Apple’s head of chip design team leaves the company

According to a recent CNET report, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Gerard Williams III, senior director in platform architecture, has left Apple last month, after more than nine years with the company. Gerard Williams III was apparently involved in designing every Apple Bionic chip from the A7 (iPhone 5s) to the latest A12X Bionic (2018 iPad Pro).

The report also mentions that Williams’ duties recently evolved from overseeing chip designs to overseeing the layout of the various parts of the system-on-a-chip. While Apple declined to comment, Williams’ departure comes at a moment when Apple is focusing more and more on creating its own components. The iPhone-maker is hiring engineers in order to reach this goal. Apple has even been rumored to start designing its own chips for Mac computers.