[Apple Shockwave](21) Semiconductor Design That Even Apple Failed At... Google Also Finds It Difficult

Google Faces Challenges in Pursuing In-House Smartphone Chip Design Following Apple
Chasing the 'Apple Way' with Semiconductor OS Fully Secured
Foundry Shift Reported from Samsung to TSMC
Apple's Semiconductor Design Struggles: Failed Quad-Core CPU Attempt in the 1980s
Supercomputer Concealed for CPU Design Ends Up as PC Case Design Tool

Editor's Note[Apple Shockwave] is a content series that explores the upheaval caused by Apple entering the semiconductor market. You might wonder why Apple is involved in semiconductors. Apple is no longer just a company that makes smartphones and computers. After long efforts starting from its founder Steve Jobs, Apple has designed world-class semiconductors used in mobile devices. If Intel was the leader in the PC era, Apple has become the top predator in the mobile era semiconductor ecosystem. Amid the global semiconductor supply chain crisis and massive investments in semiconductor production facilities, we will carefully examine the upheaval and prospects in the semiconductor market brought about by Apple Silicon to broaden our readers' insights. Apple Shockwave will visit readers every Saturday. After more than 40 installments, it will be published as a book.

"In the future, computer companies with silicon design capabilities will be classified as either thriving or dying." (Hermann Hauser: ARM Founder)

Apple Silicon is the 'catfish' in the IT field. The semiconductors that Apple has independently designed and secured have now become the core components of all Apple products. With superior semiconductors, Apple has launched better-performing products, increased market share and sales, and become a $3 trillion market capitalization company.

Apple's competitors are also trying to design their own semiconductors, as predicted by Hermann Hauser, ARM's founder. A representative example is Google. Google has a competitive and intertwined relationship with Apple. Apple used Google Maps and Google Search on the iPhone. Google introduced the Android smartphone operating system competing with the iPhone and also sells smartphones called 'Pixel.'

Over the past few years, Google has attempted to use its own developed application processor (AP) in Pixel devices. While receiving help from ARM, Google planned to complete the design internally. This is significant because it means leveraging Apple's successful approach.

Currently, Google Pixel uses the 'Tensor' chip developed jointly with Samsung Electronics. Tensor is designed based on Samsung's Exynos chip. It is a joint product of Google and Samsung. The chip manufacturing is also done at Samsung Foundry.

Tensor chip used in Google Pixel smartphones

However, Pixel phones using the Tensor chip could not catch up with the performance of Apple's iPhone. In benchmark tests evaluating chip performance, Tensor could not compete with Apple's 'A chip.' Heat generation was also a concern.

Samsung already used Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip in its flagship smartphone Galaxy S23. Even though Qualcomm moved its production line from Samsung to TSMC, Samsung partnered with Qualcomm to secure phone performance. This underscores the importance of the AP chip's performance for smartphone differentiation.

Google also needed a 100% self-developed chip integrated with the Android OS to improve chip performance while securing power efficiency suitable for mobile devices.

Google's goal was to secure a fully self-designed Tensor chip by next year. For Google, which owns the Android OS, to also make its own chip means complete control over the smartphone. While Qualcomm leads the Android camp's chips with Snapdragon chips as Samsung's Exynos falters, if Google releases a chip that can compete with Apple's A-series chips, the Android ecosystem's flow could change.

However, a variable has emerged in this situation. Information technology media The Information reported that Google has delayed securing chips for Pixel by one year. This means Google will not release a self-designed smartphone chip until at least 2025.

Cooperation between semiconductor design personnel divided between the US and India was difficult, and frequent personnel turnover delayed the overall chip development schedule, according to a former Google executive.

It is known that Google ultimately failed to send its self-designed Tensor design to TSMC by last year. Google's chip design was only delivered to TSMC earlier this year, making production impossible within this year. This also signals that Google will change chip manufacturing from Samsung to TSMC.

The delay in the appearance of Google's self-designed Tensor chip can also be linked to TSMC. The new Tensor is also expected to use TSMC's 3nm process. Apple is said to have already secured most of TSMC's 3nm production capacity this year. With Apple dominating, Nvidia, AMD, and others are also losing out in the competition for TSMC's 3nm wafers, making it difficult for TSMC to rush production of Google's low-volume chips.

It is also analyzed that because Pixel sales are extremely low compared to the iPhone, it is difficult to invest in semiconductor R&D at Apple's level.

Dylan Patel, an analyst at Semianalysis, explained, "Google finds it difficult to make profits from smartphones but sees a reason to secure self-developed semiconductors in preparation for future products such as VR devices."

In other words, Google is expected to pursue a head-on competition by securing its own semiconductors instead of just watching Apple's dominance. It is interpreted that Google judged it impossible to continuously develop products that can compete with future-oriented Apple products like Pixel smartphones and Vision Pro without semiconductors.

Meta also faced difficulties in self-chip design. Meta, Facebook's parent company, also attempted but gave up on developing its own semiconductors. Meta tried to use its own developed chip in the VR headset 'Quest' but ultimately used Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR chip.

Apple's Difficult Semiconductor Design... Major Setback in the 1980s

Has Apple Silicon always had an easy path? Not at all. Apple Silicon also experienced failures, which became nutrients for development.

In the late 1980s, Apple pursued the design of a quad-core CPU through its in-house CPU project called the 'Aquarius' project.

The history of Apple Silicon is surprisingly deep. The first attempt began in the 1980s.

Apple Silicon's first project was the 'Aquaris' project launched in 1980. The first Mac computer developed under Steve Jobs operated with the Motorola 68000 chip. This chip was insufficient to support the graphical user interface (GUI) created by Jobs.

John Sculley, then CEO, and John Louis Gass?e, who played a key role in ousting Jobs, agreed on the need for Apple to secure its own chip design capabilities.

A team was formed to design Apple Silicon. The goal was a quad-core chip. The ambitious plan was to create a Mac PC with performance far superior to computers using Intel or Motorola chips. Intel introduced its first quad-core CPU in 2007. Apple had started a plan that would only be realized about 20 years later.

Apple introduced Cray's supercomputer X-MP/48 for semiconductor design, investing $15 million. There is an anecdote that CEO Sculley personally called a Cray salesperson to place the order.

Apple completed the supercomputer installation in six weeks. About 50 personnel were dedicated to Aquaris.

Apple had to keep secret that the massive supercomputer was used for CPU design. They gave a plausible reason that it was needed for Mac computer circuit design. Seymour Cray, founder of Cray, did not know where Apple was using the supercomputer he developed. However, Cray enjoyed Apple's adoption of the Cray supercomputer. An article about Apple's adoption in Cray's newsletter proves this.

Supercomputer company Cray introduced Apple adopting its products through its company newsletter.

The goal of a quad-core CPU was ambitious but difficult to realize. Unlike single-core CPUs, quad-core inevitably generated more heat and was complex to design. Apple, struggling with poor performance, did not have the capacity to invest as much as Intel or Motorola.

Ultimately, the Aquaris project was canceled. The Cray supercomputer introduced to design Apple Silicon was reportedly handed over to the Macintosh computer case design team.