Topic: Chips
Apple sues Qualcomm in Beijing seeking 1 billion yuan – Reuters (Jan 25, 2017)
The Apple-Qualcomm saga continues. Qualcomm was investigated by the Chinese authorities a couple of years back and although that investigation ended in 2015, Apple appears to be using it in much the same way as it is using the FTC’s action against Qualcomm in the US, as a basis for its own legal action. It’s still almost impossible for any outsider to know how much merit there is on each side of this argument, let alone how individual court systems might ultimately rule, but this fight just keeps getting uglier.
via Reuters
The Qualcomm ‘Tax’ Rebellion – Bloomberg Gadfly (Jan 24, 2017)
This is a great explanation of exactly what’s going on in the lawsuit between Apple and Qualcomm and the various investigations of Qualcomm by competition authorities in several jurisdictions. At root is the fact that Qualcomm charges a licensing fee based on the total cost of devices, not just on the parts Qualcomm makes, a model that’s increasingly out of whack with where the value is in smartphones. It really is starting to feel like the industry has reached a tipping point at which it will no longer put up with this licensing model, and if things don’t go Qualcomm’s way, that will be extremely damaging to its business. Meanwhile, it keeps selling chips to Apple to use in phones, because to stop would be incredibly damaging too.
via Bloomberg Gadfly
Why The LG G6 Won’t Have Snapdragon 835 – Forbes (Jan 24, 2017)
This is sourced reporting from a Forbes contributor who (as far as I am aware) doesn’t have a long track record in scooping news like this, so take it with a pinch of salt. But on the face of it, this makes sense – Qualcomm’s 835 chip is brand new, and Samsung would logically need bucketloads of them for its next Galaxy S phones, potentially gobbling up all the supply available and squeezing other OEMs out in the short term. Apple is famous for securing long-term access to the components it needs and squeezing others out in this way, and given the timing and Samsung’s scale in smartphones, it makes sense that it would be able to secure all the available supply of 835 chips on a short-term basis too. That’s going to be tough for other OEMs launching handsets in the first half of 2016 – even though the article downplays the jump from the 821 to the 835, there are some significant additions in the new chip which will create better performance in areas like battery life, VR/AR, and so on.
via Forbes
Qualcomm Comments on Apple Complaint – Qualcomm (Jan 21, 2017)
This is Qualcomm’s official statement on Apple’s lawsuit filed yesterday in San Diego, and it predictably pushes back on the key points in Apple’s filing. It argues that Apple has been the instigator of the various investigations of alleged anticompetitive behavior by Qualcomm in various jurisdictions, and that Apple has been misleading in its statements to the various authorities involved. Unlike some patent disputes, many of which are ultimately settled out of court, this one looks set to go the distance, given the sheer acrimony involved and the fact that this goes beyond a mere dispute over royalties. Combined with the FTC and Korean case, Qualcomm has plenty on its hands here.
via Qualcomm Comments on Apple Complaint | Qualcomm
FTC Charges Qualcomm With Monopolizing Key Semiconductor Device Used in Cell Phones – Federal Trade Commission (Jan 17, 2017)
The link below is to the FTC’s official statement on this action. This isn’t the first time Qualcomm has been accused by authorities of anticompetitive practices, but it’s been possible to dismiss the Chinese action as the action of a country trying to keep a foreign competitor in check. That obviously isn’t the case here, with the FTC taking aim at a home-grown company. The allegations are serious – that Qualcomm illegally ties licensing and chip purchases, that it refuses to license so-called FRAND patents on reasonable terms to competitors, and that it forced Apple into an exclusive arrangement that squeezed out competitors. This won’t be easily dismissed, and the stock price took a quick tumble by about 4% late in the session, though it’s relatively stable after hours so far. Qualcomm has dominated portions of its key markets, but if some of the strategies it’s used to achieve that dominance are undone by regulators, things might open up in interesting ways to competitors.
The demand for AI is helping Nvidia and AMD leapfrog Intel – The Verge (Jan 11, 2017)
This is a good summary of the way in which Intel is now being challenged not just in mobile by ARM architectures but in AI by Nvidia and AMD too. That means that Intel is now falling behind in the two most important new chip use cases, not just one, and that its big bets on IoT and wearables will likely end up looking marginal next to AI as the next big opportunity for chip vendors. Add in cars, where Nvidia is also doing very well, and suddenly things start to look pretty bleak for Intel. There’s a great deeper dive here on the WSJ too.
via The demand for AI is helping Nvidia and AMD leapfrog Intel – The Verge
Nvidia and Mercedes-Benz to bring an AI car to market within a year | TechCrunch (Jan 7, 2017)
Though lots of the fuss about AI in cars relates to autonomous driving, the reality is that we’re many years from broad scale autonomous driving, and so what we’ll get in the meantime is lots of technology that assists human drivers rather than doing the driving itself. This Nvidia-Mercedes partnership is very much in this category, though we don’t know all the details yet, but we’ll see lots more of this kind of thing in the next few years, which in turn will help train AIs to take over the driving later on.
via Nvidia and Mercedes-Benz to bring an AI car to market within a year | TechCrunch
Audi Pushes Toward Fully Autonomous Cars – WSJ (Jan 5, 2017)
Nvidia has been making big strides in the car technology space, and made more news this week at CES with a partnership with Audi. This is one of the most interesting battles among the major chipmakers at the moment, and Nvidia does seem to be doing well, while Intel and Qualcomm also make advances (both also made news at CES this week).
via Audi Pushes Toward Fully Autonomous Cars – WSJ
BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye Will Have Autonomous Test Vehicles on the Roads by the Second Half of 2017 | Intel Newsroom (Jan 4, 2017)
This is a big deal for Intel, which has seemed to be behind some of its big chip competitors in the autonomous driving space, and the fact that real cars will be on real roads later this year means this is delivering actual results today, and not just a loose partnership. This will be a big year for autonomous driving in general, likely the year almost all big automakers run some of their first trials on real roads, and Intel needs to be in the mix like this. I’ll be talking to BMW next week at the Detroit auto show about all this too.
Qualcomm’s new chip may finally get you to try VR – CNET (Jan 3, 2017)
Qualcomm’s new high-end mobile chip moves its product forward across a number of different categories, but it seems to be emphasizing the AR and VR aspects at its CES presentation. I’m looking forward to getting some more detail on this chip in a briefing later this week, but it looks like extending Qualcomm’s lead in this space at the high end.
via Qualcomm’s new chip may finally get you to try VR – CNET
Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake review: Is the desktop CPU dead? – Ars Technica UK (Jan 3, 2017)
This is a fairly damning review of the latest set of Kaby Lake chips from Intel, some of which were announced late last year. The thrust is that in desktops in particular but also in the rest of the lineup Intel is making only incremental improvements over its Skylake processors. This is particularly interesting in the context of Apple’s recent MacBook Pro upgrades, which used the Skylake chips because they couldn’t do what they wanted to with Intel’s newest. Without meaningful competition in PC chips, this isn’t as dangerous as it might be, but it doesn’t bode well that Intel isn’t pushing the envelope in what’s still its core market.
via Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake review: Is the desktop CPU dead? | Ars Technica UK
Intel is buying into maps because it can’t afford to miss out on self-driving cars – Recode (Jan 3, 2017)
HERE has walked an interesting path since its acquisition by a consortium of carmakers. It’s already had an investment from several big Chinese tech names, and now here comes Intel. Intel is likely responding here to Nvidia’s early lead in car chips, though I’m not sure how much this play makes sense there: mapping is, of course, generally integrated into devices well above the chip level. But kudos to the carmakers for getting a range of other investors to buy in and recoup some of their investment.
via Intel is buying into maps because it can’t afford to miss out on self-driving cars – Recode
Qualcomm Cutting-Edge Automotive Solutions Power Next Generation Infotainment for Volkswagen Vehicles – Qualcomm (Jan 3, 2017)
Qualcomm is one of three big chipmakers to have announced new automotive deals at CES this week, along with Intel and Nvidia. Given how similar many in-car infotainment systems are to the smartphones and tablets Qualcomm already powers, it’s always been a natural player in this space, and is starting to make some headway here. As Android starts to make more of an appearance in these systems, Qualcomm will be a natural partner too – I saw a Panasonic concept system that married Android and a Qualcomm chip on display at CES.
South Korea slaps Qualcomm with record-setting $850M fine – Ars Technica (Dec 28, 2016)
Following action in China in early 2015, Korea initiated similar action against Qualcomm in late 2016, with similar allegations about anticompetitive practices with regard to patent licensing. The Chinese action was easily (perhaps too easily) dismissed a being part of a Chinese government crackdown on US companies, but similar action in Korea is slightly less so, and of course subsequent action by the US FTC has no similar explanation. Yes, Samsung and LG are two of Qualcomm’s biggest customers, and so there may have been an element of protectionism in Korea too, but this was the first real sign of fire behind the smoke.
via Ars Technica
Nvidia Surges in 2016 Using Graphics Chips to Challenge Intel – Bloomberg (Dec 21, 2016)
Nvidia has been one of the great chip success stories of the last couple of years, coming at the market from a new angle and outperforming competitors including Intel in emerging opportunities like autonomous driving. This is a great summary of that strategy and trajectory.
via Nvidia Surges in 2016 Using Graphics Chips to Challenge Intel – Bloomberg
China Hits Qualcomm With Fine – The New York Times (Feb 9, 2015)
The context for this fine against Qualcomm is a broader crackdown by the Chinese authorities on US-based companies which compete with local ones or which are perceived to be gaining an overly dominant position in China. It would therefore also be easy to dismiss this action as more representative of a broader Chinese policy than of any wrongdoing on Qualcomm’s part. However, given all that’s happened since in Korea, the US, and China, it’s now somewhat harder to dismiss this case as being utterly without merit. There’s still the question of whether Qualcomm has genuinely done something wrong or whether Apple is merely flexing its muscles through seeking common cause with friendly regulators, but this Chinese action can now be seen as the beginning of something much bigger rather than a one-off, even if it took quite some time for that to become clear.
via New York Times