Microsoft would have joined the ranks of manufacturers who want to make chips in house: the rumors are now joined by a "suspicious" announcement on LinkedIn
An announcement called by Microsoft on LinkedIn has given credence to a past indiscretion, according to which, behind the scenes, Microsoft was working on the design of a chip. It wouldn't be the first time: back in 2019, the Surface Pro X was announced with a Microsoft SQ1 chip, which the company had developed alongside Qualcomm.
Now, however, the work seems more "serious." The context is clearly different, and the initiatives of Apple first, which in 2020 surprised fans and insiders by announcing the family of Apple Silicon chips developed in Cupertino, and then Google, which on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will inaugurate the Tensor chip, have enticed other market players, including Microsoft. The "in house" design of a chip has not only positive repercussions on performance and consumption, in terms of efficiency to use just one term, but it helps companies to reduce their dependence on third parties.
We are looking for engineers on LinkedIn
Microsoft is seriously considering the idea of designing in house the chips that will equip the Surface of the future. To take for good the convictions of the well informed, the conditional is even overabundant. The clue comes from some ads went online on LinkedIn, the famous platform focused on professional contacts and on which companies of all kinds are looking for figures to be included in the workforce. Here's the text of the ad posted on LinkedIn:
"Would you like to build cool devices and technologies? The Surface team wants to augment the Microsoft experience for the next generation. A key aspect of our strategy is to combine productivity and flexibility through devices that enable new experiences, helping people and businesses reach their potential by unleashing creativity."
Microsoft like Apple?
This is a hint - hence the conditional - because the company has not made it clear that it intends to develop one or more chips in house, but the fact that Redmond is looking for a Director of SoC Architecture is quite indicative of possible intentions to follow the approach of Apple, which a year ago announced its farewell to Intel in favor of chips designed in house.
In addition to this and the rumor that Microsoft has already hired engineers from Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm, the start of research on LindedIn coincides with an earlier rumor that pointed to the possibility of a collaboration in the home stretch between Microsoft and AMD for an ARM architecture-based chip that would fit well with laptop needs. Such a project, in light of AMD's expertise on the graphics sector, would lead to better results than a product from a company of absolute prominence such as Qualcomm can ensure.
According to that rumor, the chip that would result between the sharing of efforts between Microsoft and AMD would be based on ARM's powerful Cortex-X1 core, would have an Exynos modem that would ensure compatibility with 5G networks and AMD's mRDNA 2 GPU. The latter two components bring to mind the shared design between Samsung and AMD that is rumored to be adopted on the Galaxy S22.