The freshly baked new Intel boss does not want to be stolen from the bread in Apple’s processor business. In an address to employees reported by the Oregonian local newspaper in the US state, Patrick P. Gelsinger said his company had to deliver “better products” to the PC ecosystem as “every possible thing a lifestyle company from Cupertino could deliver”. “We must be so good in the future.”

Apple Silicon rushes ahead The slightly condescending formulation naturally refers to the Mac manufacturer, which started with its first desktop and notebook processor ARM-Basis, the M1, had caused a stir in the IT scene – both with its performance and with its diverse possibilities. For example, Intel code sometimes runs faster on ARM Macs than on Pentiums via the Rosetta 2 translation software. In addition, the M1 is very energy-efficient and develops comparatively little heat – so the MacBook Air with Apple Silicon works completely without a fan.

Apple was not quite 15 years ago in the Intel universe switched to its own processors, as they are already in the iPhone and iPad. This switch could be completely finished by 2022, various other models with Apple Silicon are expected this year. Intel currently has nothing to counter this, as industry observers believe.

“The best times are still ahead of Intel” Gelsinger will soon inherit his predecessor Bob Swan. Only then should new central decisions be made. The manager who is currently in charge of VMware is not a newcomer to Intel – until 2009 he worked for the chip giant for a good three decades and was chief among other things Technology Officer. In his opinion, Intel has “the best of days ahead”. The group has already taken the first steps towards changes under Swan.

So he began to issue the production of high-quality CPUs to contract manufacturers for the first time. Apple has been pursuing this strategy from the start – all Apple silicon products currently come from TSMC’s Taiwanese fabs, previously also from Samsung. Oddly enough, Intel is now also using the services of TSMC – Core i3 chips with a structure width of 5 nm are initially produced there, and later top CPUs in 3 nm production are also manufactured. It is unclear whether this is sufficient to stand up to the increasingly powerful ARM chips. (bsc)