Chip crunch feared amid board battleby Stella Zhai
Global chip supply is expected to become more critical as major supplier Arm and its Chinese venture, clashed publicly over senior management issues and Huawei failed to convince suppliers to move its supply chain to the mainland, while Apple is planning to research and develop its own chips.
The conflict erupted after the British Arm said the board of Arm China had voted to oust chief executive Allen Wu, while Arm China posted a statement hours later to its official WeChat account, asserting he was still in charge.
The UK firm then fired back and said Wu had been dismissed after an investigation that uncovered undisclosed conflicts of interest and violations of employee rules.
Arm relies on Chinese names like Huawei for a large portion of its global revenue, and leans on Arm China to help it conduct business in the world's biggest smartphone market.
This came as Huawei attempted to shift a part of output back to the mainland, but its chip and printed circuit board suppliers rejected to relocate their production given uncertainties in the semiconductor industry, local media reported.
Elsewhere, Apple is preparing to announce a shift of its own main processors in Mac computers, replacing chips from Intel as early as this month at its annual developer conference, according to people familiar with the plans. This will be the first time in the 36-year history of the Mac that Apple-designed processors will power these machines.
The new processors will be based on the same ARM-licensed technology used in the Apple-designed iPhone and iPad chips. However, future Macs will still run the macOS operating system rather than the iOS software on mobile devices from the company. Since the hardware transition is still months away, the timing of the announcement could change, the people added.
Apple also plans to launch volume production of the iPhone 12 in July or August, which is ahead of the pre-planned lineup this year for other phone units, tech news agency BGR reported.
Source: The Standard
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section- ... ard-battle
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"