Apple Aims to Eventually Integrate Future Modems into Main Processor

[svish]

Though I am eagerly waiting to see cellular Macs, this seems to be the most possible version. Apple will not be adding a custom C series chip to the Mac. Only after successfully integrating with the M series chip, the Macs will be getting cellular connectivity option.

So it should be redesign for MacBook Pro in 2026, followed by addition of cellular capability in 2027.

 

[groove-agent]

Cellular on a Mac seems redundant. We always have our phones with us so we can just tether. I suspect it would be slightly faster. Cellular on a phone I can see for joggers but I haven’t met one person who pays extra for that feature.

… unless Apple had / uses something like Starlink in the future.

However I recall someone in this thread saying something about home cellular. Not sure exactly how that fits in.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Cellular on a phone I can see for joggers but I haven’t met one person who pays extra for that feature.

You mean "Watch", yeah?

 

[Hank001]

At this rate we’ll have C4 dynamite in our iPhone in 2028!

 

[cflem]

Here comes MacBooks with cellular...

 

[ignatius345]

Cellular on a Mac seems redundant. We always have our phones with us so we can just tether.

Yeah, different people have different needs though, right? I myself also wouldn't pay for a (presumably optional) cell modem on a MacBook, as tethering gets the job done for me too.

But then again I'm not, say, a photographer needing an assistant to have a connected laptop on a shoot. Or a business traveller using a company laptop which could have its own dedicated employer-owned cell connection. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to come up with scenarios in which this would be useful to some.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

WWAN in a laptop is mostly a "business" feature, which MacBooks are not particularly considered. And even at that, very few Windows laptops have that feature. Surface Pro 10th had it, but Surface Pro 11th gen doesn't.

The non-business crowd is happy using the hot-spot plan they already pay for on their cell phone to get their laptop on the internet when wifi is absent.

My work-issued Dell Latitude 5430 has a sim slot and cell connectivity, but we don't use it.

Like you, I've never seen the point when hotspot is an option.

Cellular on a Mac seems redundant. We always have our phones with us so we can just tether. I suspect it would be slightly faster. Cellular on a phone I can see for joggers but I haven’t met one person who pays extra for that feature.

… unless Apple had / uses something like Starlink in the future.

However I recall someone in this thread saying something about home cellular. Not sure exactly how that fits in.

I think you meant watch. I'm a distance runner and might be out for a few hours at a time, but I still don't buy a cell-connected Apple Watch (and I don't take my phone). Being disconnected is one of the best parts of running!

 

[Joshuaorange]

Now that computers and phones are very much in a matured phase, these are the kinds of things to look forward to. Faster network capabilities and longer battery life. Both of which, I’ll gladly take.

 

[Nozuka]

My work-issued Dell Latitude 5430 has a sim slot and cell connectivity, but we don't use it.

Like you, I've never seen the point when hotspot is an option.

I open the laptop in the train and i'm instantly connected.. i use it every day.

But would never pay for an extra device plan for private usage.

 

[bruinsrme]

Does it make sense to waste valuable SoC die space on a modem, when it's not something that really benefits performance-wise from being on the same die as the CPU?

How much more processing power does the phone need?

 

[picpicmac]

May I suggest that Gruman knows **** about integrated circuits?

Analog circuits and digital circuits are different beasts. (And no, don't go down the physics route to explain that away, given it's all about electrons and EM fields and in the end they are all the same thing. I'm talking engineering and manufacturing the things.)

Hand held and laptop devices basically have three radios built into them: WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular. The radios themselves are analog devices.

Apple wants to not be beholding to Qualcomm or anyone else for radios.

So Apple will make their own.

Controlling the radios can be done on the SoC so this is no bigger a deal than the current SoCs having the display controllers currently embedded in them.

The actual analog radio integrated circuit will still be it's own small device sitting between the SoC and the radio antennae.

 

[iPhoneFan5349]

Ah yes put the risky component from a yield perspective in the rest of the already binned eggs.

Always works that one.

They used Intel modems to save a buck, so I don’t think their standards are that high.

 

[cjsuk]

They used Intel modems to save a buck, so I don’t think their standards are that high.

Fair and worrying 😂

 

[b.inazawa-fan]

If you're wondering why they'd do this, even if nothing else in the product line changed, check out how many Qualcomm radio related chips are in an iPhone 16 Pro board: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+16+Pro+Chip+ID/177358

Integrate even half of those into the A* SoC and that's huge savings per unit. The math is probably going to work out for them.

 

[LV426]

I’m guessing that actually doing all this in practise is going to be fiendishly difficult. Cramming components closer together could be a thermal management nightmare. Heat is already a big problem in multi-core CPUs. The only reason your iPhone doesn’t cook your fingers today is because many of the transistors in the cores are turned off a fair bit of the time.

Sophie Wilson (ARM instruction set designer) has a couple of informative videos abut the brick wall towards which microelectronics design is heading. Heat is a big issue. And the tiniest of transistors require enormously expensive machines to make them.