Key Apple engineer who led development of A7 through A12X chip cores has left the company

“One of Apple’s key semiconductor engineers has left the company, even as the iPhone giant tries to take more control over what goes inside its devices,” Shara Tibken reports for CNET. “Gerard Williams III, senior director in platform architecture, departed Apple last month after nine years, according to a person familiar with the matter.”
“While not well known outside of Apple, Williams led development of every Apple processor core from the A7 — the first 64-bit processor for mobile devices — to the A12X, the chip powering Apple’s latest iPad Pro devices,” Tibken reports. “In recent years, Williams’ responsibilities had grown beyond leading the design of the custom CPU cores for Apple’s chips to overseeing the layout of the various parts of the system-on-a-chip, or SoC, inside the company’s mobile devices.”
“Williams’ departure is a loss for Apple. His work likely will show up in future Apple processors, and he’s listed as an inventor on more than 60 Apple patents,” Tibken reports. “Williams isn’t the first notable Apple engineer to leave its chip business, which is led by Johny Srouji. Two years ago, Apple SoC architect Manu Gulati left for a similar role at Google. After Gulati left Apple, Williams took over his role overseeing SoC architecture.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Could mark the next phase dawning in Cupertino with Macs powered by custom Apple silicon.
SEE ALSO:
Apple moves modem chip engineering unit into in-house hardware technology group – February 7, 2019
Johny Srouji staying at Apple, not a candidate for Intel CEO – January 26, 2019