Apple Hiring Former Texas Instrument Chip Engineers In Israel

By: Kevin Green  |   December 5th, 2012   |   Apple, Business, News

The Next Web reported that technology giant Apple is building up its research and development workforce by picking up former Texas Instruments (TI) employees in Hertezliya and Haifa, Israel. The good people at TNW  cite sources who claim that “Apple has been hiring “dozens” of engineers from Texas Instruments after the company began cutting around 250 jobs from its Ra’anana development center.”

 

TI is expected to hand over pink slips to a total of 1,700 employees around the world in an effort to reduce its staff by 5 percent. TI had announced in September that it was moving focus away from OMAP chips and would be changing gears to work on embedded platforms. Most of the employees that were removed by TI worked on OMAP and radio chips which include WiFi and Bluetooth in Israel. These chips are utilized in new versions of smartphones and tablets. The American firm also wants to move its research and development center back to the United States.

 

Even though it was rumored that TI was looking to completely shutdown activities in Israel, the firm contacted TNW and stated that it is “committed to continuing R&D in Israel.” Whatever the case may be, Apple is picking up valuable resources from TI as it sheds staff in Israel.

 

Apple’s plans for the Haifa center included recruiting engineers to start working by February. At the time the maker of the iPhone was looking for “hardware engineers in chip development with strong emphasis on electrical circuits, analogue and hardware testing and verification.” This would be Apple’s first semiconductor development center out of the US. Even though most of Apple’s work takes place in California, there are software development setups in Austin, Texas; Vancouver, Canada; France and Germany.

 

Rumors indicate that the team of former Texas Instrument engineer will be led by retired senior vice president Bob Mansfield. The executive had placed as the head of New Technologies when Apple moved around a lot of its top level people in October. Apple’s semiconductor setup comes under this newly formed section and has worked on the new A6X chip for the iPad 4.

 

There has been a poorly kept secret that Apple is looking to start creating its own processors so it is not reliant on other manufacturers. The recent moves by the company show that it is quickly moving in that direction.

Source: The Next Web