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A Facebook job posting indicates the company is looking to design its own system-on-a-chip or Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC):
Facebook Inc. is building a team to design its own semiconductors, adding to a trend among technology companies to supply themselves and lower their dependence on chipmakers such as Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., according to job listings and people familiar with the matter.
The social media company is seeking to hire a manager to build an "end-to-end SoC/ASIC, firmware and driver development organization," according to a job listing on its corporate website, indicating the effort is still in its early stages.
The Menlo Park, California-based company would join other technology giants tackling the massive effort to develop chips. In 2010, Apple Inc. started shipping its own chips and now uses them across many of its major product lines. Alphabet Inc.'s Google has developed its own artificial intelligence chip as well.
Also at TechCrunch and The Verge.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday April 19 2018, @07:58PM
As I seem to recall . . . Apple had two suppliers for PowerPC chips.
Motorola, which went towards lower performance, lower power consumption chips used in things like, TiVo's, at the time.
IBM, which went towards higher performance, higher power consumption (higher heat) chips used in things like fire-breathing servers. Insane performance / power levels unsuitable for desktop and laptop computers. IBM's lowest end chips were okay. But even then, resulted in over powered, over priced designs for consumer gear.
Given the lack of middle ground, going to Intel made sense.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.