Apple Mac system architecture director Jeff Wilcox announced that he has left Apple and will take up a new position at Intel. Notably, Mr. Wilcox was a key engineer on the Apple Silicon project, designed the M1 chip and played a key role in Apple’s transition from Intel chips to in-house chips.
Jeff Wilcox’s profile shows that he was “leading the transition” of all Mac computers from Intel chips to Apple Silicon. When he announced his departure from Apple in December, he said he wanted to pursue a new opportunity and he felt very proud of what he had accomplished at Apple.
But no one expected that Mr. Wilcox’s new stop would be Intel, the company with which Apple broke off ties with his help.
“After eight great years, I have decided to leave Apple and pursue another opportunity. It’s been an incredible journey and I couldn’t be more proud of all that we’ve accomplished during our time here, culminating in the Apple Silicon transition with the M1, M1 processors. Pro and M1 Max. I will greatly miss all of my colleagues and friends at Apple, but I also look forward to the next journey starting in 2022.” Mr. Jeff Wilcox shared.
After joining Intel, Mr. Wilcox will hold the position of Design Engineering Team Manager. He will be responsible for the architecture of all Intel processors across all segments. Before working at Apple, Mr. Wilcox was also a lead engineer in PC chip design at Intel.
The current Apple Silicon project will be led by Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Technology, Mr. Johnny Srouji. And it’s unclear whether the departure of Jeff Wilcox will have much impact on future Apple Silicon chip development. Apple is still doing a great job with its transition, and is expected to complete in 2022 with the launch of Mac Pro and iMac Pro using Apple Silicon chips.
Meanwhile, Intel has vowed to win back Apple’s chip business in the future, by launching “a better chip” than Apple can. Earlier this week at CES 2022, Intel also launched its 12th generation Core i9 processor, which claims to be more powerful than Apple’s M1 chip.
This will likely be the start of a new war between Intel and Apple, an evenly matched battle between the two giants.
Reference: macrumors
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