Apple reportedly poaches Intel employees for a hardware engineering lab

Apple has hired multiple engineers and research staff from Intel and other local tech employees for a new facility in Washington County, Oregon, close to the chipmaker’s home base, according to Oregon Live. This will certainly fuel speculation that Apple plans to make its own ARM processors for the Mac (which I think is true).

This week it was reported that Pegatron Corp., one of the two Taiwanese companies that assemble iPhones and iPads, is the likely candidate to land orders from Apple to produce an ARM-based MacBook. That rumor goes along with Bloomberg News’ Ian King and Mark Gurman report that Apple will replace Intel chips in Macs with its own custom-made chips in 2020.

The Oregon Live article adds that the tech giant has hired close to two-dozen people for a hardware engineering lab. The Cupertino, California company’s Oregon job postings seeks design verification expertise, a specialty for ensuring a finished product meets the original specifications. What’s more, LinkedIn profiles indicate Apple has been hiring for its Washington County site since November and that a number of its new employees previously held senior research or engineering roles at Intel.

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