Apple reportedly wants to design its own Mac processors, iPhone modem chips & more

Apple’s own custom designed A-series chip found inside the iPhone and iPad give it a serious competitive advantage over various other Android OEMs. The company aims to build on that as it is looking to reduce its reliance on major chip makers like Intel and Qualcomm.

A report Friday by the Japanese outlet Nikkei, citing analysts and industry sources in Asia, suggests that Apple is keen to expand its semiconductor capabilities further. Specifically, sources say Tim Cook & Co. are interested in “building core processors for notebooks, modem chips for iPhones and a chip that integrates touch, fingerprint and display driver functions.”

To that end, Apple’s apparently hired engineers from Taiwan’s leading display-driver chip designers Novatek and panel maker AU Optronics, according to an industry source.

An excerpt from the article:

Li added it is was unlikely that Apple could quickly roll out such components within two years. Modem chips have a very high threshold to develop and need to fulfill requirements of different operators worldwide.
A veteran chip industry executive estimates that it would require more than a minimum one thousand engineers to work on such a project.

Two industry sources added that Apple is also trying to cut its dependence on Intel when it comes to notebook chips and instead build those using ARM architecture.

Apple has managed to repeatedly shake up the mobile chip industry with its custom-designed A-series chips every year. With the company now looking to build more chips of its own, it will be interesting to see just how much of an impact it would have on the overall industry and the competition.