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Apple Ditching Intel 5G Modem Chips for 2020 iPhone Models: Report

Apple Ditching Intel 5G Modem Chips for 2020 iPhone Models: Report

By Jagmeet Singh | Updated: 6 July 2018 11:43 IST

Highlights

Apple is dropping Intel as the radio chip supplier for 2020 iPhone models
Intel has halted its Sunny Peak chip as an outcome
However, the chipmaker is set to improve the chip for 2022 iPhone models

Apple has planned to abandon the deployment of Intel radio chips in its 2020 iPhone models. The iPhone maker has reportedly notified Intel about development. It is also said that the fresh decision has pushed the Santa Clara, California-headquartered company to halt the development of its chip that will combine a 5G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth chip under one build and redirected its engineers to other operations. The Cupertino company was supposed to be the primary customer for the unified chip that is internally known as "Sunny Peak". Interestingly, the new move emerges after it was reported that Apple is considering Chinese chipmaker MediaTek as the second supplier for iPhone modems amid disputes with Qualcomm.

Israeli tech website CTech, which is backed by daily business newspaper Calcalist, reports that Intel will not provide 5G modems for 2020 iPhone models as a result of a notification provided by Apple. Citing people familiar with the development, the report claims that the chipmaker has halted the development of its Sunny Peak chip and redirected its engineers to work on other operations. This comes as Intel was considering Apple to be the "main volume driver" for the advanced chip.

Citing Intel executives, the CTech report highlights that Apple's decision not to use Intel's modem component was due to "many factors." Intel is, however, reportedly set to improve Sunny Peak to bring the modem into the 2022 iPhone models.

Earlier this week, Digitimes reported that Apple is in plans to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm by choosing MediaTek as the modem chip supplier for its next-gen iPhone models. It was originally reported that the Tim Cook-led team was exploring a similar partnership deal with Intel for the 2018 iPhone family. This was planned amidst the long-standing disputes with Qualcomm.

Bloomberg in April reported that Apple was planning to build its own chips for Mac computers as early as 2020 to replace processors from Intel. Mac machines are notably using Intel chips since 2005. The development of in-house chips is likely to help the company offer a seamless experience across its devices, including the iPhone and iPad models that have A-Series of custom chips and MacBook and iMac devices that are so far powered by Intel chips.

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