TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Anand Lai Shimpi believes that Apple’s A6 processor in the iPhone 5 is Apple-designed:

It turns out I was wrong. But pleasantly surprised.

The A6 is the first Apple SoC to use its own ARMv7 based processor design. The CPU core(s) aren’t based on a vanilla A9 or A15 design from ARM IP, but instead are something of Apple’s own creation.

First you build a device with components you designed, which can give you a performance edge over competitors. And then you build new devices entirely that are very different from anything else available, and that could only be built on your components.

High risk, high reward.