Apple With Specific Plans for P.A. Semi
EETimes provides a little background to the recent acquisition of P.A. Semi by Apple.
According to their source, Apple had already been an investor of the company and had previously been in negotiations with it for low-power PowerPC chips. Apple's switch to Intel, of course, ended these talks and eliminated a potentially large revenue stream from the company.
More recently, Apple is said to have had a new chip design in mind and wanted the P.A. Semi team involved. According to EETimes, P.A. Semi had essentially run out of funding and "the only way to get the project funded was for Apple to pay off the other investors and bring P.A. Semi in-house."
As a result, the $280 million acquisition was to bring their talent in for this new project rather than any specific technologies P.A. Semi had already developed. This explanation is consistent with early statements from P.A. Semi to their existing customers that the company was bought for "intellectual property and engineering talent".
According to their source, Apple had already been an investor of the company and had previously been in negotiations with it for low-power PowerPC chips. Apple's switch to Intel, of course, ended these talks and eliminated a potentially large revenue stream from the company.
More recently, Apple is said to have had a new chip design in mind and wanted the P.A. Semi team involved. According to EETimes, P.A. Semi had essentially run out of funding and "the only way to get the project funded was for Apple to pay off the other investors and bring P.A. Semi in-house."
As a result, the $280 million acquisition was to bring their talent in for this new project rather than any specific technologies P.A. Semi had already developed. This explanation is consistent with early statements from P.A. Semi to their existing customers that the company was bought for "intellectual property and engineering talent".
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49 months ago
Good to know that we'll be staying with intel for a while :p Shame that we miss out on the PowerBook G5 tho.. :D
49 months ago
well i hope they are a good help to Apple. i wonder what this new chip will be?
49 months ago
Yes please!
Gimme back the PPC feeling. Honestly, those Intel iMacs (Core Duo first iteration) really feel bad. The lasting appeal deteriorated so much. For the first time in my Mac life I experience regular system freezes with leaving Safari open for more than 24 hrs.
My PB G4 feels so good in contrast. I fear upgrading to an Intel machine, as at least those iMacs I have behave a bit...let me say...strange!
PPC was a glorious time, so here is to hoping that Universal binaries will stay!
Granted Parallels and Boot Camp are awesome and wouldn't run on PPC.
Gimme back the PPC feeling. Honestly, those Intel iMacs (Core Duo first iteration) really feel bad. The lasting appeal deteriorated so much. For the first time in my Mac life I experience regular system freezes with leaving Safari open for more than 24 hrs.
My PB G4 feels so good in contrast. I fear upgrading to an Intel machine, as at least those iMacs I have behave a bit...let me say...strange!
PPC was a glorious time, so here is to hoping that Universal binaries will stay!
Granted Parallels and Boot Camp are awesome and wouldn't run on PPC.
49 months ago
Hmmm. Apple gets PA Semi to design a chip that is sort of a PPC/x86 hybrid. Intel then runs with the design for their new Core 4.
Runs all the current stuff today - OS X, WinXP/Vista/9x, Linux, etc. However, due to the extra stuff, Apple gets a bit of the revenue from the chips IF used by other companies (HP, Dell, Alienware, etc.), otherwise, Apple pays for the chips since Intel still has to create them.
Cool. Yes. I just made that up. May Fools == me. :D
Runs all the current stuff today - OS X, WinXP/Vista/9x, Linux, etc. However, due to the extra stuff, Apple gets a bit of the revenue from the chips IF used by other companies (HP, Dell, Alienware, etc.), otherwise, Apple pays for the chips since Intel still has to create them.
Cool. Yes. I just made that up. May Fools == me. :D
49 months ago
Good to know that we'll be staying with intel for a while :p Shame that we miss out on the PowerBook G5 tho.. :D
The poor PowerBook G5. Its "next Tuesday" just never came. :D
So not to derail the PA Semi discussion too much with wild-*ss speculation, but let's connect a few dots.
1. PA Semi has experience making PPC chips.
2. Apple believes PA Semi has talent to do something great with the PPC (presumably).
3. Apple has signaled an interest in games lately.
4. XBox 360 and Wii are both powered by PPC processors.
Hmm....
49 months ago
My PB G4 feels so good in contrast. I fear upgrading to an Intel machine, as at least those iMacs I have behave a bit...let me say...strange!
I went from a PB15 1.5ghz to a MB C2D, and the change is amazing. It's many times faster, and the dual core goodness is fantastic.
It does need lots of RAM - my MB C2D was **terrible** on 1GB, but flies on 4GB. Fortunately RAM is dirt cheap at the moment so go for it.
Moving to a new architecture is full of pitfalls, and at the same time as a new OSX Leopard is just asking for trouble. I fully expected the first few Intel revs to be buggy as **** and avoided them for this reason. And I avoided the first few 10.5.x releases too.
I only bought my MB once it moved to C2D, GMA X3100, and 10.5.1 (or.2), meaning that every component was on at least its second revision.
The new MBs coming out soon, along with 10.5.3 are finally becoming a mature product.
49 months ago
Good to see that apple are making their own chips!
Although PA semi have usually made small, power efficient chips though - less need for them in a gaming machine - however - apple cover most of the tech gadgets spectrum, apart from gaming...
1. PA Semi has experience making PPC chips.
2. Apple believes PA Semi has talent to do something great with the PPC (presumably).
3. Apple has signaled an interest in games lately.
4. XBox 360 and Wii are both powered by PPC processors.
Hmm....
Although PA semi have usually made small, power efficient chips though - less need for them in a gaming machine - however - apple cover most of the tech gadgets spectrum, apart from gaming...
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