AMD and Apple have a long history of working together on graphics hardware for Macs, but Apple’s recent hiring of multiple AMD engineers raises some interesting questions about Apple’s continuing partnership with the chip maker.
SemiAccurate notes that Apple has now hired another former AMD systems engineer to work as a “System Architect” at Apple. The engineer, John Bruno, was responsible for developing AMD’s Trinity APU chip – a combined system-on-a-chip (like Apple’s own A4-series chips).
Considering his history, it’s likely that Apple will but Bruno to work on their own chip design team to improve their custom processors for iOS devices. He also previously worked at ATI (before it was acquired by AMD) on their Radeon and Rage series of graphics cards.
Of course, there have also been whispers for some time that Apple may be working on a much deeper project, such as developing customer processors for their MacBook line (or perhaps even their desktops). There’s also been speculation that Apple could even purchase AMD for such purposes.
Apple has previously threatened to abandon Intel processors in Macs – and it’s already known that Apple has experimented with AMD processors in products such as the MacBook Air.
So, what is Apple planning? Nobody knows for sure – but considering Apple’s increased attention on building their own custom chips, and their hiring of key AMD engineers, things may be about to get very, very interesting…
