Former Intel chief engineer blames Skylake architecture for Apple's decision

In recent days there is a lot of talk about Apple's announcement regarding stop using Inte processorsl. While logic would dictate a deal with AMD, the company has chosen to develop its own processors. One of the reasons is to create an extremely closed and exclusive ecosystem. The other reason is explained by François Piednoël, a former Intel chief engineer.

Although Apple has been organizing this divorce for 15 years It will be closed in two years, recent events have precipitated everything. Difficulties jumping to 10nm are one of the factors that have generated this movement. Another factor has been the vulnerabilities that plague the company's processors. We must also add the production problems of recent years.

Former Intel engineer blames Skylake architecture for Apple's decision

You probably don't know who François Piednoël is, but he was a chief engineer at Intel and he knows what he's talking about. It should be noted that the problems with the Skylake architecture are quite evident. Well, more than Skylake architecture, Intel's monolithic design, which on the other hand, seems to have its days numbered.

It was abnormally bad [quality]. We were getting too much criticism for the little things inside Skylake. Basically our friends at Apple became the number one problem detector in architecture. And that was very, very bad.

When your client starts finding almost as many bugs as you did, you are not heading to the right place. For me this is the turning point. This is where the guys at Apple, who were always contemplating change, went and looked and said, 'Well, we probably have to. Basically the poor quality of Skylake is responsible for them moving away from the platform.

François Piednoël, former Intel chief engineer

It seems that things under Bob Swan's command are changing, although it is not yet being seen. Bryan Krzanich's inheritance is not good and correcting all the problems will take time for the company. If he is lucky in something, it is that he is not AMD, and by that I mean that he has a lot of muscle and can afford certain things. Let's remember that before Ryzen, AMD was on the verge of being sold for parts and it was Lisa Su who saved the company.

Source: MD