Given Apple’s super-secretive ways, it’s quite a shock to find a company engineer disclosing something about the iPhone’s future innards on a public social networking site.
Wei-han Lien, the senior manager of Apple’s chip team, dished out the morsel on LinkedIn, saying he’s busy at work crafting an ARM processor for the next-generation iPhone.
While it’s a minor revelation, Lien’s statement would confirm what many have expected ever since Apple acquired chip start-up PA Semiconductor in April for close to $300 million.
PA Semi had assembled an all-star cast of chip engineers, including Lien, and Apple confirmed that it bought the company for that talent. In a June interview with The Times’ John Markoff, Apple’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, went one step further, saying the PA Semi team would work on designing brand-new processors for future iPhones and iPods. The only question was which kind of processors.
The current iPhone includes ARM processors, which are very common in the mobile device industry. ARM Holdings is a British firm that licenses out its processor designs to other companies, who tweak the chips to suit their needs. While Apple refuses to confirm it, the company uses ARM processors made by Samsung in the iPhone, according to numerous analysts.
By developing its own ARM variant, Apple could create a processor that meets the specific needs of the iPhone and iPod, building support for functions like the touch screen or scroll wheel into silicon and possibly savings on costs by reducing the number of processors needed in each device. In addition, Apple will be able to maintain tighter controls on who knows what about its future products by disposing of an outside chip supplier.
“They could put software accelerators on there or maybe do something like a graphics engine,” said Fred Weber, the former chief technology officer of Advanced Micro Devices and current chief executive of the memory specialist, Metaram.
Such a move, however, comes with challenges.
“You are taking on that internal risk of making sure this design goes well,” said a chip analyst, Linley Gwennap, of the Linley Group. “Even with a good team, there’s always a risk that things will be late and delay the release of something like a new iPhone. By outsourcing that part, you have the opportunity of going to another company if the first cannot deliver what you need.”
The construction of a bespoke mobile chip sees Apple returning to its historical roots. For years, Apple relied on more specialized processors from I.B.M. and Motorola rather than using the more common Intel processors adopted by the major computer makers. It eventually abandoned that strategy in 2005 and moved over to Intel chips, leaving Apple’s software as the only major difference between its machines and rivals’.
The engineers at PA Semi specialized in crafting processors with strong performance and very low power consumption. Before shifting to Intel chips, Apple flirted with the idea of placing the PA Semi processors, which were similar in architecture to the I.B.M. and Motorola chips, into its laptops and desktops. PA Semi officials were, in fact, shocked when they learned in the press of Apple’s decision to go with Intel. Apple’s choice crippled PA Semi’s business overnight and forced it to go after new markets like networking and storage gear.
While hunting for new customers, PA Semi also managed to attract the attention of military equipment suppliers who were intrigued by the low-power qualities of PA Semi’s chips. (They consume less than 20 watts apiece.)
People familiar with the Defense Department’s intentions say that PA Semi chips are set to go into missiles, computers in fighter jets and surveillance equipment.
“By all accounts, the PA Semi chip is meritorious,” said Will Strauss, an analyst with Forward Concepts. “There really was nothing else quite like it.”
When Apple bought PA Semi, it had no intention of morphing into a military supplier. The Defense Department, however, received push-back from suppliers who had already committed to long-term designs based on the microprocessor. These equipment makers urged the Pentagon to pressure Apple into continuing to supply PA Semi’s chips for several years, according to people familiar with the negotiations, who declined to comment on the record because of Pentagon restrictions. Apple eventually caved.
“We are extremely confident and pleased with the direction of PA Semi’s silicon availability,” said Bret Farnum, a vice president at Extreme Engineering Solutions, which makes specialized computing systems, some of which go to military suppliers. “We have many customers that are going to continue to deploy it for the next four to five years.”
Apple declined to comment on matters related to PA Semi, which it operates as a subsidiary.
It’s unclear how many of the PA Semi processors will make their way into military systems. Some people I interviewed suggested that Apple could well sell enough of the chips over the next five years to cover the cost of the PA Semi acquisition. Others, however, said that the intense military interest in the processor that arose following the announcement of the acquisition came as a shock, since they were previously unaware of any military deals significant enough to keep PA Semi, which was running out of money, afloat.
“If there was that much business sitting there when Apple tried to buy them, they would have turned down the offer,” said Mr. Gwenapp.
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