Apple Executive Johny Srouji Profiled About iPhone and iPad Chip Development
Bloomberg Businessweek has published an in-depth profile of Apple senior vice president Johny Srouji that reveals how the iPad Pro was originally planned for a spring 2015 launch with the same A8X chip powering the iPad Air 2. The 12.9-inch tablet was running behind schedule, however, and Apple ultimately decided to delay announcing the device until late 2015 at its annual iPhone event.

Apple realized the 12.9-inch tablet would seem lacking alongside the A9-based iPhone 6s, so Srouji and his team were challenged to fast-track development of the A9X chip by half a year. The chip was ultimately finished on time, and Srouji was rewarded with a promotion to Apple's executive team as Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies and 90,000 RSUs in December.
Apple-designed chipsets allow the company to deeply integrate hardware and software on iPhones and iPads, but Srouji admitted that silicon development is not easy.
If there’s a bug in software, you simply release a corrected version. It’s different with hardware. “You get one transistor wrong, it’s done, game over,” Srouji says. “Each one of those transistors has to work. Silicon is very unforgiving.” Among computer and smartphone makers, industry practice is to leave the processors to specialists such as Intel, Qualcomm, or Samsung, which sink billions into getting the chips right and making them inexpensively.
Apple did not always develop its own chips, as the profile explains. The original iPhone, for example, used components from different vendors, including a Samsung chip used in DVD players.
“Steve came to the conclusion that the only way for Apple to really differentiate and deliver something truly unique and truly great, you have to own your own silicon,” Srouji says. “You have to control and own it.”
The feature-length interview provides detailed background on Srouji, from his beginnings in Israel to his current years at Apple. It also corroborates rumors that Apple will launch a new A9-based 4-inch iPhone and A9X-based iPad Air 3 at its March 15 event.
Popular Stories
Significant changes are expected to arrive with Apple's fourth-generation iPhone SE, in terms of both design and hardware, MacRumors has learned. The iPhone SE 4, known internally under the codename Ghost, is expected to receive a new design derived almost entirely from the base model iPhone 14. According to our sources, the iPhone SE 4 will use a modified version of the iPhone 14 chassis...
Apple today released iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 updates, with the software coming five days after the releases of iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1. Today's iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 updates arrive as build 21A351 and can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Note that iOS 17.0.2 was previously made available for iPhone...
Complaints about heat issues with the iPhone 15 Pro models are not related to TSMC's 3-nanometer node that was used for the A17 Pro chip, according to well-respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo says that overheating could be caused by "compromises made in the thermal system design" that allowed Apple to cut down on the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro models. Kuo says that the reduced heat...
Wednesday September 27, 2023 1:57 pm PDT by
Juli CloverJust a week after releasing iOS 17, Apple has seeded the first beta of iOS 17.1 to developers. iOS 17.1 adds some features that Apple promised were coming to iOS 17 in the future, plus it refines and improves some existing features. This guide covers everything new in the first iOS 17.1 beta. Apple Music Favorites You can favorite songs, albums, playlists, and artists in the iOS 17.1...
Apple today released macOS 14 Sonoma, the newest version of the operating system that runs on the Mac. macOS Sonoma has been in beta testing for several months, and it is compatible with the 2019 and later iMac, the iMac Pro, the 2018 and later Mac mini, the 2018 and later MacBook Pro, the 2019 and later Mac Pro, and the Mac Studio. The macOS Sonoma update can be downloaded for free on...
Top Rated Comments
Srouji: "We'll do it in one"