Up to 1,000 engineers at Intel are now working on the modem that will be used in the Apple iPhone 7, according to VentureBeat. The phone will use the Intel 7360 LTE modem, which comes with support for 4G LTE and 3G CDMA. That chip is set to ship out to manufacturers this year and it will be in devices in 2016.

Apple will split its orders between Intel and Qualcomm next year, whereas it only uses Qualcomm modems right now. Apple also hopes to include the modem with its A-series processor, meaning a single chip would include the phone's processor, graphics, and modem.

By placing major internal components on a single chip, future iPhones could have improved performance, better battery life, and thinner designs.