Intel Hopes To Provide their ‘Medfield’ Processors For iOS Devices

Intel has approached Apple with hopes of sneaking their new Medfield processing chip into future iOS device releases. We’ve previously reported the likelihood of a quad core chip in upcoming iOS devices which makes this possibility curious. The Medfield chip is actually a single core processor.

“We don’t frankly see the need for dual core. Our single core with hyperthreading allows simultaneous applications – so we get much greater power efficiency. We believe we are at par if not better than our competitors.”

This from Dave Whalen, Intel’s Architecture group VP in a report from The Telegraph. In this case, Intel’s competitor is Apple itself as iPhones and iPads use chips made in-house, based on the ARM architecture. Apple does utilize Intel processors in their Mac lineup though.

What kind of shot do you think Intel has of making this happen?

Want to see more of our stories on Google?

Add iPhone in Canada as a Preferred Source on Google

P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
11 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Ari
Ari
14 years ago

Not going to happen. Existing apps would break without a recompile. I don’t’ think Apple would want to introduce even more fragmentation.

Besides, the chipset Intel recently demonstrated using a PowerVR gfx chipset from 2007 and Apple’s current G5 is not only dual core but the PowerVR is also dual core and several generations ahead of the Intel demo model.

John Horton
Reply to  Ari
14 years ago

Why a recompile? They’re already coded to work with single core. Curious what the speed is? But also what gen of IOS devices? Little late for what’s in the works now.

Cshudson
Cshudson
Reply to  John Horton
14 years ago

Same reason apps needed to be recompiled to work with Intel macs from motorola/PPC . Has nothing to do with quantity of cores. Has everything to do with OS and microcode .

DoctorT
DoctorT
Reply to  John Horton
14 years ago

Apps right now are code-ed to work with ARM architecture whereas Medfield would be x86 based, thus incompatible without some extra work.

Fraser
Fraser
14 years ago

Would be cool to see Intel be introduced into iOS devices but without something new like quad core it’s a big reach.

Anonymous
Anonymous
14 years ago

I don’t think it’s gonna happen. Apple already has its own good quality processor, why bother to use Intel’s?

DoctorT
DoctorT
14 years ago

Naw, Apple makes it’s own “A” series of processors and they’re proud of them. I doubt they’d go to Intel. Also the Medfield GPU is much weaker than the A5 and probably pathetic compared to the A6 (Apple would probably also get priority purchasing to the latest GPU’s from PowerVR as they own a good chunk of their stock)

Kraken
Kraken
14 years ago

“At par” is not good enough.  They need to blow-away the competition if they want to get Apple’s attention.

Anonymous
Anonymous
14 years ago

Apple bought the company that was making the A-chips to make them internal and reduce costs. Why, 2 years after that, would they completely abandon that, go external again and increase their costs/drop their profit margin?! Not to mention, AFAICT, Intel’s still rocking the single core w/ HT, while Apple’s purportedly developing a quad core?! Sorry Intel, but GTFO.

IMHO, no chance in HELL this will happen unless Intel develops a quad core that costs Apple as little as their current A5 does at their internal rate… Which… yea, just no.

Definingsound
Definingsound
14 years ago

Seems like a PR move by Intel, publicly go for the biggest client on earth, and then actually sell to as many small clients as possible. Chipzilla tends to understand the math behind sales, they just need to get Medfield into people’s decision matrices. Right now it’s under the radar, and unknown products won’t sell.

11
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x