Founder of AnandTech retires from tech writing to work for Apple

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If you love learning about the technical intricacies of your favorite gadgets, chances are you’ve heard of the website AnandTech.

The founder of the 17-year-old site, Anand Lal Shimpi, has been a highly regarded tech reviewer for years. Over the weekend, he announced his retirement from the world of journalism with no explanation.

Now it has been revealed why he quit: to work for Apple.

Recode, which has been on a run with Apple scoops recently, confirmed with Apple that Shimpi is joining the company. No other details were given. Cult of Mac has reached out to Shimpi for comment.

For the past couple of product launches, Apple gave Shimpi and AnandTech earlier review access to new hardware. In the tech industry, AnandTech’s reviews are lauded for their technical detail and extensive testing. Here’s an except from Shimpi’s iPhone 5s review:

Unlike the 64-bit x86 transition, ARM’s move to 64-bit comes with a new ISA rather than an extension of the old one. The new instruction set is referred to as A64, while a largely backwards compatible 32-bit format is called A32. Both ISAs can be supported by a single microprocessor design, as ARMv8 features two architectural states: AArch32 and AArch64. Designs that implement both states can switch/interleave between the two states on exception boundaries. In other words, despite A64 being a new ISA you’ll still be able to run old code alongside it. As always, in order to support both you need an OS with support for A64. You can’t run A64 code on an A32 OS. It is also possible to do an A64/AArch64-only design, which is something some server players are considering where backwards compatibility isn’t such a big deal.

That probably reads like a different language to most people, but it showcases Shimpi’s deep knowledge of the chips and radios that make up gadgets.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Shimpi is to lend his expertise somewhere like Apple’s semiconductors team, although he could also be an asset to the company’s public relations department.

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