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ST to buy Moto chip biz?

It would not surprise me. As an electronics engineer I know that the big part of the income of both companies is not in processor chips, but a full spectrum of all kinds of small chips.
 
...this could be good news...

With the push to Linux worldwide and especially in European governmental and academic circles, plus a large and existing UNIX base, ST could do very with a "homegrown" PowerPC processor for both imbedded (automotive, networking and telecommunications) and desktop applications.

I would also expect Apple to benefit from the infusion of resources into the PowerPC line, especially now that IBM is solidly in the game.

As I recall, there was a rumor that the G5 would be built in France by the partners anyway.

On another note, this would put more pressure on Sun Microsystems and the Ultrasparc line.

Should this sale actually occur, I would expect Apple's stock to take a pretty nice jump. Maybe 10% market share is possible!
 
well in one of my more lucid moments, i predicted this one a few months back to my sister in law, who was considering buying motorla stock and wanted info on the company.

she later said that i didn't know what i was talking about.

:D
maybe i should become an industry analyst...

;)
pnw
 
Originally posted by paulwhannel
well in one of my more lucid moments, i predicted this one a few months back to my sister in law, who was considering buying motorla stock and wanted info on the company.

she later said that i didn't know what i was talking about.

:D
maybe i should become an industry analyst...

;)
pnw
Click to expand...

LOL! Have any other market ideas as of now? By the way, will this affect Apple's processor lineup (considering they stay w/ Moto)?
 
crap. well, i remember way back when, apple was going to produce their own chips. of course that would be a terrible thing. i don't know what this could mean to Apple... i hope that its not too terrible a kick in the ding-ding.
 
this is clearly going to happen

Few month ago it was announces several US$ billions investment in an ultra high-tech processor producing plant, with already info concerning the first processor to be produced, second semester 2003, the patner in that joint venture were at that time, STMicroelectronics (French-Italian company, already located in Grenoble, France, were the new production plant is being built) , Moto, and few others among them Philips, IBM.....Details of the first processor were at that time speculated to be .13um for first line production with easy scale up to 90nm..... so I would not be surprised that Moto having problem will sell its part to STMicro regarding this production plant.....IBM might be happy to join later on.... in addition next generation game station are rumored to be PowerPC based..... so there will be a big market opened as soons as Apple makes it official, the use of IBM PowerPC 970, then Apple % market share will increase..... this is any way quasi official since Apple has notofied that from 2003 January, PowerPC will not be able to boot in MacOS9, this is essentially because PPC 970 does not support 68000 instructions still present in MacOS9...... In addition the new mother board of PowerPC is actually designed for PPC 970 migration, that 's why everybody was conplaining about the not much gain of DDR on the last G4, etc...., it is because they have put G4 in , while the mobo is for the next generation processor....look at the spec of PPC970, it is DDRII-400MHz (with support to DDR333, that is why you have to stick DDR2700 into the new PowerMac G4 ....) and bus frequency till 200 MHz.....actually, did someone has tried to overclock the frequency of the current mobo from 133MHz to 166 for example, I am sure it works perfectly....

ERic
 
I think we'll see a brand new chip from moto well before ibm jump onboard w/the 970 @ sf04. perhaps sf03? it would make sense. introduce a new moto chip through the pro line, then when the power4lite comes along, move the new moto's down to consumers. sounds pretty logical right? well, i hope it happens, but i have my doubts about moto.

they've got a pretty poor history over the past few years since AMD poached all their good ppl.
 
Re: this is clearly going to happen

Originally posted by eric67
PowerPC will not be able to boot in MacOS9, this is essentially because PPC 970 does not support 68000 instructions still present in MacOS9.
Click to expand...

..and because apple won't add motherboard support for it (or any macs as they get revised onwards of jan1, 03)
 
Re: this is clearly going to happen

Originally posted by eric67
so there will be a big market opened as soons as Apple makes it official, the use of IBM PowerPC 970, then Apple % market share will increase..... this is any way quasi official since Apple has notofied that from 2003 January, PowerPC will not be able to boot in MacOS9, this is essentially because PPC 970 does not support 68000 instructions still present in MacOS9......
ERic
Click to expand...

afaik the PowerPC never understood 68xxx code. There's a software emulator running (since System 7.5) that does the translation. But you're right, Apple will not port the emulator to any new chip.
 
PPC 7500 at MWSF '03?

Maybe the Moto PPC 7500 will be released at MWSF '03 and branded a G5. Might be reasonable if the L2 is upped to 512Kb and DDR RAM is implemented properly along with a reasonable Mhz increase (say to 1.6Ghz).

Thoughts, anyone?
 
I wouldn't get too excited yet. There are still anti-trust (both here and abroad) issues that will need to be ironed out. In addition, there are quite a few U.S. rules that will have to be carefully examined regarding the transfer of technology to foreign ownership. A sale of this magnitude involving a foreign purchaser won't likely be fast or easy.
 
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