Intel working on Apple’s next iPhone chip

Intel is working on its resources into a project for supplying Apple's next iPhone with the next-generation LTE modem, as per the reports. Around 1000 people have been working in teams to outfit a 2016 iPhone with its lauded 7360 LTE modem chip, and if everything goes well, then Intel will supply both the modem and the fabrication for a new Apple system on a chip.

Intel is working to beat the Qualcomm
and its 9X45 LTE chip as the go-to modem for Apple's handsets, to make this Apple-made system-on-a-chip, or SOC like the Ax chip found in current iPhones, which can yet hold processor and the LTE modem on a single efficient component.

Apple is likely to license Intel's technology and brand the SOC with Ax series of chip. The company has till date relied on the Samsung and chip maker TSMC to manufacture the iPhone 6S's A9, while purchasing Qualcomm mobile LTE modems for the device connectivity.

Now Apple’s partnership with Intel will have the superior fabrication methods, likely to bring in more of the chip design and manufacturing in-house, moving away from the other companies. Apple has made a number of high-profile Apple hires in the last two years from Intel-owned Infineon to bolster the case The German-based company has provided the iPhone with the 3G modems before it was acquired by Intel in 2011 and Apple made Qualcomm its modem supplier.

Venture Beats adds, “One source said Intel needs a small army of people on the Apple account because of the importance of the project to Intel’s future in the mobile market, because of the complexity of the project, and because Apple is a demanding client with an extremely popular phone.Our sources don’t believe Apple has officially signed Intel as a supplier of the modem chip, but a deal will happen if Intel continues to hit its project milestones.”