Apple Silicon chief, Johny Srouji, wins important innovation award
Senior hardware technology VP Johny Srouji seems to have a magic touch
The man who leads Apple’s silicon development teams, Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, just won a prestigious industry award in recognition of his huge contribution to the semiconductor industry.
You could easily dismiss the award as just another industry fillip, yet another chance for some sales team somewhere to generate revenue and gather potential prospects in some wine them dine them industry do.
That, after all, is usually what these things are.
However, what sets this apart is both the host, Imec, and the meaning: winning the award absolutely justifies Apple’s investment in processor design, even back to the purchase of PA Semi.
Redefining Apple
Srouji will receive the 2025 imec Innovation Award in recognition of his pivotal role in shaping Apple’s technology roadmap through his leadership in the development of Apple silicon.
“He has not only redefined Apple’s products but has also had a major impact on the broader semiconductor ecosystem, spurring the advancement of chip technology that elevates features, experiences, and AI to new heights,” imec said, announcing the award.
The award also recognizes the many other achievements of Apple’s silicon development teams, noting their work in silicon, batteries, cameras, storage controllers, sensors, displays and other critical components in Apple’s line-up.
Why it matters
Imec’s award matters because of who Imec is. It’s an international R&D organization that looks at nanoelectronics, advanced semiconductors, and technologies we’ve not seen yet, such as post-5G communications and sensing technologies.
A recognized leader in nanoelectronics research, it currently researches sustainable and intelligent energy systems, smart cities, and has twice won the DARPA machine-learning competition. In 2017, the FT included one of its chips within a collection of 50 ideas that will change the world and revolutionize computing.
You can read more about Imec on its website and this Wikipedia page, but the bottom line is that it is among the most prestigious electronics research entities in the world. Which is why the award matters.
What Imec said
“As artificial intelligence integrates into nearly every aspect of modern technology – from personal planning tools to digital assistants – the demand for high-performance, energy-efficient and battery-powered hardware such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and smartwatches has never been greater.
“Meeting this demand requires advanced semiconductor technologies and architectures that deliver superior performance while minimizing power consumption. Johny’s vision in leveraging deeply scaled semiconductor technology to achieve this is driving the next wave of chip architectures that will revolutionize consumer electronics and edge computing.
“For these contributions, Johny Srouji is a deserving recipient of this year’s Innovation Award,” said Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec.
What Srouiji says
“It is a great honor to be recognized by imec and receive its most prestigious Innovation Award, which I humbly share with my colleagues at Apple,” said Srouji. “Our goal is always to create differentiated technologies to enable the world’s best products. Creating and incorporating bleeding-edge advancements while maintaining our intense focus on power efficient performance, we look forward to solving hard problems and unlocking new possibilities through our continued partnership with imec and collaboration across the industry.”
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