“Today is going to be a truly historic day for the Mac,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook at their at the Worldwide Developers Conference. “Today we are going to tell you about some really big changes, how we are going to take the Mac to a whole new level. From the very beginning, the Mac redefined the entire computer industry. The Mac has always been about innovation and boldly pushing things forward, embracing big changes to stay at the forefront of personal computing.”
The Mac has had three major transitions in its history. The move to PowerPC, the transition to macOS X, and the move to Intel. Now it’s time for a huge leap forward for the Mac. Today is the day that we are announcing that the Mac is transitioning to our own Apple Silicon. When we make bold changes it’s for one simple yet powerful reason… so we can make much better products. When we look ahead we envision some major new products and transitioning to our own custom silicon is what will enable us to bring them to life.
At Apple, integrating hardware and software is fundamental to everything we do. That’s what makes our products so great and silicon is at the heart of our hardware. So having a world class silicon design team is a game changer.
Apple CEO Tim Cook: Mac Transitioning To Our Own Apple Silicon
Jim Keller, something of a legend in the microprocessor industry, has suddenly resigned from Intel after just two years.
Jim Keller has a long history in the industry, having working for Digital Equipment Corp., AMD, Apple, Tesla and Intel. Wherever Keller has gone, he has often led the development of game-changing microprocessors for the company employing him.
During his first stint at AMD, in the late ‘90s, he worked on the K7 Athlon chips and led the development of the K8, AMD’s first 64-bit line of chips. He eventually found his way to P.A. Semi, the company focused on mobile processors, going to Apple shortly before it bought the firm.
During his time at Apple, Keller helped develop the A-series line of processors used in iPhones and iPads, and rumored to be coming to Macs.
In 2012, Keller returned to AMD, where he lead the development of the Zen families of chips, that helped the company gain ground on Intel for the first time in years.
After a brief stint at Tesla, where he designed the company’s autopilot chip, Keller took a job at Intel where he was believed to be working on helping the chip giant become competitive once again. Intel has had well-publicizedstruggles recently, with a Fortune profile piece saying the company was “betting its chips on microprocessor mastermind Jim Keller.”
Needless to say, his history of staying with a company until he helps it achieve a ground-breaking success makes his sudden departure from Intel all the more unusual. In the company’s announcement, Intel said Keller was leaving “due to personal reasons,” and wished “him and his family all the best for the future.”
AnandTech’s Dr. Ian Cutters did receive confirmation that Keller will remain a consultant for six months to help with the transition.
Whatever caused Keller to leave Intel, here’s to hoping all is well with him and his family, and that he continues to have as much influence on the industry as he has in the past.
Apple is preparing to announce its decision to move to ARM chips for its Macs at the upcoming WWDC.
Apple has long been rumored to be moving to ARM chips like the ones it uses in the iPhone and iPad. The company has been relying on Intel to power its line of computers since 2006, when it switched from the PowerPC architecture.
ARM chips are based on designs by Arm Holdings. Unlike Intel or AMD, Arm does not manufacture its own chips, but licenses the designs to other companies. Companies can even customize elements of the chipsets to better suit their needs.
Arm was originally founded as a joint venture between Apple and Acorn and, not surprisingly, Apple has the Architecture License, the broadest license available. This gives Apple the ability to modify Arm designs however they see fit to best work with their products.
Analysts have been expecting Apple to move Macs to ARM chips for multiple reasons. First, Intel has been struggling to keep up with demand for its processors and is starting to fall behind rival AMD in performance. Given the premium it charges for its Macs, any inability to deliver the fastest machines possible is far worse for Apple than many of its rivals. In contrast, current iPad Pros are faster than the vast majority of PC laptops on the market and, even more impressive, they deliver that performance without any fans thanks to the power-efficient nature of ARM chips.
The second factor motivating the change is Apple’s penchant for controlling the “whole widget.” In other words, Apple is at its best when it controls both the software and the hardware that runs it. This approach is one of the reasons the iPhone and iPads consistently outperform Android competitors by a wide margin.
A move to ARM for the Mac lineup would likely result in machines that are faster than current models, get better battery life and run cooler, while still running the more powerful macOS.
According to Bloomberg, internal testing at Apple has “shown sizable improvements over Intel-powered versions, specifically in graphics performance and apps using artificial intelligence, the people said. Apple’s processors are also more power-efficient than Intel’s, which may mean thinner and lighter Mac laptops in the future.”
Needless to say, however, a complete architecture change is no small feat. It’s previously been reported that Apple was going to release ARM-powered Macs in 2021. According to Bloomberg, the company plans to make the announcement at the upcoming WWDC to give developers plenty of time to prepare their applications to run on the new chipset.
This is very similar to how Apple handled the move to Intel in 2005 and 2006. Given that Apple has orchestrated two other major architecture changes in the Mac’s history, it’s a safe bet Apple will do everything necessary to make this transition as smooth as possible.
Following reports the Trump administration was in talks with chip makers to build US factories, TSMC has announced plans to do just that.
TSMC is the primary provider of chips for Apple’s iPhones and iPads, as well as a variety of other smartphone makers. The news is a big win for the Trump administration, as well as the tech industry in general.
As the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted manufacturing and supply chains, the tech industry has been grappling with the fallout of not being able to keep up with demand. The situation has shone a light on the downsides of relying solely on overseas factories for mission-critical components.
The Trump administration opened discussions with both Intel and TSMC, in an effort to persuade both companies to open factories in the US. Sources said the administration was also talking with Samsung to see what could be done to help the company expand its existing semiconductor facilities in the US.
TSMC plans on beginning construction in 2021 in Arizona, with production scheduled to begin in 2024.
After years of exporting semiconductor manufacturing overseas, the Trump administration, Intel and TSMC are in talks to open chip factories in the US.
For years companies have relied on Asian semiconductor factories for the most critical components powering computers, phones, tablets and more. In addition to the cheaper cost associated with oversees manufacturing, there has also been the benefit of scale. With entire industries located in concentrated areas of Asia, companies are able to tap into a vast pool of talent, expertise and supplies.
Recent events, however, have shown the inherent dangers of relying solely on foreign manufacturing. As the coronavirus pandemic first hit China, factories that American businesses relied on were shuttered, causing problems for a wide range of companies. For example, the supply chain issues resulted in Apple facing product shortages, delayed launch dates for new products and even impacted the company’s ability to provide support and give replacement devices to customers.
The impact has not been lost on the government, or chip makers. According to The Wall Street Journal, (WSJ) officials have been talking with Intel and TSMC about building factories in the US.
“We think it’s a good opportunity,” said Greg Slater, Intel’s vice president of policy and technical affairs. “The timing is better and the demand for this is greater than it has been in the past, even from the commercial side.”
Likewise, TSMC is reportedly talking to US officials as well as Apple, one of its biggest customers, about building a factory in the US. The WSJ’s sources say officials are also interested in helping Samsung expand its existing chipmaking facilities in the US.
If the talks result in concrete action, it should go a long way toward insulating the American tech industry and help protect it from future global disasters.
A researcher has discovered seven critical security vulnerabilities with Thunderbolt that impact Windows, Linux and, to a lesser extent, macOS.
In late April it was reported that one of Microsoft’s reasons for not including Thunderbolt on its Surface devices was concerns over security. Specifically, Microsoft had concerns that, because Thunderbolt acts as a direct memory access port, a hacker could use a memory stick or other peripheral to gain direct access to the device’s memory.
It seems Microsoft’s concerns may not have been so far-fetched after all. Björn Ruytenberg, researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology, has published a report detailing seven Thunderbolt vulnerabilities that could allow a hacker to theoretically steal all data on a computer, regardless of what security measures are in place, such as password protection or encryption. In a video demonstrating the vulnerabilities, Ruytenberg gains access in roughly five minutes.
Of the vulnerabilities, all seven impact both Windows and Linux, while only two impact macOS. Even then, macOS is only partially affected, as Apple’s computers use two security measures not used by Windows or Linux. The vulnerability compromises the first measure, but not the second. If running Windows or Linux in Boot Camp, however, a Mac becomes “trivially affected.”
In a follow-up blog, Ruytenberg says Intel was notified in mid-February, but has no intention of taking any further action, citing action they have already taken. In a blog post on the company’s site, Intel’s Jerry Bryant explained the mitigation efforts already in place:
“In 2019, major operating systems implemented Kernel Direct Memory Access (DMA) protection to mitigate against attacks such as these. This includes Windows (Windows 10 1803 RS4 and later), Linux (kernel 5.x and later), and MacOS (MacOS 10.12.4 and later). The researchers did not demonstrate successful DMA attacks against systems with these mitigations enabled. Please check with your system manufacturer to determine if your system has these mitigations incorporated. For all systems, we recommend following standard security practices, including the use of only trusted peripherals and preventing unauthorized physical access to computers.”
While a vulnerability of this kind is disconcerting, it’s important to keep it in perspective. The vulnerability requires physical access to a machine. As we wrote in the article describing Microsoft’s decision not to include Thunderbolt, “a long-standing rule of computer security is that once physical access has been achieved, all bets are off.“ That rule still holds true.
In the meantime, if Intel’s response is accurate, it seems modern computers with the latest OS updates are largely safe. In the meantime, common sense measures, such as controlling computer access and not plugging in unknown Thunderbolt devices, should go a long way toward protecting all users.
It appears Apple is finally ready to begin making the move to ARM processors, with models expected to start showing up in late 2020 or early 2021.
AppleInsider saw a note to investors by TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo has a good track record when it comes to Apple predictions. In the note, Kuo says Apple is proceeding with an “aggressive processor replacement strategy,” with ARM-based desktops and laptops hitting the market in Q4 2020 or Q1 2021.
Apple has long been rumored to be working on ARM-based Macs, and there is a strong case for the company to make the transition. In recent years, Intel has struggled to keep up with processor development and demand, with even some of its staunchest allies looking to rival AMD. Intel’s processors have also been plagued with critical security flaws, the latest of which has been labeled “unfixable.” To make matters worse, Intel’s chips have struggled to deliver the performance mobile users demand, while still keeping heat low enough for the sleek designs Apple is known for.
In contrast, Apple’s line of ARM chips have established themselves as strong performers. The A12X and A12Z in the iPad Pros are more powerful than the majority of laptops on the market and, importantly, achieve that performance without a single cooling fan being needed. The iPad Pros are also able to deliver all-day battery life—thanks in large part to the efficiency of the ARM chips—a feat that very few laptops can match.
Moving to ARM-based Macs would allow Apple to duplicate the “whole widget” advantage it has with its iOS devices, controlling both the hardware and software, ensuring they work together as well as possible. In addition, because Apple has already went through several processor migrations in the past, the company has vast experience building in backward compatibility, as well as providing developers with the tools they need to swiftly (pun intended) and easily port their apps.
All in all, this is good news for the Mac community and will likely usher in a new era of performance for Mac users.
Along with Apple’s announcement of a new iPad Pro, the company also announced a new MacBook Air with faster specs and a lower price.
Performance
The new MacBook Air offers quad-core processors for the first time ever. The processors are the “latest 10th-generation Intel Core processors up to 1.2GHz quad-core Core i7 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.8GHz.” The new processors give the laptops “up to 80 percent faster graphics performance, letting customers breeze through daily activities and play more games.”
As an added benefit, by using Intel’s 10th-generation processors, the new MacBook Airs should be immune to the CPU flaw that plagues all previous generations of Intels chips.
Keyboard
The new models also include the Magic Keyboard, first introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The “redesigned scissor mechanism delivers 1mm of key travel for a comfortable and stable key feel,” and should be a major improvement over the problem-plagued keyboard on previous models.
Storage
MacBook Air Performance – Image Credit: Apple
The new models also start with 256GB of storage. Just as important, the MacBook Air offers up to 2TB of SSD storage, double what was previously available.
“From students and consumers buying their first computer to customers looking to upgrade, everyone loves the Mac, and they especially love MacBook Air. Today we’re giving it a huge update, with two times faster performance, the new Magic Keyboard, double the storage, a new lower price of $999 and an even lower price of $899 for education,” said Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing. “With its stunning, thin and light design, brilliant Retina display, all-day battery life and the power and ease-of-use of macOS, MacBook Air is the world’s best consumer notebook.”
Taken as a whole, this is a well-rounded upgrade that makes the MacBook Air a powerful computer that has the ability to punch well above its weight. It should appeal to a broad user base, far beyond the students and casual users it is aimed at.
Intel has been struggling to fix security flaws in its processors, with researchers warning the current flaw is “unfixable.”
Security firm Positive Technologies has discovered that one of the most recent issues is far more severe than previously thought. The vulnerability impacts the ROM of the Converged Security and Management Engine (CSME). The CSME is a subsystem chipset that is part of Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT), and allows remote out-of-band management, useful for business and enterprise, but largely unnecessary for the consumer market.
According to Positive Technologies, the latest discovery has chilling ramifications:
“By exploiting vulnerability CVE-2019-0090, a local attacker could extract the chipset key stored on the PCH microchip and obtain access to data encrypted with the key,” reads the report. “Worse still, it is impossible to detect such a key breach. With the chipset key, attackers can decrypt data stored on a target computer and even forge its Enhanced Privacy ID (EPID) attestation, or in other words, pass off an attacker computer as the victim’s computer. EPID is used in DRM, financial transactions, and attestation of IoT devices.”
While Intel is recommending impacted users contact their motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS update, Positive Technologies is warning that will not fix the underlying issue.
“Since it is impossible to fully fix the vulnerability by modifying the chipset ROM, Positive Technologies experts recommend disabling Intel CSME based encryption of data storage devices or considering migration to tenth-generation or later Intel CPUs. In this context, retrospective detection of infrastructure compromise with the help of traffic analysis systems such as PT Network Attack Discovery becomes just as important.”
This is just the latest in a number of serious issues Intel has had with its recent chipsets, and could make offerings from AMD and ARM an increasingly appealing alternative.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has sent out a note to investors predicting Apple will release a Mac powered by an ARM chip in the first half of 2021.
Apple has long been rumored to be moving toward ARM-based Macs, rather than relying on Intel’s processors. While Intel may be the industry standard, as the computer market has moved toward laptops and mobile devices, Intel has struggled to keep pace with the needs of companies, such as Apple, that want to build powerful computers in sleek designs.
Recent MacBook Pros have struggled to maintain performance due to heat issues, resulting in the processors throttling to keep from overheating. The only solution is to build bigger, bulkier laptops that have enough fans to provide the necessary heat dissipation, something that goes against Apple’s entire design philosophy.
In contrast, Apple has had tremendous success with its ARM-based processors in the iPhone and iPad. When the 2018 iPad Pro was released, it was faster than 92% of all laptops, including Apple’s own. The most impressive thing is that this level of performance was achieved without a single fan, while delivering all-day battery life.
As a result, experts have believed Apple has been working to port macOS to ARM processors and readying the developer tools necessary to help third-party software developers make the transition. ARM-based Macs would allow Apple more control over its own devices and product release roadmap, while giving the company the ability to customize performance for its computers.
According to MacRumors, Kuo’s note included the following details:
“We expect that Apple’s new products in 12-18 months will adopt processors made by 5nm process, including the new 2H20 5G iPhone, new 2H20 iPad equipped with mini LED, and new 1H21 Mac equipped with the own-design processor. We think that iPhone 5G support, iPad’s adoption of innovative mid-size panel technology, and Mac’s first adoption of the own-design processor are all Apple’s critical product and technology strategies. Given that the processor is the core component of new products, we believe that Apple had increased 5nm-related investments after the epidemic outbreak. Further, Apple occupying more resources of related suppliers will hinder competitors’ developments.”
If Kuo’s prediction is correct, this will usher in a new era for Apple and open a world of possibilities for the Mac.
The Verge is reporting that Microsoft has outlined a significant feature of its upcoming Windows 10X operation system (OS)—90 second updates.
Windows 10X is Microsoft’s OS designed specifically for foldable devices. The OS is an all-new version of Windows, with the legacy components removed and rebuilt. The OS emphasizes security and a modern user experience. At the same time, 10X will have the ability to run legacy apps if needed.
In what is a major quality-of-life improvement, Windows 10X updates will take less than 90 seconds. Much of this is due to the way the OS is designed. The Verge reports that “the Windows 10X operating system, drivers, and apps are all separate so Microsoft can simply switch to the latest OS update once a device is rebooted. Microsoft is using container technology for win32 traditional desktop apps that run on devices like the Surface Neo, meaning these apps cannot interfere with system files or data.”
As an added bonus, many of the devices that will initially ship with Windows 10X will use Intel’s Lakefield processors. These processors “include big and small cores that run asymmetrically for power savings. That means devs can run a typical desktop app on the larger cores for performance or lightweight apps on the power-sipping cores to save battery life.”
Microsoft’s announcement is welcome news, especially to anyone who has had to sit though a long and boring OS update. It’s a safe bet the company will have a hit on its hands later this year.
For the third time in a year, Intel is preparing to release a patch to address two microarchitectural data sampling (MDS) flaws, also known as Zombieland flaws.
According to the company’s blog post, of these two new issues, one is considered low risk and the other medium. Both of them require authenticated local access, meaning a hacker should not be able to remotely exploit these flaws. These new issues are closely related to issues that were addressed in May and November 2019, as Intel has worked to progressively reduce the MDS vulnerability.
“These issues are closely related to INTEL-SA-00233, released in November 2019, which addressed an issue called Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX) Asynchronous Abort, or TAA,” writes Jerry Bryant, Director of security communication in the Intel Platform Assurance and Security group. “At the time, we confirmed the possibility that some amount of data could still potentially be inferred through a side-channel and would be addressed in future microcode updates.
“Since May 2019, starting with Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS), and then in November with TAA, we and our system software partners have released mitigations that have cumulatively and substantially reduced the overall attack surface for these types of issues. We continue to conduct research in this area – internally, and in conjunction with the external research community.”
Intel has faced intense criticism from security researchers for its decision to address these vulnerabilities in phases, rather than taking an immediate, comprehensive approach to fixing them.
In the meantime, the latest patch should be available “in the near future.”
Digital Trends is reporting that Intel has reaffirmed its “maniacal” efforts to fix its processor supply shortage.
Intel has been struggling for some time to keep up with demand, specifically for its 10nm processors. The ongoing shortage has prompted Dell—historically one of Intel’s staunchest allies—to start looking at AMD to make up for Intel’s shortfall. Dell opened the door to the possibility following a 6% decline in consumer PC shipments, largely as a result of Intel’s supply issues.
In fact, the problem became so bad that Intel penned an open letter to customers, apologizing for their manufacturing issues and promising to address them as soon as possible.
According to Digital Trends, during Intel’s fourth quarter earnings call on Thursday, “CEO Bob Swann and George Davis, chief financial officer, were on the call and insisted that they hope to ramp up yields on 10nm products throughout 2020. The ‘supply remains tight,’ Swann added. By the end of year, the executives promised to be out of the constraint entirely by adding 25% higher wafer capacity to normalize the inventory levels.”
Intel also acknowledged it was facing “a more competitive environment” in 2020. AMD has been making significant inroads in the processor market. After it’s wildly successful desktop-class Ryzen 3000 series, the company launched the Ryzen 4000 mobile processor series, challenging what has been Intel’s strongest bastion.
Intel has a window of opportunity to deliver on its promises. If it fails, it will likely see more partners defect to AMD.
According to a new report, Apple may not release mmWave 5G iPhones until December 2020/January 2021.
As 5G continues to roll out, carriers are deploying two types of 5G. Low-band 5G offers speeds anywhere from 20 percent to four times faster than 4G LTE, but has excellent building penetration and range. mmWave 5G, on the other hand, has speed measured in gigabits instead of megabits, but has extremely poor range and penetration.
Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini believes Apple will stagger its 5G iPhone launch, debuting the low-band models first, with the the faster 5G models at the beginning of 2021. According to Hosseini, the reason is at least partly due to Apple’s decision to design and use its own antenna-in-package (AiP) instead of using a third-party component.
If the report is accurate, it represents further efforts on Apple’s part to bring more of the iPhone’s components in-house. Recent reports project Apple will try to use its own modems as early as 2022. The company bought Intel’s 5G modem business after Intel was forced to abandon the effort as a result of what it described as anticompetitive behavior on the part of Qualcomm. Apple has been trying to end its reliance on Qualcomm, and it now appears they are trying to end their dependence on third parties for AiP components.
AMD used CES 2020 to unveil its Ryzen 4000 mobile processors, according to TechRadar.
Intel has had a rough go of it lately. They were forced out of the 5G modem business by what they described as anticompetitive practices on the part of Qualcomm and they have been struggling to keep up with demand for chips, prompting an open apology letter. Throughout it all, however, Intel has had dominating control of the mobile processor market. That may be about to change however.
AMD just announced the Ryzen 4000, its processors designed for laptops. The company has had tremendous success with its desktop-class Ryzen 3000 series, success that is no doubt—at least in part—responsible for Dell recently evaluating AMD to help make up for Intel’s shortage. If the company is able to duplicate that success with the Ryzen 4000, Intel may be in real trouble.
As TechRadar points out, AMD has never been able to match Intel’s performance in mobile chips, but “AMD’s CEO, Dr Lisa Su, is confident enough to call it the ‘best laptop processor ever built’ – and it will reportedly come with 8 cores and 16 threads.”
Given Intel’s position, it’s unlikely AMD or any other company will knock them out of the top spot. A serious contender, however, will only help drive innovation and ultimately benefit consumers.
Ahead of CES 2020, Dell has made a splash with a 5G laptop that aims for 30-hour battery life.
5G promises to revolutionize industries and usher in an all-new era of connectivity for consumers and industries alike. Dell is taking advantage of that with the release of the Latitude 9000 series. The laptops will feature “artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and innovative design, the latest Dell Technologies’ PCs and displays make work and play more seamless, intelligent and enjoyable.”
“The PC industry has never been more vibrant with built-in AI, 5G and the best design we’ve ever seen, all to help make our lives easier and more fulfilled,” said Sam Burd, president of Dell Client Solutions Group. “What’s exciting to me is that, with all of the cool news we’ll see come out of CES next week, the PC plays a central role in helping people innovate, influence and achieve more.”
The company also announced the release of the latest XPS 13, including a virtually borderless display made of Corning® Gorilla® Glass. Both lines can be equipped with the latest 10th Gen Intel® Core™ processors.
With specs and feature like these, it’s a sure bet Dell will have a hit on its hands for both professionals and consumers.
Yahoo is reporting that Dell is increasingly looking to AMD in response to Intel’s chip shortages.
Intel has experienced significant supply issues in 2019, even penning an open letter to customers and partners apologizing for the chip shortages. In the letter, executive vice president Michelle Johnston Holthaus wrote:
“I’d like to acknowledge and sincerely apologize for the impact recent PC CPU shipment delays are having on your business and to thank you for your continued partnership. I also want to update you on our actions and investments to improve supply-demand balance and support you with performance-leading Intel products. Despite our best efforts, we have not yet resolved this challenge.”
It appears that at least one major customer is not waiting for the challenge to be resolved. According to Yahoo, Dell is looking to source chips from AMD to make up for Intel’s shortages.
“We are evaluating AMD chips,” Tom Sweet, Dell’s CFO, said on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade in response to a question about what the company planned to do in view of Intel’s struggles.
The move is particularly significant, as Dell has predominantly used Intel’s chips for 35 years. That focused reliance on the chip giant, however, is largely to blame for Dell’s 6 percent decline in consumer PCs during its most recent quarter.
With Intel not expected to have their supply issues resolved until the second half of 2020, Dell appears to be adopting the philosophy ‘don’t have all your eggs in one basket.’
Intel filed a brief supporting the Federal Trade Commission and in opposition to Qualcomm’s appeal of a judgement finding it violated antitrust laws.
In a blog post on the company’s site, Intel’s general counsel Steven Rodgers outlined the Intel’s position:
“Qualcomm would have you believe that its position in the market today — as the last surviving U.S. supplier of premium modem chips — is due to its ‘ingenuity and business acumen,’ and that its rivals in the market failed simply because ‘they did not offer good enough chips at low enough prices.’ This is simply not true.
“Instead, as detailed in the District Court’s opinion and in our brief, Qualcomm maintained its monopoly through a brazen scheme carefully crafted and implemented over many years. This scheme consists of a web of anticompetitive conduct designed to allow Qualcomm to coerce customers, tilt the competitive playing field and exclude competitors, all the while shielding itself from legal scrutiny and capturing billions in unlawful gains.”
Mr. Rodgers then goes on to describe the amount of effort Intel put behind their efforts to break into the modem business.
“We invested billions, hired thousands, acquired two companies and built innovative world-class products that eventually made their way into Apple’s industry-leading iPhones, including the most recently released iPhone 11. But when all was said and done, Intel could not overcome the artificial and insurmountable barriers to fair competition created by Qualcomm’s scheme and was forced to exit the market this year.”
This is not the first time Qualcomm has been accused of antitrust behavior, having “been fined nearly $1 billion in China, $850 million in Korea, $1.2 billion by the European Commission and $773 million in Taiwan (later reduced in settlement).”
Qualcomm’s practices have managed to make bitter enemies of the very companies it does business with, including Apple and Intel. Apple and Qualcomm were involved in multiple legal actions over a two-year period, with Apple repeatedly making the claim that Qualcomm was abusing its position in the industry. Although the two companies arrived at a settlement, Apple ultimately purchased Intel’s modem business, with experts believing they intend to use their own modems by 2022.
With so much evidence against Qualcomm, not to mention such powerful companies standing against it, it seems unlikely the company will be able to get the judgement reversed.
Reuters is reporting that Amazon’s cloud computing unit has designed a more powerful, second-generation chip for its Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers.
The new chip is based on designs by Arm Holdings. Arm does not manufacture processors like Intel or AMD. Instead, the company designs chips and licenses their intellectual property (IP) to companies that want to use them. Client companies can even customize them, much as Apple has done, to meet specific needs or increase performance even more.
Sources told Reuters the new chip “will be at least 20% faster than Amazon’s first Arm-based chip, named Graviton, which was released last year as a low-cost option for easier computing tasks.
“The forthcoming Amazon chip is expected to use newer Arm technology, most likely Arm’s Neoverse N1 technology, one of the sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Another source familiar with the matter said the chip is expected to have at least 32 cores versus the Graviton’s 16.
“The new chip will also use a technology called a ‘fabric’ that will allow it to connect with other chips to speed up tasks like image recognition, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
“To take advantage of the new chip, cloud customers likely will need to use software written for Arm-based chips, which is less common than software for Intel and AMD chips.”
While it may be a challenge for Amazon to get cloud customers to switch software, if successful the move could improve Amazon’s bottom line. While Arm processors are generally not as fast as traditional chips, such as Intel’s or AMD’s, they provide much better power consumption and run cooler. These qualities are especially important in a data center, where tens of thousands of servers are housed. An Arm-based server can also be several times cheaper than a single Intel chip.
As Amazon continues developing their own custom chips, based on Arm’s IP, they will likely be able to customize them even more to meet their needs, much as Apple as down with iPhones and iPads.
While 5G is just beginning to roll out and is only supported by a handful of phones, MediaTek and Intel have announced a partnership to bring the new technology to PCs.
5G promises to be a revolutionary upgrade to the wireless experience, offering speeds measured in gigabits per second rather than megabits. Latency is also significantly better with the specification calling for ping between 1 and 4 milliseconds (ms), verses the 20 ms of 4G.
It’s easy to understand why 5G would make an appealing addition to a PC as, in many cases, it would be substantially faster than a cable or DSL connection.
“Our 5G modem for PCs, developed in partnership with Intel, is integral to making 5G accessible and available across home and mobile platforms,” said MediaTek President Joe Chen. “5G will usher in the next era of PC experiences, and working with Intel, an industry leader in computing, highlights MediaTek’s expertise in designing 5G technology for global markets. With this partnership, consumers will be able to browse, stream and game faster on their PCs, but we also expect them to innovate with 5G in ways we have not yet imagined.”
“5G is poised to unleash a new level of computing and connectivity that will transform the way we interact with the world,” said Gregory Bryant, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group. “Intel’s partnership with MediaTek brings together industry leaders with deep engineering, system integration and connectivity expertise to deliver 5G experiences on the next generation of the world’s best PCs.”
Dell and HP are the first manufacturers expected to release computers offering Intel and MediaTek’s 5G connectivity, with the first devices expected in early 2021.
“It was the best quarter in the company’s 51-year history,” says Intel CEO Bob Swan. “Everything was stronger than we expected this quarter. If you think about where we were simply 90 days ago we had a view that the quarter would be roughly $18 billion but we closed at $19.2 billion. That’s $1.2 billion higher than we expected.”
Bob Swan, CEO of Intel, discusses in an interview on CNBC how the company was able to end the third quarter better than any other quarter in its 51-year history:
Best Quarter In the Company’s 51-Year History
Everything was stronger than we expected this quarter. If you think about where we were simply 90 days ago we had a view that the quarter would be roughly $18 billion but we closed at $19.2 billion. That’s $1.2 billion higher than we expected. We saw strength across the board. It was the best quarter in the company’s 51-year history.
The data-centric collection of businesses, which is a very important part of our growth story, set records. DCG was a record quarter. Our memory business had a record quarter. Our IoT business had a record quarter. Our Mobileye business had a record quarter. We really saw very strong growth across the board as we went from Q2 to Q3.
Because of that, we raised our full-year outlook by $1.2 billion. We took earnings up and we raised our cashflow outlook by a billion dollars as well. We’re on pace for our fourth record year in a row. We feel good momentum going to the second half of the year.
Intel Just Had Its Best Quarter In History, Says Intel CEO Bob Swan
