Apple seems to be exploring far more options than just Intel’s technology. With an ARM CPU in the iPhone, and new NVIDIA’d-out notebooks, Intel is slowly waking up to realize that its technology might be at risk due to natural progression in the technology industry.
At Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in 2005, Apple announced that it would transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007. This was huge. If there was anything that could take Apple’s family of PowerPC computers and make them genuine contenders, it was the use of Intel chips. At the time, the computer industry couldn’t wait to experience increased performance, especially from Intel, especially on a Mac. The relationship between Apple and Intel has always been very mutual, with both companies heavily relying on the others innovation, as we have seen with the custom chip developed for the Macbook Air.
Over the last few years, the relationship between Apple and Intel has remained very neutral. No major discrepancies have been reported, and until recently, neither company ever had a negative word about the other one.
At a recent developer forum in Taiwan, Intel seemingly boasted their upcoming (mobile) Moorestown platform, while slamming Apple’s iPhone for using an ARM CPU, which Intel claims is bogging the device down. Apple made the decision to adapt the iPhone’s current ARM CPU because they thought it would deliver the best all around performance when working in real world scenarios. Situations and applications that call for increased horse-power were said to improve when running on ARM’s CPU. Intel, however, thinks this is entirely wrong, and that every shortcoming the device may have, can be blamed on its boggy ARM CPU.
Pankaj Kedia, Intel’s director of ecosystems for its ultra-mobility group and Shane Wall, Intel’s VP, mobility group and director strategic planning, platform architecture and software, ultra-mobility group (title anyone?), both claimed that the iPhone was currently being limited because it lacked an Intel based (mobile) platform.
The shortcomings of the iPhone are not because of Apple, Intel’s director of ecosystems for its ultra-mobility group Pankaj Kedia said at the Intel Developer Forum in Taipei, Taiwan. The shortcomings of the iPhone have come from ARM.
If you want to run full internet, you’re going to have to run an Intel-based architecture, Wall explained to the engineers. Any sort of application that requires any horse power at all and the iPhone struggles.
Wall continued to explain his thoughts about why Apple’s iPhone achieved such a tremendous level of success. According to him, an exceptional user interface, a lot of hype, and a great salesman CEO all attributed to the massive buzz around the device. However, Wall believes the device “fell short in a number of areas.”
Remaining confident that only Intel will be able to deliver the kind of performance needed in the mobile environment, Wall and Kedia concluded, “Even if they [ARM] do have full capability, the performance will be so poor.” — “I know what their roadmap is, I know where they’re going and I’m not worried.”
[MDN]
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