Dialog wins Apple MacBook power slot
Over the past number of years, however, it has found a home within smartphones from Samsung to Apple. It’s an equal-opportunity supplier, so the realities of power and space efficiency overshadow any artificially constructed competitive interests.
While its most pronounced design wins to date have been Apple’s and Samsung’s smartphones, it seems Apple is taking Dialog along for the ride into its MacBook line, starting with the 2016 MacBook Retina.
A recent teardown of the 2016 MacBook Retina by iFixit exposed a mysterious IC, the “Apple 338S00066”. The IC was the source of some debate as to its origins, but according to a source close to the design of the MacBook, the IC comes courtesy of Dialog Semiconductor. Further digging uncovered that it powers the solid-state drive on the MacBook. This would make sense, given how tight Apple has been with Dialog, and also the announcement mid 2015 of the DA9311, which is a higher-voltage (5.5 to 10.5-V) technology. The IC’s label is also eerily similar the Apple/Dialog 338S1251-AZ Power Management IC used in the iPhone 6s. So Dialog is clearly up-volting up its technology from smartphones, widening it out to laptops, and from there, who knows.
The key takeaway is that power management is arguably one of, if not the, biggest hardware and system design and integration battle grounds and incumbents will have to fight tooth and nail to maintain their hold. Large companies like Dialog with innovative solutions are clearly showing it’s possible to break into the market. For startups, they may have a good chance, but we’ll need to see more hardware funding for that to happen.
—Patrick Mannion is a freelance technology journalist, and former content director for EDN and EE Times.
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