Intel's Atom Chip To Power Future iPhone

The next generation of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone - by which I mean, not the 3G iPhone due on July 11, but the version after that - will be powered by a version of Intel’s (INTC) new Atom family of low-cost, low-power processors, according to JoAnne Feeney, an analyst with FTN Midwest.

In a research note this morning, she wrote that the Atom-powered iPhone may arrive sometime in 2009 or 2010.

Feeney says that the Atom development program is “well ahead of schedule.” She notes that Intel’s current roadmap includes Menlow, the 45 nm platform on which the current version of Atom is built; Moorestown, a new version with lower power consumption due in 2009, also at 45 nm; and an as-yet unnamed version in 2010 that takes the Moorestown design down to 32 nm while further improving power efficiency and cost. But she now thinks the company will be showing Atom at 32 nm in the second half, with a demo at the Intel Developers Forum August 19-21. That would pave the way for the adoption by Apple for the next gen iPhone, she says.

Feeney notes that the iPhone 3G is expected to use a customized Samsung application processor along with baseband, RF and GPS chips from Infineon (IFX). She says the Samsung chip will cost Apple an estimated $13.50 apiece; if Apple can sell 25 million iPhones, she says, Intel could generate incremental revenue of $250 million for Intel. (That would imply the current lowest priced Atom, at around $20, coming down about 50% in price.)

Meanwhile, Feeney also says that Intel’s Montevina platform delays are “a bit more severe than thought.” But she adds that “near-term uncertainties are more than offset by improving long-term prospects.” She maintains Buy ratings on both Intel and rival Advance Micro Devices (AMD).

Comments

[Royster:]

Didn't Steve Jobs say that Apple is going to use PA Semi's chips for iPods and iPhones in the future and that was the whole point of buying PA Semi?

2008 Jun 27 12:34 AM

[chartguy:]

PS Semi is a virtual fab... it designs chips but doesn't build them. Somebody still needs to make the chip.

2008 Jun 27 12:31 PM

[ihector:]

Steve Jobs a few days ago, declared: "PA Semi is going to
do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods,"

I don't understand this topic, Atom or PA SEMI custom chip??? for iPhone and iPods.

I'm confused...I will wait to see the next iPhone.

www.appleinsider.com/a...

2008 Jun 27 04:57 PM

[tom1234:]

well there might be other reasons ---have CONTROL (cause that is the WIZZARDS game ) of a hard to get quality product --

2008 Jun 29 10:29 AM

[torbenm:]

Feeney seems to make the deduction "it is possible, therefore it must be true", i.e., that because future Atom processors will be able to power Iphones, Apple will choose them to do so.

It is not like there is an inherent advantage in an x86 processor (unless you want to run Windows, which Apple clearly don't), which many socalled "analysts" seem to think. It was the same when Nvidia announced the Tegra APX 2500 and CSK 600/650 processors. The news seemed to focus more on their not being able to run Windows XP than on technical merits.

2008 Jun 30 09:43 AM

[Balthazar B:]

If Apple were to move to one of the recently-announced/rel... low-power chips for iPhone, it would much more likely be the Tegra than the Atom. Much more efficient, and better suited for the visuals that are one of the iPhone's stronger selling points. Would all depend on getting the OSX code subset working on Tegra.

2008 Jul 02 10:36 AM

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