Is Apple Making More Advanced Chips Than Intel?

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When you think of computer chips, Intel quickly comes to mind. However, Apple may have a lead on the chip giant when it comes to specialized silicon for mobile devices. A new report suggests Apple’s A5 design could lead to the Cupertino, Calif. company creating its own chips for MacBooks.


Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gus Richard posits that while Intel has focused on general-purpose processors with continually more horsepower, Apple has concentrated on system-on-a-chip, such as the A5 powering the iPhone and iPad. By limiting its work on chips for Apple’s mobile devices, the tech giant has been able to develop consumer-attractive features such as “instant-on” and “low-power” that best Intel.

In response, Intel is expected to enter the SoC realm in 2013. The company could be able to overshadow Apple by being a chip foundry, able to design and make its own silicon. Apple, by comparison, must negotiate with frenemies such as Samsung to actually produce the chips required to power its products.

However, while Intel mulls moving from general purpose to specialized chips, Apple could expands beyond designing chips for a select range of products to actually producing the silicon for its line of MacBooks. Such a move could put Apple in the lead not only of mobile design, but also free itself for end-to-end production of its three most-popular mobile devices.

Richard’s report is intriguing, as far as it goes. However, Apple’s advantage is unlikely to remain if it scales chip production much beyond its current product lineup. The ARM-inspired A5 might not be able to go head-to-head against the latest Intel design. At any rate. it is questionable whether Apple should even stray from its laser-like focus on creating products so cool people will line up around the block to buy.

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