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Apple Rumored to Partner With Intel on iPhone Chips
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Intel, I think, as even MS started to dabble with making Windows 10 run on ARM - and now by all accounts, Win11 on ARM is very good.
Not necessarily. If the intel-manufactured chips are good enough, and cheaper than TSMC chips, Apple has products that can use them.
For example, Apple could (hypothetically) have an A21 chip made by Intel for use in the standard iPhone and iPhone e, and an A21 Pro and A21X made by TSMC for use in Pro iPhone and iPads.
Not entirely. TSMC doesn’t need Apple like they used to (plenty of AI customers), so Apple will be finding it harder to drive a good deal on pricing than they have in the past.
And it’s just good business sense to have multiple suppliers for critical components if you can. You can play suppliers off against each other on pricing. And if one supplier screws up, you can order more from the other to make up for it.
Of course I did, but some of the replies before mine seemed to imply the contrary of that, hence my comment.
Intel's stock is down primarily because in the last 6-7 months it was hyped up beyond rational threshold n the first place. Trump threw taxpayer money at Intel ... it have to 'win'. Blah blah blah
Intel has a big 'mess' to clean up and it is simply just going to take time. A bunch of the "what are you going to do for me next quarter" folks dropped out. Surprise, surprise. Those folks bought the hype that Intel was going to be 'back on top' super soon and are no dropping out.
A 'correction' says lots more about the folks who bought the stock than it does about the company.
Intel's 18A is about 24-30% more power efficient than Intel 3. If using last Intel chips used by Apple in 2020 as a reference point then Intel 3 is two generations past what those chips were. If looking at TSMC N3B/N3E then Intel is competitive.
Power efficiency is not a momental stumbling block and large disconnect from where Apple designs target. Apple uses more cache heavy designs. So decent chance Intel chip would be bigger.. Bigger chips come with lower yields so ends up costing more. ( Apple doesn't like to pay more than they have to). If there is a wafer queue bidding war at TSMC and those wafers go high, then those chips cost more also.
If Apple wanted to make a "fast enough for most users" A-series SoC for the iPhone xx-e (and entry iPad) product, that would not be extremely hard.
Is Intel 18A going to be more power efficient than TSMC N2 ? No. But N2 is going to be substantively more expensive than N3E was/is. If Apple is considering iterating on N3P longer (to save money) versus Intel 18A (or 14A) it gets closer.
P.S. Non technology issue , how much volume could Apple purchase is something that gets questionable if trying to loop in the full non-Pro iPhone line up. Unless, Intel's product footprint gets smaller that is a question if they have enough 'extra' capacity in the 2027-2028 timeframe to handle that. Less than 10M units of a small-medium die maybe. high 10's of millions would be believable with the Ohio Intel fab open , but it won't be.
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With the US government having a stake in Intel now, no way I’d buy one with an Intel manufactured chip.
But that was a LONG time ago. Apple bought Intel's cellular modem business in 2019 and as we saw from the iPhone 16e last year, they're now vastly more competent chips.
It's a peace offering to appease the Trump administration. How much experience does Intel have as a third party foundry? By supporting domestic manufacturing Apple will likely benefit from Trump throwing tax incentives their way.