Apple influencing Intel’s roadmap, while Microsoft quips

Imagine being important enough to influence your neighbors’ decisions. Intel came right out and told Reuters today that Apple pushes them so hard to be better that they actually influence Intel’s road map. It’s clearly pretty impressive when you consider the size of both companies.

Tom Kilroy, the senior vice president at Intel, came right out and said it, “We work very closely with [Apple] and we’re constantly looking down the road at what we can be doing relative to future products. I’d go as far as to say Apple helps shape our roadmap.”

While many companies are looking towards ARM processors for their mobile lineups, Intel doesn’t seem too phased by the shift. According to Kilroy, there’s still enough performance difference between Intel and ARM chips that they aren’t too worried … yet.

That being said, Intel is in a bit of a verbal sparring match with a long time customer — Microsoft.

Game On!

It seems like there’s a bit of a shift in the chip market. This week Intel publicly criticized Microsoft over decisions they made with Windows 8.  Renee James, Chipzilla’s software chief, quipped, “There will be four Windows 8 SoCs [system-on-a-chip architectures] for ARM. Each one will run for that specific ARM environment, and they will run new applications or cloud-based applications.

“They are neither forward- nor backward-compatible between their own architecture – different generations of a single vendor – nor are they compatible across different vendors. Each one is a unique stack.”

That meant game on for Microsoft, who shot back: “Intel’s statements during yesterday’s Intel Investor Meeting about Microsoft’s plans for the next version of Windows were factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading. From the first demonstrations of Windows on SoC, we have been clear about our goals and have emphasized that we are at the technology demonstration stage. As such, we have no further details or information at this time.”

Clearly things are heating up in the market.  As it stands, Apple uses Intel chips across their Mac lineup, but rumors have suggested that could change in the near future. We reported just a couple of weeks ago that Apple may be looking to make the switch to ARM in a number of their machines.

The future should be plenty interesting.

Article Via Reuters, Digital Trends, and The Register
Photo Credit: huangjiahui

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