Apple Takes On Intel
Lee Gomes, 02.04.10, 06:00 AM EST
Why chipmakers might not be necessary anymore.
BURLINGAME, CALIF. -- Besides Apple's stock prices and Steve Jobs' reputation for visionary entrepreneurship, something else is riding on the success or failure of the new iPad: The future of the semiconductor industry.
The chip inside the new iPad is a microprocessor called the A4 that was designed in-house by Apple ( AAPL - news - people ), most likely using the expertise it acquired via its 2008 acquisition of PA Semi, a Silicon Valley start-up. Selection of the A4 was described as a blow to both Intel ( INTC - news - people ) and Qualcomm ( QCOM - news - people ), since products from those companies were spurned in the process.
It certainly was that, but it also suggested that semiconductor technology has matured to the point where for many applications, the Intels of the world might not be necessary anymore.
Everyone knows about Moore's Law, which describes the tendency for electronics to regularly double in capacity with no accompanying change in price. What is often forgotten is that Moore's Law isn't some force of nature like gravity, one that occurs independent of human intervention. To the contrary, it is an extraordinarily expensive process, requiring billions of dollars a year in R&D. Spend the money and your chips can keep packing in the extra circuits. Skimp, and they stop improving.
Intel has skillfully taken advantage of this dynamic over the last 20-odd years. It had a dominant position in Pentium-style processors, one that made it billions in profits, which it alone was able to invest to design and manufacture the next generation of even-better products. Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD - news - people ) proved to be a valiant rival to Intel, but it was an expensive fight for AMD. And the fact that Intel has a market cap nearly 20 times that of AMD suggests that investors are unsure if the smaller chipmaker has the staying power to keep at it.
One of the fundamental rules of technology is that things that start out hard and complicated, able to be tackled by only a few people, eventually get easier to do, allowing more people to handle them. Dell ( DELL - news - people ) grew enormously during the 1990s because it figured out the complex art and science involved in running an efficient PC manufacturing process. Once it cracked the code, though, others were able to do the same thing.
Reader Comments
Surely you're not suggesting that Apple has designed its own completely new CPU from scratch? This makes no sense at all! The time and resources required would be considerable. The fact that the i
Currently, only mammoth companies like Google ( GOOG - news - people ) and Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) know how to run big data centers. But that knowledge, too, will one day cease being a black art known only to a few and instead emerge as a straightforward bit of engineering that anyone can master.
It's clear that this "democratization" process is occurring right now in semiconductor design. The iPad is a relatively high-end device, yet Apple believed it didn't need to look outside its own walls for a CPU, and thus could forgo paying any form of "Intel tax." By contrast, the iPhones and iPods tend to use a chip called ARM that Apple, like many other ARM customers, need to license.
Of course, Apple is a very big company and, especially for the sort of high-volume product it hopes the iPad to be, it can afford the sorts of up-front engineering expenses that would make smaller companies reel. But if it can afford to make an in-house chip good enough for the iPad in 2010, might it not also be able to make one good enough for the Macintosh in 2013? And if it can do so by then, why couldn't Hewlett-Packard ( HPQ - news - people ) and Dell also?
To be sure, a walk through recent tech history involved stepping over the cadavers of any number of would-be Intel competitors. They might have been simply ahead of their time. Making chips seems to be getting easy enough that a company best known for marketing and branding is able to take it on.
To read more of Lee Gomes' stories, click here. Contact the writer at lgomes@forbes.com.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
USAINS allocates RM10mil to centre of excellence
USAINS allocates RM10mil to centre of excellence
By DAVID TAN
GEORGE TOWN: USAINS Holdings Sdn Bhd is allocating RM10mil to acquire equipment, software, and machinery for its Centre of Excellence for Electrical & Electronics (COE-E&E) over the next two years.
Dr Gan Ee Kiang (left) receiving the end user licence from Adrian Ng Siong Teck.Gan spoke after receiving the end user licence for the electronic design automation (EDA) software from Synopsys (Singapore) Pte Ltd senior executive account manager Adrian Ng Siong Teck.
USAINS had utilised a portion of the RM10mil from North Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) to purchase the Synopsys EDA software, Gan added.
”We are now involved in doing designing work outsourced to us by five Penang-based multinational corporations (MNCs).
”We hope to get three more MNCs here to outsource their chip designing work to us.
”Our work for MNCs generates some 70% of the centre’s revenue.
”We will also be going for jobs from small and medium enterprises in the electronics industry,” he said.
Gan said that for the 2010 financial year, COE-E&E was targeting to generate RM1.5mil in profit on the back of RM3mil in revenue.
”The centre will also be launching its master of science programme, in collaboration with Universiti Sains Malaysia’s school of electrical and electronic engineering soon, in micro-electronics soon at USM.
”In 2011, we will be producing the first batch of graduates,” he added.
Penang WiFi hotspots ‘sabotaged, vandalised’
Penang WiFi hotspots ‘sabotaged, vandalised’
We will no longer reveal their locations, says Ooi
BY MANJIT KAUR
THE exact location of the WiFi hotspots will no longer be revealed publicly as there have been cases of vandalism where people have cut off the supply.
Jeff Ooi, the chairman of the state-appointed special task force to handle telecommunications infrastructure issues, said this was rampant especially in George Town, but did not provide figures.
One of the ways to overcome the problem, he said, was to fix WiFi hotspots at 24-hour restaurants so that restaurant owners could keep a watch over them.
“We will also not give details on the locations to avoid further sabotage and vandalism,” he said but did not provide the number of cases.
Speaking at a press conference to update the media on theWireless@Penang project and telecommunications infrastructure in Komtar yesterday, he however said that “as at end-December, there were 355 hotspots and we hope to reach the target of 750 hotspots by end of the year”.
Ooi said there was also network congestion due to peer-to-peer (P2P) download at the WiFi hotspots.
He said there were over 20,000 subscribers who were “maximising” the 355 hotspots.
“To avoid excessive download problems, we are looking at implementing auto-log off every 15 minutes,” he added.
On telecommunications towers, he said there were 849 rooftop and free-standing structures in the state.
“Those that don’t appear on the master list will be demolished, while those on the list must comply with the rationalisation process by the June 30 deadline,” he said.
He said out of the 849 structures, 285 had been approved.
On structures placed at several drains by PenangFon to offer faster connectivity using Fiber optic broadband connection unlike the conventional copper cable, Ooi said the management was adamant that the concept was approved by the previous state government and that the strategy was being used worldwide.
“We have complaints that the drains get clogged and rubbish get stuck in the fibres.
“We want to make Penang a world-class city, and using fibre optic in drains is not the right way. We are giving them time to comply with the guidelines, otherwise we cut off their lines,” he said.
PenangFon chief executive officer Robin Wong, when contacted, said the company was willing to cooperate with the state government and other agencies.
“If anyone googles and search for fibre optic, you will see that the strategy to place the structures in drains is widely used.
“Fibre is not hazardous, and the method has been used in many developed countries for better broadband service,” he added.
Jeff Ooi, the chairman of the state-appointed special task force to handle telecommunications infrastructure issues, said this was rampant especially in George Town, but did not provide figures.
One of the ways to overcome the problem, he said, was to fix WiFi hotspots at 24-hour restaurants so that restaurant owners could keep a watch over them.
“We will also not give details on the locations to avoid further sabotage and vandalism,” he said but did not provide the number of cases.
Speaking at a press conference to update the media on theWireless@Penang project and telecommunications infrastructure in Komtar yesterday, he however said that “as at end-December, there were 355 hotspots and we hope to reach the target of 750 hotspots by end of the year”.
Ooi said there was also network congestion due to peer-to-peer (P2P) download at the WiFi hotspots.
He said there were over 20,000 subscribers who were “maximising” the 355 hotspots.
“To avoid excessive download problems, we are looking at implementing auto-log off every 15 minutes,” he added.
On telecommunications towers, he said there were 849 rooftop and free-standing structures in the state.
“Those that don’t appear on the master list will be demolished, while those on the list must comply with the rationalisation process by the June 30 deadline,” he said.
He said out of the 849 structures, 285 had been approved.
On structures placed at several drains by PenangFon to offer faster connectivity using Fiber optic broadband connection unlike the conventional copper cable, Ooi said the management was adamant that the concept was approved by the previous state government and that the strategy was being used worldwide.
“We have complaints that the drains get clogged and rubbish get stuck in the fibres.
“We want to make Penang a world-class city, and using fibre optic in drains is not the right way. We are giving them time to comply with the guidelines, otherwise we cut off their lines,” he said.
PenangFon chief executive officer Robin Wong, when contacted, said the company was willing to cooperate with the state government and other agencies.
“If anyone googles and search for fibre optic, you will see that the strategy to place the structures in drains is widely used.
“Fibre is not hazardous, and the method has been used in many developed countries for better broadband service,” he added.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)