It seems like Apple is now setting its sights on developing its own semiconductors, thereby reducing its dependence on Intel and Qualcomm. According to a report by Nikkei, the company is planning to expanding its development of proprietary semiconductors. While the company already uses its own core design for use in iPhone’s and iPads, Apple may be planning to develop its own modems and chipsets for integrating touch, fingerprint and display drivers. It may even be planning to develop its own chips for use in MacBooks. Sources told the publication that Apple is trying to cut its dependence on Intel for notebook chipset and instead built them using ARM architecture.
Signs of Apple moving towards a completely in-house chipset can be seen in the new iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the iPhone X. The new A11 Bionic chipset used in these phones come with the company’s own GPU, a first for Apple. Earlier, Apple used to source the GPU from Imagination Technologies. In fact, reports suggest that the hexa-core A11 Bionic chipset may one of the fastest we’ve seen on smartphones. The chipset also comes with a neural processing engine that is dedicated to AI computing. This move also takes it one step closer to the other chipset manufacturers like Qualcomm and Samsung.
However, we might still have to wait a while before we see an entirely Apple-made chipset. Analyst’s told Nikkei that it was unlikely that the company would be able to quickly roll out all the components within two years. It was noted that modem chips have a very high threshold to develop and need to fulfill requirements of different operators around the globe.