Apple yesterday confirmed reports that it was acquiring Intel’s smartphone modem business, to aid its efforts to create its own 5G radio chip. Apple said it was paying $1B, but analysts say that this was a lowball offer …
Last night, Apple officially announced that it was buying Intel’s smartphone modem division in a $1 billion deal. Apple will acquire a patent pool and around 2,200 employees.
Naturally, Apple wants to use this talent to accelerate the development of its own modems. A Reuters report quotes sources that says Apple wants to ship an in-house 5G modem in its devices as soon as 2021.
Apple today has confirmed that it will acquire Intel’s smartphone modem business in a transaction valued at $1 billion. The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2019 and is subject to regulatory approval.
Apple is reportedly in “advanced talks” to acquire Intel’s smartphone modem business. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple would pay at least $1 billion for Intel’s patents and staff.
Earlier this year, Intel announced that it was leaving the smartphone modem business due to profitability concerns. Now, the company is set to auction off its portfolio of patents and IP related to smartphone modem technologies.
The Information is out today with a detailed report on the falling out between Intel and Apple over the last few years that led to settling with Qualcomm, new specifics on Apple’s plans to make its own modems, and more.
Intel has detailed today that four new exploits named ZombieLoad make almost every chip it has made since 2011 vulnerable to attacks. ZombieLoad has some similarities to the Meltdown and Spectre bugs we saw last year. Apple has already patched the vulnerabilities with yesterday’s macOS 10.14.5 update.
More details continue to emerge this weekend about the behind-the-scenes drama of Apple’s dealings with Intel and Qualcomm. According to a report from The Telegraph, Apple poached Intel’s lead 5G modem developer earlier this year.
There has been much speculation about what led to the Apple/Qualcomm settlement at the eleventh hour.
Did Intel tell Apple it was unable to deliver 5G modems by 2020? Did Apple reach its own conclusion that Intel wasn’t up to the job? Or was there some other factor at play that mysteriously led Apple to have a change of heart about a massive lawsuit centred on Qualcomm’s business practices, despite a long history of vehemently objecting to them … ?
Yesterday brought a dramatic end to a long-running series of lawsuits between Apple and Qualcomm – with Intel news following close behind. Here’s a look at what’s likely to happened between Apple, Qualcomm and Intel …
Just hours after Apple’s settlement with Qualcomm, Intel has announced that it is exiting the 5G smartphone modem business. In a press release, the company says that it will instead focus on 5G network infrastructure.
Following an analyst this morning saying Apple may not release a 5G iPhone until 2021, a report from Fast Company this evening sheds more light on Apple’s modem efforts. The report details the company’s increasingly strained relationship with Intel, and the growth of its in-house modem team.
A new report today from Bloomberg looks at the tricky situation Apple may be in as it looks into sourcing 5G modems for its 2020 iPhone lineup. While using Intel may be the company’s first choice, there could be a major downside in using those chips. Meanwhile, Apple’s other 5G modem supplier options are also less than ideal.
Intel today announced its fourth quarter earnings for 2018, missing analyst expectations. The company reported revenue of $18.66 billion, missing Wall Street expectations of $19.01 billion. In its release, Intel attributes its lower-than-expected revenue to slow modem sales.
Intel hasn’t yet revealed its 2019 CPU line-up, but it has disclosed the names of this year’s chips and given a few details about what we can expect from them.
We can never know for sure when Apple will adopt a new generation of Intel CPU even when it is available, but we can make some educated guesses …
Lead attorney for Apple assembly firm Foxconn reiterated statements similar sounding to ones made by Apple attorneys that neither company would seek a settlement in court with Qualcomm over the companies ongoing legal tug-of-war.
The statement comes just weeks after Apple attorney William Isaacson told reporters that a trial against Qualcomm “would be necessary”, despite conflicting comments coming from Qualcomm via its CEO, who implied a peaceful resolution was just “on the doorstep.”
Intel today unveiled their upcoming series of processors destined for 2019, Sunny Cove, based upon a 10nm architecture. Set for Intel’s Core and Xeon series, they could be found in upcoming Mac models seen in 2019 and beyond.
The chips are described as being “deeper, wider and smarter“, and will offer greater performance paired with reduced power draw.
Intel is believed to be supplying 5G modem chips for Apple’s iPhone starting in 2020. However, Intel is looking to produce its 5G chips sooner than previously planned, which could be important to testing them in upcoming iPhones.
I’ve reviewed several Thunderbolt 3 SSDs over the last year or so, and the Akitio Node Lite with Intel Optane SSD is the best performer of them all. Advertising speeds up to 2600 MB/s read, it’s the only external SSD that I’ve tried thus far that skirts close to such a speed rating without being affected by noticeable thermal throttling.
Granted, the combo package of Akitio Node Lite + Intel Optane SSD should be a great performer, after all its price is $1500 for a 960GB SSD. That’s a lot of money to pay for storage when you can buy a 1TB version of Samsung’s bus-powered Thunderbolt 3 SSD for less than half the cost.
But if you’re in the market for an SSD that delivers workstation-class performance and endurance, then the Akitio Node Lite with Intel Optane SSD is worthy of consideration. Not only does it have a high performance ceiling, but it can sustain that performance while under load. Watch our hands-on video for more details.
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After much speculation and teasing, Intel today officially announced its new eighth-generation U-series and Y-series processors. The former was originally code-named Whiskey Lake, while the latter was referred to as Amber Lake. Both are optimized for use is “thin, light” laptops, according to the chipmaker.
Across the board, Intel touts that its new processors focus on providing “ultimately mobile performance and long battery life” for thine and light laptops, as well as 2-in-1s.
It’s long been rumored that Apple is working on Macs powered by custom-designed ARM CPUs, moving away from Intel ones. Here at 9to5Mac we’ve long argued that it’s a question of when and not if, with one report even suggesting that Apple could make the switch as early as 2020.
That idea gets a big boost today as ARM claims that its upcoming CPUs will out-perform Intel ones …
Earlier this month, Apple refreshed its MacBook Pro line with faster performance, but the company was forced to stick with 14-nanometer Coffee Lake processors due to delays from Intel. During its Q2 earnings call this week, however, Intel finally offered more details on when its 10-nanometer Cannon Lake CPUs will be available…