Apple buys P. A. Semi, designer of ultra-efficient processors

I'm thinking it might go something like this:

http://www.danbailey.net/117/apple-chip-fab

This would allow Apple to wrap their version of the ARM processor with with very efficient, customized hardware so they control and differentiate the iPhone platform. I assume PA Semi went to Apple with an alternative to their current iPhone chipset, that uses less power with more features. Once Apple was satisfied that the technology could have an ARM core rather than a Power core, they bought the cow rather than the milk.

Interesting all this chatter about using their chips in Apple products when PA Semi is telling everyone their products aren't a consideration in the deal.

"P.A. Semi customers were told the acquiring company was not interested in the startup's products or road map, but is buying the company for its intellectual property and engineering talent." from EETimes via 9to5mac.

Doesn't sound to me like Apple wants anything from them except knowledge of power efficient design. Dreams of a PowerPC renaissance can stop now. You're gonna see Silverthorne/Atom in new handheld devices from Apple. It's almost a given. These new engineers will help them make the full platform as power efficient as possible. End of story, in my book.

Not to mention the Pentagon may block the deal altogether.
http://eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GX4NTBNWIFBBSQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=207401605

okay this has absolutely nothing to do with this but i need help...

i have just jailbroken my iphone bout a week and a half ago and btw... LOVIN IT!!.... anyways.. youtube will not work and i have installed every youtube fix there is in installer.. any1 kno wat 2 do?

Even though though the switch to Intel brought a lot more performance to the platform, I'd like to see apple design an in-house chip with some unique features. Maybe in future portable devices/laptops?

this makes perfect sense to me. Apple doesn't want to be wholly dependent on Intel for it's chips, and Apple has always wanted to control as much of their hardware as they could.

And a deal with PA Semi was in the works right before the Intel deal was announced, but it was put on hold or died outright.

This is the second bridge - http://tinyurl.com/4qacsx -two OS X platforms.

Maybe Apple wants some in-house semiconductor design skills to be able to interface better with peripheral and processor companies? This would make a lot of sense as someday soon we will have a one chip MacBook...

Bzzzz. Battery life is still abominable. I want a user replaceable battery! There are still only so many cycles in a battery. Chip efficiency is a nice term to use in a lab but not outside of it.

from the PA Semi website: "PWRficientâ„¢ processors are based on the highly regarded Power Architecture through a P.A. Semi architecture license agreement with IBM."

Does this mean that Apple can use its existing OSX for PowerPC code? (I know little about these things)