Filed under: Hardware, Steve Jobs
Jobs to Intel: she means nothing to me
As we noted earlier this week Apple purchased of the chip design firm P. A. Semi and speculation has been rampant about what it all means. Well the Journal is reporting that Jobs spoke recently about Apple's relationship with Intel saying: "We have a great partnership with Intel. We expect that to continue forever." He further suggested that the acquisition was mainly to improve chips to go in portable devices and dismissed speculation about a return to the Power PC platform (the technology on which P. A. Semi's designs are based).[via MacNN]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jon H said 5:48PM on 4-27-2008
According to EE Times, the PA Semi chips are used by defense contractors, and they are oncerned because Apple is only interested in PA Semi's talent and IP, not in continuing their product line and roadmap.
That would suggest that Apple has no interest in new PowerPC products, and is hiring the PA Semi designers (especially Dan Dobberpuhl) probably to work on future ARM-oriented designs.
I'm guessing Apple hasn't received the cooperation from Marvell that they would have liked, so have decided to bring ARM CPU design talent in-house. That way Apple can control their iPhone/iPod CPU roadmap - and, unlike off-the-shelf Marvell hardware, iPhone competitors won't have access to the same capabilities.
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mare said 6:32PM on 4-27-2008
If Jobs says "Apple doesn't do A", it takes usually a year before Apple just does exactly that. But with a twist.
I'm sure Apple could use the avaulability of PA Semi chips (and their manufacturing, probably done at Texas Instruments) to strongARM Intel in lower prices or else...
And they could make special optimized chips for video en- and decoding and other processor intensive tasks in order to distinguish the Mac hardware from generic PCs.
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Andrew said 7:15PM on 4-27-2008
That would certainly help against the critics claiming Apple charges more for the same hardware. It's getting more and more like the car business - the luxury car business that is.
A car is a car, except when it comes with style, status and unique innovations.
However I doubt Apple would make the PCs *incompatible* with normal PCs and Windows. Because that openness and compatibility has been the key to the great growth of the Mac!
Macskeeball said 7:34PM on 4-27-2008
I'm telling you, they're going back to 68k. I'm sure of it. ;)
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Ed said 1:18PM on 4-28-2008
Cool. Think my 128k will be able to run Final Cut Pro?
mrsteveman1 said 8:12PM on 4-27-2008
Intel, she used to be so hot.
What man would want her now
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Christian said 9:42PM on 4-27-2008
"She means nothing to me," just what you tell Old and busted before dumping her for New Hotness!
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