http://www.forbes.com/technolo...z-cz_eb_0422apple.html
Apparently apple buys the chip maker pa semi for 278 m usd. PA semi has, among other things developed a low energy dual core powerpc chip using 5-13 W at 2 ghz that was originally to be used for apples notebooks, but as we all know, apple went with intel instead.
What do you make of this? The energy consumption is lower than intels chips but not really low enough for it to be placed in cellphones and similar things. At the same time, one would not think that apple wants to build computers using ppc chips. Then they would have to support two architectures forever.... So are they just buying knowledge? Are they hoping pa semi will produce smaller chips yet? What about atom? How does it stand up to pa semi's chip? I have the impression that pa semis chip is very impressive, but in the long run I bet intel will make faster low energy chips.
I have a hard time trying to understand what they want to do with this ...
Apparently apple buys the chip maker pa semi for 278 m usd. PA semi has, among other things developed a low energy dual core powerpc chip using 5-13 W at 2 ghz that was originally to be used for apples notebooks, but as we all know, apple went with intel instead.
What do you make of this? The energy consumption is lower than intels chips but not really low enough for it to be placed in cellphones and similar things. At the same time, one would not think that apple wants to build computers using ppc chips. Then they would have to support two architectures forever.... So are they just buying knowledge? Are they hoping pa semi will produce smaller chips yet? What about atom? How does it stand up to pa semi's chip? I have the impression that pa semis chip is very impressive, but in the long run I bet intel will make faster low energy chips.
I have a hard time trying to understand what they want to do with this ...
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