P.A. Semi Acquisition for iPod and iPhone Chips

[MacRumors]

In the previously referenced New York Times article, Steve Jobs revealed that Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi will be directed at the iPod and iPhone specifically

“PA Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods,”

Apple acquired P.A. Semi in late April, and reports had suggested that Apple was not interested in any of their current technology. This generated some speculation about what specific project they had in mind when acquiring the company.

Article Link

 

[phinnaeus]

So what, a possible Q4 iPhone3G hardware refresh?

 

[bigandy]

Now it makes complete sense

 

[flopticalcube]

PowerPC lives on!

 

[Small White Car]

So what, a possible Q4 iPhone3G hardware refresh?

Well, I doubt it, and even if they DID it would have nothing to do with this. They JUST bought them. Designing chips isn't something you do in a few weeks.

 

[SirOmega]

We're likely to see is these chips in the Q3 2009 refresh.

 

[X38]

So, does this mean no Intel Atom for Apple, or at least the ipod & iphone?

 

[phinnaeus]

Oh OK, gotcha.

Thanks.

 

[kevnaca]

iPhone 4G

I see the first chips to make it way in the iPhone in 2010, when the iPhone 4G is released. The 3G model will be around 'till then only getting a bump from 8 and 16GB to 16 and 32 GB in summer 2009. iPhone 4G will debut summer 2010 with 16 and 32GB.

 

[MacGohil]

This was kinda obvious on the day wen Apple acquired PA-Semi. They had acquired the IP and not the current chip-line up.

We will see more tightly knit and power efficient handhelds.

Way to go

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

This makes a whole lot of sense. Maybe Apple will be able to further reduce the price since it now owns a manufacturer of some of the chips. At least in a future ipod release.

 

[ChrisA]

So, does this mean no Intel Atom for Apple, or at least the ipod & iphone?

The Atom would never work in an iPhone or iPod. It uses way to much power. The intel site says the Atom uses between 1 and 2.5 watts. How many "milli water hours" is the typical iPod battery? Then that is how many "milli-hours" of battery life you'd get assuming the smallest Atom and not other parts.

 

[speakerwizard]

PowerPC lives on!

They DIDN'T buy them for their current tech, but for their expertise, specifically in ARM chip design.

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

I see the first chips to make it way in the iPhone in 2010, when the iPhone 4G is released. The 3G model will be around 'till then only getting a bump from 8 and 16GB to 16 and 32 GB in summer 2009. iPhone 4G will debut summer 2010 with 16 and 32GB.

+ Video Conferencing

++ a whole lot of other value added applications.

 

[Brianstorm91]

Front page news?

 

[bitslap47]

Good stuff and makes 100% sense.

Just as a side note... this had been reported April 24th on a blog I follow: http://www.snappingyro.com/index.php/2008/04/24/apples-plans-for-pa-semi/

 

[danielsan26]

Soon Apple will acquire a vertical monopoly and will be under SEC investigation.

I keed I keed.

 

[deputy_doofy]

...but it does certainly allow Apple to have a PPC supply to keep OS X running on "current" PPC technology. OS X has to keep leading the secret double life.

 

[flopticalcube]

They DIDN'T buy them for their current tech, but for their expertise, specifically in ARM chip design.

At the moment, that's all speculation. We will only know when Apple releases a product using their technology.

 

[AidenShaw]

The Atom would never work in an iPhone or iPod.

You mean that the "Atom I" (Silverthorne) would never work in a phone or MP3 player.

Check out "Atom II" (Moorestown) and "Atom III" and ....

Intel's in the low power race for the long haul....

Perhaps Apple's buying the rights for PA Semi to build SOCs around Atom cores. That would make a lot more sense than trying to out-engineer Intel for low power systems.

Maybe Apple will be able to further reduce the price since it now owns a manufacturer of some of the chips.

"Designer", not "manufacturer". And, Apple would be more likely to increase the profit margin than to reduce the price.

Two mistakes in one sentence

 

[Nicky G]

Egad!

This means some SERIOUSLY hardcore pocket-sized mobile wireless devices in another 1-3 years.

 

[meagain]

Danielsan - I fail to see the purpose of your post. It doesn't pertain.

 

[Camui]

I see the first chips to make it way in the iPhone in 2010, when the iPhone 4G is released. The 3G model will be around 'till then only getting a bump from 8 and 16GB to 16 and 32 GB in summer 2009. iPhone 4G will debut summer 2010 with 16 and 32GB.

There is no way we will see such MINOR increases in storage capacity in the next two years.
I highly doubt that we will see the first 32GB iPhone next summer.

I think it's impossible that they would not increase the flash memory for over a full year.
Not to mention that, by your hypothetical scenario, they would also be debuting the next generation iPhone with the same capacity as the year old 3G iPhone revision.

 

[winterspan]

You mean that the "Atom I" (Silverthorne) would never work in a phone or MP3 player.

Check out "Atom II" (Moorestown) and "Atom III" and .... Intel's in the low power race for the long haul.... Perhaps Apple's buying the rights for PA Semi to build SOCs around Atom cores. That would make a lot more sense than trying to out-engineer Intel for low power systems.

I wouldn't call it Atom I and Atom II to not confuse people, as the processing core is not really changing. Right now, Atom requires a separate supporting chipset ("Menlow Platform"). The next version of Atom is a SoC design where the supporting chipset (memory controller, I/O hub, Wifi, display controller, digicam controller, USB controller,) is integrated directly into the processor. Although this will greatly reduce both the load and idle power consumption, it's yet to be seen how well it will compete with the newest chips from ARM.

It will be going up against the ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 SoC's, which are available in dual-core and scale up over 1.0ghz, while using hardly any more power than the current ARM11 in the iphone.

It no doubt is going to be a great battle, and consumers will be the winners no matter what. Grab some popcorn...

 

[gifford]

Front page news?

Yes this is important information. Though slightly obvious, but still nice to hear confirmation of sorts.