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Intel ends 5G modem alliance with Beijing-backed chipmaker
- smaili 8y agoHas anyone else been experiencing horrendous data speeds with their iPhone XS? I only ask because this was the first model shipped with an Intel modem, amd compared to my 6S this is nowhere near as fast or reliable over 4G and LTE.
- jak92 8y agoactually, most of the carrier locked iphone x's were also shipped with intel chips.
- swozey 8y agoYeah I've been heavily following phones the last few weeks as I was considering switch to an iPhone (just ordered the s10 5 minutes ago) and the XR modem is a constant complaint on reddit and in reviews. I'd send links but I'm walking through to work. I can't remember if the non XR phones have the same complaint off the top of my head. I feel like they did and the XR was just way more common to hear about (probably due to far more people with XRs). It was a very common complaint in youtube and reddit comments anytime a review was posted.
- ksec 8y ago>I only ask because this was the first model shipped with an Intel modem 7, 8 / X All had a version with Intel Modem. XS is, however the first model to ship only with Intel Modem. I don't think it has horrendous Data Speed. But it is certainly has a different characteristics to Qualcomm Modem. XS is generally weaker with signals, and we are not quite sure if it was the 4x4 MIMO or the Intel Modem. XR doesn't seems to be as bad so a guess would be due to Apple's implementation of 4x4 Antenna. While ALL phones had problems with 4x4 Antenna in their first generation, that includes Samsung and Huawei, you generally expect Apple, being a year late to the tech would have ironed out most of it. But generally speaking, a Qualcomm Modem would still get better signal than Intel. This is especially a problem in US where the Cell Tower Density is lower as compared to Asia / EU counterpart. There has also been 3 to 4 Modem Firmware revision since launch, and likely more to come in iOS 12.2, let just hope ( pray ) Intel's next Modem 7660 is actually better. And Apple could actually put a rounding error budget into their Antenna Design, because as far as Flagship Smartphone is concerned, iPhone has the worst one. Or Qualcomm will relent and work with Apple again, but judging from the Court testimony this seems highly unlikely.
- dmix 8y agoThis is interesting. Do you work in a field where you get to test phone modems?
- phonon 8y agohttp://cellularinsights.com/iphone7/ http://cellularinsights.com/iphone7/ AFAIK there is still a sensitivity and LTE capability gap between Qualcomm and Intel. Kind of sad Apple doesn't think that's worth the extra ~$10 or so on a $1000 phone.
- wolfgke 8y ago> Kind of sad Apple doesn't think that's worth the extra ~$10 or so on a $1000 phone. I believe cost is only one part of the reason. The much more important part is, I think, control.
- mises 8y agoI think at this point the bridge between Apple and Qualcomm is pretty well burned, especially after all the legal nastiness. I'm wondering if Apple will move some of its chip design talent to fabricating their own modems. It seems that Apple has been trying to pull more stuff in-house for greater integration and performance (plus more profit). This is also supported a job posting someone uncovered: https://bgr.com/2018/05/01/iphone-5g-chip-apple-qualcomm-intel/ https://bgr.com/2018/05/01/iphone-5g-chip-apple-qualcomm-int...
- dwaite 8y agoApple really doesn't like putting all their eggs in a single vendor basket. It was my understanding that when Apple started using both Intel and Qualcomm modems that Qualcomm started telling Apple they would have to pay "full price" for patent licensing on the Intel modems, and things deteriorated.
- bunnycorn 8y agoWho paid for that "study"? Qualcomm... Yeah, no.
- phyalow 8y agoMy XS has given me mindblowing performance on Vodafone UK, certainly better than my iPhone 7. I guess your mileage may vary.
- mtgx 8y agoI assume Intel realized this "partnership" was not worth China stealing all of its IP and designs only to come up with a competing product that 90% as good and half the price a couple of years later? If only more companies realized the same. Not that this means they won't have to protect themselves against China's relentless IP stealing. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/30/tech/samsung-china-tech-theft/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/30/tech/samsung-china-tech-t...
- azinman2 8y agoThey largely won’t because they’re all short term motivated.
- 52-6F-62 8y agoDon't forget the Nortel situation... https://outline.com/879RCq https://outline.com/879RCq
- ishikawa 8y agoalso worth reading: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-cold-war-china-could-doom-us-all/ https://www.wired.com/story/ai-cold-war-china-could-doom-us-...
- Dahoon 8y agoHoly shit, that picture at the top is the most propaganda-brainwashed-picture I have seen since looking at old cold war pictures. As if the US is in a good vs. evil fight. Well it might be, but on which side?
- Latteland 8y agoWell, the Chinese government is bad but the us is led by people who are chaotic evil, increasing the chance for the us do immoral things - and it's not like things such as supporting Saudi Arabia in Yemen started with our current loser leader. The citizens of most countries would probably like to be free of concern about the world ending or pointless wars. Unfortunately both places have sizable groups of nationalistic-oriented people who are hugely pumped up about saying "their country" is the world's greatest, exceptional, etc, so bellicose comments have too much support. While we are tearing apart our democracy in the us step by step, we'll eventually get a different leader who is more interested in doing useful things and less interested in a cult of personality and less interested in doing any venal thing to get support for his base. Meanwhile, China is stuck with a dear leader for life. The country grows ever more powerful, but also is increasing in it's terrifying Orwellian oversight. I'm afraid that China will show it's possible to watch everyone all the time and crush freedom and then other western authoritarian leaders will follow suit.
- entity345 8y agoIncidently Unisoc has launched its 5G modem today: http://www.unisoc.com/unisoc-launches-5g-technology-platform-makalu-and-its-first-5g-modem-ivy510 http://www.unisoc.com/unisoc-launches-5g-technology-platform...
- ksec 8y agoSo they manage to launch a 2G - 5G MultiMode Modem inline with other Industry leaders ( Comparatively Speaking ) Like Intel and Qualcomm. And Intel decide to end the partnership? Something doesn't sound right. Or did they get IP from other players?
- dis-sys 8y agoUnisoc bought Spreadtrum a few years ago and Spreadtrum has been in the modem business since 2010 with its 3/4G modems doing ok in many medrange to low end smartphones, e.g. Samsung J1, Samsung Z series.
- ksec 8y agoThx, didn't know Spreadtrum is now UniSoc. I was wondering when did Intel sign an agreement with a company other than Spreadtrum. I should have looked it up first. Now all this makes much more sense. But they had really crappy Modem in the past, as compared to MediaTek in the low end segment. I guess this 5G IP is part of the coming XMM 8160.
- entity345 8y agoChinese companies have been working on multimode chips for 20 years and are leader in 5G.
- 40acres 8y ago5G is the new space race and sooner than later we're going to have a Sputnik moment. Everything coming out of China needs to be taken with a grain of salt but it definitely seems likely that they will have a head start in 5G deployments, especially as Europeans seem resistant to US demands to boycott Huawei.
- jak92 8y agono, 5g is hype. seriously, unless you want to live in a dystopian society where everything is "connected" it's not really a big deal
- Taylor_OD 8y agoWe're getting closer and closer to that future regardless of what we want.
- foolfoolz 8y agowhen 5g comes we will all: - feel the internet on our phones is about the same speed as it is now - pay the same amount each month on phone bill - have same low coverage areas as we already do - see a bigger number on the top row of the phone
- DaiPlusPlus 8y agoI guarantee the incumbent network operators in the US will find some way to role us into $100/mo plans.
- plussed_reader 8y agoOr an MVNO like Fi.
- griffinkelly 8y agoIt has the potential to put ISPs out of business, so I'm sure AT&T and Verizon will have some new phone bill/bundle package to attempt to steal business from Comcast.
- TorKlingberg 8y agoI can add a bit of technical context here. High-end phones usually have a baseband chip separate from the main SoC. There is also an RF chip and some discrete components in front of the antennas. Qualcomm is quite dominant, but Apple has switched to Intel over the last few years. In low- or mid-end phones the baseband is usually integrated in the main SoC. Taiwanese MediaTek is the biggest supplier. Unisoc clearly wants to compete with MediaTek, and Intels modem division has trouble getting into low-end phones as nobody wants complete Intel SoCs in phones. So they agreed to integrate Intels modem as an IP block in Unisoc chips. In tablets and the few laptops that have mobile data the baseband + RF are usually on a modem module, M.2 or similar. The Librem 5 phone also takes this approach.
- JustSomeNobody 8y agoI thought Qualcomm integrated all that onto the SOC after LTE. LTE was a huge battery drain at first because they weren't integrated. Am I not understanding something here?
- phonon 8y agoQualcomm sells discrete modems as well. (Apple used to be their major customer for them). https://www.qualcomm.com/products/modems https://www.qualcomm.com/products/modems
- subway 8y agoApple devices (and a handful of android tablets) use separate baseband chips. Most android SoCs have the baseband on the same silicon as the arm cores.
- newusertoday 8y agoyour understanding is correct except apple everyone else using qualcomm's soc in premium phones uses integrated baseband inside qc's soc. There is one difference though first launches at the time of "G" tansitions i.e. 3g to 4g,4g to 5g also use discrete modems because technology is generally not mature enough to be integrated into soc.
- cowabungamann 8y agoWhere can I, a technical person, learn about 5G? I'm interested in what makes it better? What tradeoffs are being made? What are the implications of those tradeoffs? etc