Low Power Multicore PowerPCs?

eWeek reports on a startup company which is working on a new family of low-power, multicore, PowerPC architecture processors due in 2006.

The company, P.A. Semi, plans to start by introducing a dual core 2GHz processor with a 13 watt typical power consumption. The new chips are designed "from the ground up to be miserly with power".

"There isn't a silver bullet to solve the power problem. You just have to have it as a priority all through the design process," Hayter said. "We've applied the methodology whereby if a part of the chip isn't being used, we won't clock it."

The first chips are due in the 3rd quarter of 2006. Meanwhile, Apple plans to start the move from PowerPC processors to the Intel processor architecture by June 2006.