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Apple Recruits IBM Chip Designer, IBM Files Lawsuit

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Apr 12, 2001
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CNet reports that IBM has filed a lawsuit against former employee Mark Papermaster for accepting a job at Apple. Papermaster was IBM's vice president of microprocessor technology development but recently accepted a position at Apple to begin in November.

IBM claims that Papermaster is violating his prior employment agreement by accepting a position at a competitor and may divulge IBM's trade secrets to Apple. Papermaster reportedly has authored several papers on PowerPC chip development and is considered a "top expert in Power architecture and technology."

CNet speculates that Apple's interest in Papermaster was due to of his experience in both chip and system designs. Papermaster's expertise in system design--putting together the entire package of processor, chipset, and the rest of the guts that form a computer--could serve him well at a company that prides itself on soup-to-nuts design.Of course, Apple could also be interested in having Papermaster help with their recent P.A. Semi acquisition. Apple has been said to be working on their own ARM processors for use in the iPhone and iPod Touch. If Apple wants to continue its strategy of designing and building complete systems, hardware, software, and now chips for iPhone and iPod Touch, it's going to need someone who can predict the future of chip design and advise Jobs and Apple's executive team on how Apple can best take advantage of those trends. Papermaster, with a unique set of skills in the tech industry, might be just that guy.

Article Link: Apple Recruits IBM Chip Designer, IBM Files Lawsuit
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/10/30/apple-recruits-ibm-chip-designer-ibm-files-lawsuit/
That's what you get when you sign and violate a non-compete.
****wads.
 
What's with all the PPC and Apple recently?
If this was like...3-4 years ago, good for them. But they made the switch to intel. As far as we know, 10.6 isn't going to be PPC, and we for sure know that 10.7 won't be.
Wouldn't it be better to get insiders from Intel or something?
 
PPC is dead. THis is to make apple's next gen iphone's arm chip an atom killer.
 
Hey, if the guy signed a contract with IBM thats how business works.
 
Should be interesting to watch. But yeah, PPC? I think it must be more for the iPhone. Maybe for a tablet mac in the future too??? :rolleyes:
 
Super Cool, sounds like just the right person to lead Apple with right chip technology.

Sad IBM won't let this person work without a rumble. you can't stop people from earning a living!
 
dvince2 said:
What's with all the PPC and Apple recently?
If this was like...3-4 years ago, good for them. But they made the switch to intel. As far as we know, 10.6 isn't going to be PPC, and we for sure know that 10.7 won't be.
Click to expand...

And you probably thought the same when Mac OS X was thought to be PPC only. :p

While Apple won't support 10.6 on an old PPC Mac, that doesn't mean future PPC systems aren't supported in the labs today.

With the quantities that Apple is shipping today, they can't get locked into a single vendor.
 
jessica. said:
That's what you get when you sign and violate a non-compete.
****wads.
Click to expand...
AFAIK, non-compete agreements are not legal in California, although they are in NY state. As the violation will take place in CA, I am not sure how a NY court judgement might apply. Besides, if IBM is not working on an ARM product, but if he will be working on such products at Apple, he could argue Apple is not a competitor.
 
Papermaster? That name sounds too good to be a real name. Sounds phony, like Art Vandelay.:p
 
brad.c said:
Wow, that'd be a dream job if I knew anything about chip architecture.
But if they ever switch to cheesies, I'm ready for the call.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the dream job part (ignore if it was sarcasm)

For the cheesies... I'll give you a tough competition on that!
 
Gymnut said:
Papermaster? That name sounds too good to be a real name. Sounds phony, like Art Vandelay.:p
Click to expand...

I assure you that Mark Papermaster is a real person, having worked for him for over 10 years. I guess it could all turn out to have been a dream...
 
Judge will throw it out, Non-Competes are total bs. You can't prevent someone from pursuing their livelihood.
 
Is the iPhone going PowerPC? Back when it was used in the Mac, one of the issues was performance per Watt.
 
dvince2 said:
What's with all the PPC and Apple recently?
If this was like...3-4 years ago, good for them. But they made the switch to intel. As far as we know, 10.6 isn't going to be PPC, and we for sure know that 10.7 won't be.
Wouldn't it be better to get insiders from Intel or something?
Click to expand...

Talent is talent. It doesn't matter if they're from IBM, Intel, or working at some other company, their skills are still valuable to Apple for whatever reason Apple ends up hiring them.

Sebastian
 
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