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Another AMD Graphics Executive Headed to Apple?

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Apr 12, 2001
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The Inquirer reports that Raja Koduri, currently Chief Technology Officer of the Graphics Product Group at AMD, will be joining Apple. The rumor comes on the heels of the discovery just two days ago that Bob Drebin, Koduri's predecessor in the position at AMD, has already joined Apple.
Between PASemi, Bob Drebin and other things we can't talk about yet, Apple is building up some serious hardware talent. All they need now is a good reliability person and a fire chief, and things will get really interesting on the hardware front in Cupertino.
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Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi in April 2008 generated speculation that Apple is developing its own system-on-chip solutions for the iPhone and iPod touch. The subsequent recruitment of Mark Papermaster from IBM and now Drebin and Koduri from ATI/AMD demonstrate significant enhancement of its expertise in chip and system design.

With the iPhone/iPod touch being touted as a gaming platform and the upcoming deployment of OpenCL in OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to harness the power of graphics processors for general-purpose computing, Apple's interest in acquiring expertise in this area is unsurprising, although the extent of its recruitment of significant players in the industry suggests that Apple has made a significant commitment to expanding its efforts.

Article Link: Another AMD Graphics Executive Headed to Apple?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/29/another-amd-graphics-executive-headed-to-apple/
Wow, Apple is acquiring some very significant talent. I wonder what's in the pipeline, and whether these acquisitions are focused equally on the desktop and the mobile devices.
 
Pugpuppydude said:
I wonder if Apple could just buy AMD.
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Apple branded CPU's and GPU's for the masses? :confused:

Then again why would they promote PC/Windows components? If they decide to acquire AMD/ATI but not market their future CPU's and GPU's to the PC user community to recover/make money then this is going to be a very expensive acquisition.

Just hire over whatever expertise you need and leave the rest as is, I think this is just what they are doing right now.
 
Don't think a general cpu for personal computer

I don't think Apple is going to jump back in the the general CPU race. First they'll have to license from Intel, so I don't know if there's a benefit. However, the mobile cpu/graphic space has plenty of room for growth and that is definitely where I can see apple controlling its own platform, especially if they don't see manufactures producing what they need or want.
 
I can't see Apple getting into a race with nVidia or intel, it just wouldn't be profitable. I think the acquisition of PASemi is what's at play here. It would make sense for Apple to start developing its own chipsets for its ipods though.
 
yomibro said:
Apple branded CPU's and GPU's for the masses? :confused:

Then again why would they promote PC/Windows components? If they decide to acquire AMD/ATI but not market their future CPU's and GPU's to the PC user community to recover/make money then this is going to be a very expensive acquisition.

Just hire over whatever expertise you need and leave the rest as is, I think this is just what they are doing right now.
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Apple could handle a purchase like that because they have so much money in the bank. They are probably at $30 billion now.

You make a good point with AMD/ATI. If they bought these companies and built products only for themselves, that might hurt apple in the long run. All PCs would be running Intel/Nvidia which would mean no future compatibility for boot camp/windows/gaming.
 
Pugpuppydude said:
I wonder if Apple could just buy AMD.
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This would be the worst idea ever! Right now Intel is the industry leader and is pumping billions and billions of dollars into future development while AMD is playing catch up. Yeah, some AMD chips are faster than some Intel and vise versa but when push comes to shove there is no questioning Intel's dominance.

Also, if Apple bought AMD, Apple would have to fund chip development again which is a losing battle unless you lead the entire industry. Stick to core competencies like software development and pay the "Pro's" to produce your top end hardware :)
 
manowarwi said:
This would be the worst idea ever! Right now Intel is the industry leader and is pumping billions and billions of dollars into future development while AMD is playing catch up. Yeah, some AMD chips are faster than some Intel and vise versa but when push comes to shove there is no questioning Intel's dominance.

Also, if Apple bought AMD, Apple would have to fund chip development again which is a losing battle unless you lead the entire industry. Stick to core competencies like software development and pay the "Pro's" to produce your top end hardware :)
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No...

They could simply kill the computer chip line, use their GPUs, and repurpose everyone making their computer chips into making iPod and iPhone chips.

THINK.

Apple doesn't have to do SQUAT in terms of keeping AMD exactly how it is.
 
Tallest Skil said:
No...

They could simply kill the computer chip line, use their GPUs, and repurpose everyone making their computer chips into making iPod and iPhone chips.

THINK.

Apple doesn't have to do SQUAT in terms of keeping AMD exactly how it is.
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Exactly as it is, 2nd place. You need a 10+ year plan to be a sucessfull chip manufacturer and that is why AMD went from being years head of the Pentium 4s to scrambling to catch up.

By the way, you are saying keep them exactly how they are, but also kill the chip line - that doesn't make sense. Without the chip line AMD would sink.
 
manowarwi said:
This would be the worst idea ever! Right now Intel is the industry leader and is pumping billions and billions of dollars into future development while AMD is playing catch up. Yeah, some AMD chips are faster than some Intel and vise versa but when push comes to shove there is no questioning Intel's dominance.

Also, if Apple bought AMD, Apple would have to fund chip development again which is a losing battle unless you lead the entire industry. Stick to core competencies like software development and pay the "Pro's" to produce your top end hardware :)
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Sure AMDs chips aren't the fastest in the world, but you are forgetting one thing. AMD does offer some great value for money. Look at their new $69 2.8 GHz Athlon X2 processor, or the new cool-running, quiet 40nm ATI 4770 which costs just $99.
 
manowarwi said:
Exactly as it is, 2nd place. You need a 10+ year plan to be a sucessfull chip manufacturer and that is why AMD went from being years head of the Pentium 4s to scrambling to catch up.

By the way, you are saying keep them exactly how they are, but also kill the chip line - that doesn't make sense. Without the chip line AMD would sink.
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No, you read that incorrectly.

If purchased, Apple doesn't have to keep AMD doing what AMD is doing.

In other words, screw their people, their plans, and their ideas. If Apple bought them, AMD would no longer make any chips for computers other than the ATI division.
 
Meh, Apple just wants to create awesome graphics hardware for the smaller-than-laptop form factor. No one is doing chips for this level - nVidia's tegra is as close as it gets, and its still a bit too big for Apple's needs. From both a graphics (rasterization) and GPGPU standpoint, Apple has come to the conclusion they need to roll their own graphics hardware.

With a slimmed down version of OSX on a ARM CPU, Apple has no need for AMD (or nVidia for that matter). All they need is graphics hardware and leave the rest to the ARM chip companies.
 
AMD processors run way too hot, and are viable only for bargain Wal-Mart and Best Buy PCs, in my opinion. They came to the multi-core market too late.

I'll entertain the debate if someone here want to argue how great AMD CPUs and their company is - in the context of this news story ... :rolleyes:

I hope not to be disappointed by Apple's plans with these new hires. Graphics upgrades and more choices with graphics = ok. Re-visiting CPU choice = bad. My MacBook Pro is hot enough as it is with an Intel Dual Core. I can already see the spinning Beach Ball and hardware errors screaming from the hardware if they shift gears in Cupertino.

:apple:
 
Tallest Skil said:
No, you read that incorrectly.

If purchased, Apple doesn't have to keep AMD doing what AMD is doing.

In other words, screw their people, their plans, and their ideas. If Apple bought them, AMD would no longer make any chips for computers other than the ATI division.
Click to expand...

That would be an interesting idea - because if that happened it would make Intel a monopoly but not by choice. I'm not sure how that would be handled.

Either way, I think its best for Apple to stick to their core competencies like make great OS's and software (and great computer designs). It seems like all of the companies that tried to buy up all aspects of their final product have been burned by it. Right now, Apple could go AMD or Intel which puts pressure on Intel to provide a decent volume discount and access to the latest technology. They do the same thing will all components - hard drives, LCDs, etc. I would just hate to see something foolish like this put the company in rough financial shape.

Didn't they already buy a smaller chip maker for iPhones? I thought I read an article about that here a few months ago.
 
I think apple purchasing AMD would be the demise of Apple.
Intel has the fab capacity to simply bury AMD. Intel could drive the prices so low that AMD would be having to pay people to buy their processors. Personally, I would love to see the AMD brand on Apple. Then Intel would simply release skip a generation of processors to leave AMD further behind.

But for some reason I think Apple is too smart for that.
 
It is obvious that Apple is building up its expertise in low-level design, engineering, driver support, etc of different components.

But anyone who thinks Apple is going to actually create their own processor CPU or GPU processor CORE and compete with Intel, AMD, Nvidia, ARM, Imagination, etc is crazy. As is anyone who thinks Apple would want to purchase AMD or any other hardware company.

I think the most likely scenario is that Apple may end up designing and producing their system-on-a-chip application processors for the iPhone/iPod touch/tablet device/etc that utilize the different components from these companies. So rather than building a completely new CPU or GPU, they would just be responsible for implementing their own tweaked ARM core, or taking an Intel Atom and integrating a graphics component from AMD/Nvidia or PowerVR, and all the other supporting logic and I/O.

Basically, they would be somewhat similar to what T.I. or Qualcomm does, although T.I. and Qualcomm do add some of their own inhouse developed components like DSPs, video encoding logic, etc into their SoCs.
 
manowarwi said:
Didn't they already buy a smaller chip maker for iPhones? I thought I read an article about that here a few months ago.
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Yep, PA Semiconductor, known for their low-power chips.

They bought the company and immediately killed all of their projects (save the ones in progress) to repurpose their people. PA Semi did work for the government.
 
Apple must be on to something; there´s no way these talented people, along with the PA Semi crew, would come work with Apple unless it offered them the opportunity to do something groundbreaking.
 
They are making a gaming platform

Steve has always been fascinated with owning the living-room, now he has the chance of owning the room of everyone living :D

Seriously, with the app store, this is the most compelling reason that you could have hundreds of developers working on a news platform. Limited cost of global distribution and Apple get´s to cut from every app and game sold. This is something that even MS´s Balmer is damned about. Man Im gald i put most of my money in AAPL at $6 :cool:;):D
 
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