Apple has thousands of engineers within its silicon development teams working on a range of projects, including processors, graphics chips and, of course, modems.
And while the modem development work is clearly slower than expected, at Apple the end of some projects is not always the beginning and that is why it is now focusing on the next big networking standard, 6G.
Apple’s been saying/not saying this for some time, via its usual outlets of speculation, rumor, and media proxies. It leaves a lot of what we think we know sitting firmly beyond the wall of industry speculation in a place more cynical eyes see as “plausible deniability.”
But we do know some things
But some things are in the clear.
In recent years, we’ve seen Apple improve its relationship with Qualcomm, extend its 5G modem supply deal with Qualcomm, and invest billions in internal silicon development — particularly in its Munich center, where many former Intel modem engineers are based.
We’ve also seen Apple ink deals with GlobalStar to put SOS messages sent by iPhones into space. That deal is extending globally, the free component was recently extended by at least another year, and we all know that some elements of the 6G future mobile networking standard extends into space with use of things like beamforming, MIMO and more. (Apple is already assembling patents to use satellite in various ways.)
That, incidentally, is why so many companies and governments are spending eye-watering amounts of money shoving Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites up there just as fast as they can. (Though every time a new one goes up there you can’t help but imagine watching Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity [recommended]).
So, what else is happening?
So, what else is there that combines mobile networking with space? At present not much beyond hook-ups like satellite communications and SOS for iPhone – but that changes in the future with 6G.
That’s why today’s experiment in plausible deniability seems to make interesting sense, as a new Apple recruitment ad appears seeking a high-level engineer to lead on the design of a 6G reference architecture.
It is important not to read too much into that, of course. After all, we already know Apple is getting involved in 6G so it’s no surprise at all that it is ramping up its R&D investment in the tech.
Why? Because everyone in the industry thinks 6G will be important to the future of connected everything, particularly smart transport.
Making a difference one standard at a time
But what’s really different here is that with literally years of Intel modem work under its belt, Apple’s next-gen tech boffins now have a chance not just to play catch-up in terms of the deployment of a standard, but to find ways in which to contribute to the standard itself. They didn’t really have that momentum during 5G standards development.
One way to do this, of course, is to develop reference architecture suggestions…
2023-12-05 02:41:02
Original from www.computerworld.com rnrn