
Intel Gets Chip Order from Apple, Its First Major Mobile Win - adventured
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-10/intel-said-to-get-chip-order-from-apple-first-major-mobile-win
======
bydo
For modems, for some models (not Verizon or anything to be sold in China,
apparently). A lot less exciting than the headline sounded at first.

Still interesting, but not as much as Intel fabbing the A10 would have been.

~~~
tsuru
But yet ARMH still tanked 4.85% and then another 4.80% in after hours.

~~~
Cyph0n
Damn that's a significant hit. Are shareholders that paranoid? I mean, this
will in no way affect ARM's total domination of the low power SoC design
market, at least that's the way I see it.

These guys basically print money through licensing. It's a dream revenue model
imo.

~~~
mattmanser
I'm completely no expert, but wouldn't it be simple leverage to lower prices?

ARM: "Hey Apple, let's talk about what you're buying next year!"

Mr. Apple: "Well, I've been talking to Intel and actually just bought some of
their spiffing chips, how much did you want again? Because, you know, Intel
said they were totally in to that thing you said no to..."

~~~
Alupis
ARMH doesn't sell chips nor manufacture them. They license the IP so that
Apple can make their own custom chips.

This is not something INTC has every historically been keen to do, and it
doesn't appear that's what going on in this instance either.

~~~
gleenn
But if you sell plans to make chips that less people want, it'd lower the
demand for those plans. Might not be direct, but I'm sure Arm cares and uses
their market dominance to boost prices.

~~~
RockyMcNuts
there's still an ARM core in every smartphone, whether Intel fabs it (they
don't), or Samsung, or TSMC.

Intel gave up the ARM business. They have the best fabs in the world and could
dominate the business... but not without cannibalizing the x86 business.

The problem is, Chromebooks running ARM are starting to be competitive with
x86 ( [http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-its-time-to-take-googles-
pc-...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-its-time-to-take-googles-pc-operating-
system-seriously-1465185662) ).

And now that ARM 64 is in widespread use, it can address lots of RAM, and
servers could be on the horizon.

ARM devices are going to keep replacing x86 devices, ARM is going to keep
moving up into higher-end devices, and the impact on Intel is going to worsen.

At some point Intel might throw in the towel and start supplying ARM chips,
but at that point they will just be another (very good) fab, not an x86
monopolist.

~~~
seabrookmx
> there's still an ARM core in every smartphone, whether Intel fabs it (they
> don't), or Samsung, or TSMC

ALMOST true, but not entirely true.

The Asus Zenphone 2 shipped with an Intel Atom SoC and was actually a pretty
decent mid-range smartphone.

~~~
petecox
Sure but Intel announced back in April that there won't be future Atom phones.
i.e. Asus went with Qualcomm for Zenfone 3.

~~~
runamok
Right. Because Intel was subsidizing the x86 chip in the Zenfone 2 (and other
phones/tablets) by quite a bit.

------
FreedomToCreate
This gives some additional credence to the rumors that Apple has been working
with Intel to create an SOC with the modem built in. It would be a big step
for Apple and opens up some additional board space on what is arguably one of
the most complicated PCBs for a consumer product (if you have a dead iPhone
laying around its amazing to have a look at the PCB).

~~~
derefr
No need for a dead iPhone:
[https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+6s+Teardown/48170#s10...](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+6s+Teardown/48170#s107880)

------
ROFISH
So this means we're splitting the iPhone SKUs into AT&T and Verizon again?
It's much nicer knowing one phone will work on all carriers. :/

~~~
marcusarmstrong
They're currently split, ever so slightly, with the 6s. The AT&T model
supports a couple extra bands vs. the Verizon.

~~~
feld
Really? I thought there were only two versions in the US: Sprint and
Everything Else

~~~
xenadu02
That hasn't been true for a while. IIRC The Sprint model of the 6S is a better
world phone because it has more bands (including Chinese bands); the current
ATT model swaps some of those for the ATT 700mhz bands.

~~~
rconti
I believe it was true on the 5S but I haven't looked since.

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yread
Just a heads up the link seems to start an autoplaying video that can't be
paused

~~~
pwg
With NoScript and Ublock Origin one gets to read the whole article without any
autoplaying video starting at all.

~~~
mixedCase
I did get an anti-ad blocker popup not covered by my anti-anti-ad blocker
lists.

Just used the eye dropper and deleted the fullscreen container and good to go.

~~~
WildUtah
eye dropper?

~~~
lukeadams
OP used uBlock Origin to create a rule that hides the popup.

------
acqq
"Qualcomm’s modems remain ahead of Intel’s offerings in performance when
measured by how much data they can get from the network into the phone."

I hope it's not something that the users (and I) will have to worry, if "Intel
is inside." That is, I hope that the difference won't be observable in "normal
use."

------
known
I smell
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quid_pro_quo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quid_pro_quo)

------
arthursilva
Woa, that's unexpected.

~~~
mtgx
A little. There have been some rumors that Apple would use an Intel modem for
a while, although that kind of seemed nipped in the bud when Intel announced
that it will stop making mobile SoCs, so mainly from that point of view it's
unexpected.

Intel and Apple probably signed this contract quite a while ago, though, maybe
at least 18 months ago. If Intel wouldn't have gotten this, it would've
probably shut down the entire mobile operation, including the modem division
(it would've probably sold it off).

~~~
phire
People are reading a bit too much into the "Intel killing Goldmount" news,
assuming that killing off all publically announced SoCs means Intel are
abandoning the SoC market.

In reality, Intel is killing Atom, because Skylake has more or less spec'd it
out of existence. Atom was an attempt to do x86 with a low power,
smartphone/tablet budget, and it sacrificed a lot of performance in order to
fit into that budget. The result is a 2.5w Airmont chip.

Intel have also been focusing on low power with their
Sandybridge/Haswell/Skylake Core line. And the result is a 3.5w Skylake chip,
that has over twice the performance of the Airmont chip. 3.5w is still a
little large for a phone but it's small enough for a tablet. In the next
generation or two, intel will shrink the Core architecture down to something
which fits in the 2.5w power budget for a smartphone.

Basically, Intel are killing Atom because it's no longer better than Core in
any way. They will regroup and launch new SoCs in the future.

------
bb88
Can we please stop linking to bloomberg? They're approach to ad blockers is
terrible.

~~~
philjohn
Shock horror, people want to be paid for the content they put out. Wired and
Bloomberg are the only sites I have AdBlock disabled for as they keep them
unobtrusive.

~~~
marklubi
I would say that the auto-playing video with controls that aren't focusable or
usable is worse. Couldn't stop the video from playing without deleting the
object via Firebug.

~~~
jrockway
That's their content, not an ad, though.

~~~
marklubi
My comment had nothing to do with whether it was an ad or not. I don't really
care whether they're monetizing their video or not... going to their site is a
bad experience.

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anonbanker
I don't know if this is a win for privacy (Qualcomm's modem was known to be
compromised), or if Intel's Management Engine (or similar) gets a new home.

~~~
wyldfire
Can you refer me to more info regarding the issue w/Qualcomm's modem?

