actually Intel doesn't own every single patent on x86/64 processors, AMD owns their fair share too.
Really? You have insider information from Intel on that? Intel has licensed many of their patents to AMD as has AMD to Intel.
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Not really something to be proud of.
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What if it is open sourced food?![]()
eeeh.... even if he/she grows own food...god/nature already designed it unless its a gm food![]()
Fake. Apple always was fabless, and there isn't a good reason to change this.
So much for innovating. Apple just buys out start up places and rebrands it.
Am I remembering wrongly, or did Apple not already buy a chip fab a few years ago? P.A. Semi was it?
Fake. Apple always was fabless, and there isn't a good reason to change this.
Good move by Apple. Although this move will not benefit them right away because it will take many years before they can wean themselves from 3rd party chip suppliers.
Still a good move for the industry, because Apple is now a new player, and the chip manufacturing industry will become more competitive, maybe prices will get cheaper for the entire industry. More competition, long term beneficial for all tech customers.
Apple is ramping up its efforts to control its own supply chain