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Tesla hires yet another chip architecture titan out of Apple’s PA Semi, feeding the rumor that it plans to design its own silicon

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If there’s indeed a poaching chess game going on between Tesla and Apple, it would appear the automaker is winning in acquiring quality pieces. Just a few week after we exclusively reported that Tesla hired legendary chip architect Jim Keller as new “Vice-President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering”, we now learn that Keller is joined by former DEC Alpha, PA Semi and until earlier this year Apple Director Peter Bannon.

Before Keller left Apple for AMD in 2012, he and Bannon were leading Apple’s processor development since the Cupertino-based company bought their chip making firm PA Semi in 2008. The duo lead the development of Apple’s A4 and A5 processors, which powered most of the company’s mobile devices from 2010 to 2012. Keller then left to develop the Zen architecture at AMD, but Bannon stuck around and developed several other chips for Apple until leaving for Tesla to join Keller last week.
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MediaTek outs two new SDKs for building HomeKit accessories with its chips

MediaTek is today launching support for Apple’s new HomeKit platform for iPhone-connected home automation accessories with new SDKs for two of the company’s systems-on-a-chip (SoC) products. That means that manufacturers using the MediaTek chips can now easily support HomeKit for controlling products from iOS apps and Siri.

MediaTek, a pioneering fabless semiconductor company and a market leader in cutting-edge systems-on-chip (SoC), today announced it has released two software development kits (SDKs) that support Apple HomeKit. Apple HomeKit is a framework built into iOS that enables secure home control from iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Apple Watch and lets home accessories work together in smart ways.

The two new SDKs support MediaTek’s MT7688 product, a chip that manufacturers are using for high performance home accessories like webcams and wireless speakers, and the MT7687, a chip being used for lower power Wi-Fi devices like garage doors, power outlets, and thermostats.

Apple officially launched the HomeKit platform back in June with the first batch of products going up for preorder. Since then, other companies have announced incoming support for the platform including hardware bridges that will allow popular existing home automation platforms like Philips’ Hue lights connect to Apple’s framework. Yesterday, 9to5Mac exclusively reported Philips’ HomeKit bridge is planned for release early next month. 

To get a feel for HomeKit in the wild, check out our review of one of the first products to hit the market with HomeKit support, iHome’s $40 SmartPlug.

Apple’s iPhone 6s has two different sized A9 processors, Samsung version 10% smaller

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According to Chipworks, there are actually two different sized A9 processors floating around in the iPhone 6s and 6s plus released last week. That’s not really a surprise because Apple likes to have redundancy, especially when one of the manufacturers is Samsung. We’d heard that both Samsung and TSMC would be producing A9 processors destined for the iPhone 6s.

However, there appears to be a difference in size of the two A9s which might play a role in how the iPhone performs…


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iPhone 6S to double LTE speeds, run more efficiently with new Qualcomm chip

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One of the main upgrades to the next iPhone’s internals will be a redesigned wireless system featuring a new Qualcomm-made LTE chip, as revealed by images of a prototype iPhone 6S logic board shared by a source. As shown in the image below, the new device will include Qualcomm’s MDM9635M chip, also known as the ‘9X35’ Gobi modem platform. This new chip promises significant performance improvements over the “9X25” chip found inside of the current iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, capable of delivering up to twice the theoretical LTE download speeds…


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Apple’s growing presence in Israel geared to chip design, suggests WSJ

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The WSJ is suggesting that Apple’s growing presence in Israel is focused on expanding the company’s chip design capabilities, reporting that it has hired most of the local employees of a chip design company shut down by Texas Instruments and is advertising new positions in silicon and semiconductor design.

“Apple’s Israeli acquisitions and its expanding local workforce show that the company is becoming more and more independent on the chip level, where it once had to rely on external suppliers,” said Shlomo Gradman, chairman of the Israeli Semiconductor Club.

While the report contains more speculation than hard fact, we noted yesterday that Tim Cook–who is currently visiting the country–is accompanied by Johny Srouji, whose bio on the Apple website says that he “leads all custom silicon architecture and development” …


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Apple again said to be going back to Samsung for A9 chip in future iOS devices

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After moving to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to produce chips for its latest mobile devices and reduce reliance on competitor Samsung, Recode reports that Apple is tapping Samsung for its next-gen A9 chips.

While Apple had hoped to rely more heavily on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to fabricate the Ax family of processors used in its iOS devices, the company has turned to Samsung for its next-generation A9 chip, according to people with knowledge of the situation…. Though Samsung refuses to identify chip customers, sources say the company is working to ensure an adequate supply of application processors for the next-generation iPhone.

The report mirrors much of what we’ve already heard in recent reports from others adding that “Samsung holds a technological edge over TSMC when it comes to the latest manufacturing process.”

More specifically, Recode cites the fact that “Samsung has managed to shrink the size of the transistors on its chips to 14 nanometers — effectively packing more processing power into a smaller space and consuming less power. TSMC is still at 20 nanometers.” The upper hand with Samsung’s tech was also noted as a reason behind Apple’s decision in earlier reports.

Samsung was said to be handling around 30% of Apple’s latest A8 chips in current gen iOS devices with TSMC producing the majority. Prior to the current-gen A8 chip, Samsung was previously producing the majority of Apple’s mobile chips alongside many other components for Apple products.

New iPad Air with same design, 8MP rear camera, and more efficient A8 chip enters production this month

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Apple is reportedly set to begin production of its next-generation iPad Air this month with display components going into mass production in the middle of this month and components such as the processor and camera sensors going into production next month. The design of the sixth-generation full sized iPad will mimic that of the current model and the display resolution will stay at 2048 x 1536, according to ETNews.

The new iPad Air will sport a more advanced A8 processor, which sources previously noted focuses on efficiency and battery performance for the iPhone (likely for the iPad too):


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Apple said to have tested 64-bit ‘A7’ chips for iPhone 5S, 31% speed increases reported

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As Apple’s iPhone 5S event approaches, some new details about the new device’s internals are emerging. Clayton Morris has claimed on Twitter that the iPhone 5S’s A7 processor is “running at about 31% faster” than the iPhone 5’s A6 chip. The iPhone 5’s A6 chip is dual-core, and it seems like the iPhone 5S will also remain dual-core.

However, there could be a major differentiator: 64-bit. We’ve independently heard claims that some of the iPhone 5S internal prototypes include 64-bit processors.

It’s unclear if 64-bit will make the cut, but it’s been in testing. We’re told that the 64-bit processing will assist the A7 chip in making animations, transparencies, and other iOS 7 graphical effects appear much more smoothly than on existing iOS Devices…


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Apple reportedly partners into chip fab to bring processor manufacturing in-house

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According to a report today from SemiAccurate, a semi-accurate site that has been hit and miss on Apple rumors in the past, Apple has just bought into a chip fab plant, backing up recent rumors that the company could be moving to build its own CPUs.

Apple has just done something that SemiAccurate has been expecting for months and entered the fab industry. No we are not joking, Apple just bought into a fab, and not in a trivial way either.

The full report remains behind a paywall, so it’s unclear if the site mentions a specific company that Apple has bought into. The tags for the report, however, do list “UMC”, a hint that the company in question could be Taiwan-based chipmaker United Microelectronics Corporation…


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‘iPhone 5S’, cheaper iPhone to come in multiple new colors, July announcement?

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According to Macotakara, new colors will be one of the more visible features of Apple’s next-generation iPhone models. According to a new report from the Japanese website, Apple’s iPhone 5 successor, already dubbed by some as the “iPhone 5S,” will come in three additional colors on top of the already existing black/slate and white/silver designs found on the iPhone 5.

It seems that it will have gossiped if the 5-color lineup of low-priced edition iPhone is carried out until now, but iPhone 5S may be 3 colors added to 2 colors of iPhone 5 1 color somehow. However, the informed sources did not tell about the kind of detailed color.

The site also claims that Apple’s already-rumored cheaper iPhone will come in five colors, but the report does not specify if this is five colors in addition to the black and white models or including the black and white options. Multiple analyst reports have previously claimed that Apple’s next iPhones will likely come in new colors.


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Intel’s new chips could give future MacBooks 24 hours of battery life (just like current ARM chips)

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Today at the Intel’s Developer Forum, Intel unveiled a new processor that will be able to power a x86 computer for 24 hours/10 days of stand-by time off a single charge. Intel’s new Haswell chip uses a 22-nanometer 3D-transistor architecture that uses 20 times less power than current Sandy Bridge models which are featured in the newest line of Macs. The new chip was demonstrated using solar-power to grab light from a source as small as a light bulb to power the system.  Oh, and the Haswell chips will be faster than current processors.

The new chips will land in 2013, after Intel’s Ivy Bridge in 2012. Recently, Intel revealed that Apple wasn’t entirely pleased with upcoming Intel Chips power usage and were currently investigating other alternatives.  Clearly, Apple’s own ARM AX line which already can provide 24 hour battery life (with PC-sized batteries) is being considered. (via Gizmodo)

It is interesting to note how much the image reminds us of the image below:
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