apple is buying ARM?!!!!!

[DrMrLordX]

I haven't seen a single company start up and choose MIPS.

I don't know if it counts, but the government-funded processors being developed by the Chinese (Dragon/Godson/Loongson) are all MIPS rip-offs running x86 emulation. Anyone choosing to use those processors is ultimately choosing a MIPS CPU, even if they are probably using them to run x86 code.

 

[Anubis]

its not happening

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/whos-buying-arm-not-apple-not-intel-nobody.ars

 

[Medu]

its not happening

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/whos-buying-arm-not-apple-not-intel-nobody.ars

That's how I see it. It would be a hugely complex buy-out and the benefits for Apple would be questionable. If it was a move designed to hurt Apple's competitors, and they felt that it was a serious threat, then both chip companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, Nvidia and mobile device providers such as Nokia, HTC, Sony and Nintendo could come together and easily outbid Apple with the promise to keep the licensing open.

 

[nerp]

Apple will not want to buy AMD. They are not interested in becoming a CPU/GPU manufacturer.

 

[T2k]

I would venture to guess (actually having read some ARM license agreements) that existing products would be fairly insulated. If Apple did this, Intel would have a serious x86 competitor, or a big guy would buy a startup and supply the rest of the industry withing 1-2 product cycles. Apple competitors would not use ARM IP so production of cores with ARM IP would drop off a cliff and Apple would be looking at a large writeoff of the acquisition value.

There would probably be a secondary request in the US and probably some interest from EU regulators on the acquisition, despite the fact that you could claim ARM has healthy x86 and other competition. Regulator interest on a deal like this would probably hold up the closure by 6+ months beyond what would probably be a 4-6 month minimum. In the cell phone land, that is a lot of time for a next-gen product cycle.

Fun to dream, but really tough to execute.

Seconded, wouldn't make much financial sense especially after buying PA Semi.

 

[jihe]

what do you guys think about apple buying amd. there were rumors that amd people were seen on the apple campus and everyone thought it was because apple might use their chips, but in light of this do you think maybe they might be interested in buying amd. it would make sense for both companies

I would stop buying AMD.

 

[wiedersehen]

OMG, APPLE troops attack