Posted: June 27, 2020 7:14:01 pm
Why Apple is moving away from Intel. (Express photo: Nandagopal Rajan)
At this year’s World Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple announced the third major transition from CPU to Mac, as it decided to stop using Intel chips to use custom Apple Silicon processors. The move to internally designed custom CPUs gives Apple more control over its line of Macs, but why did the decision come now?
According to former Intel chief engineer François Piednoël, Intel’s Skylake line of processors is to blame for Apple’s decision to separate from the chipmaker. In a recent YouTube video, Piednoël says the quality assurance of Intel’s Skylake processors was “more than a problem, it was abnormally bad.”
According to Piednoël’s account, while Apple was contemplating making its own chips, it wasn’t until after the Cupertino-based company faced problems with Intel’s Skylake processors that it started making serious plans for its own CPUs.
“When your client starts encountering almost as many bugs as you are, you’re not driving to the right place,” says Piednoël, adding: “Basically, our friends at Apple became the number one filing cabinet for architecture problems.”
Also read | Interesting Facts About Johny Srouji, The Man Behind Apple’s Custom Processors
Piednoël says it was Skylake’s poor quality assurance that forced Apple to move away from the Intel platform. If that wasn’t the case, Apple would have continued without issue.
Express Tech is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@expresstechnology) and stay updated with the latest technology news.
Piednoël blames the shake-up on leadership as well as general mismanagement that led critical engineers to leave the team and poor planning that resulted in poor quality assurance from Skylake. He shared the story so that Intel shareholders knew what really happened. He believes that Intel is still a great company and that it can learn and avoid future mistakes.
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines
For the latest technology news, download the Indian Express app.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
.
