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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Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/04/24/jobs-still-hearts-in…

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Hardware Steve Jobs

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....

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Guppetto

"She means nothing to me," just what you tell Old and busted before dumping her for New Hotness!

April 27 2008 at 9:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mrsteveman1

Intel, she used to be so hot.

What man would want her now

April 27 2008 at 8:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Macskeeball

I'm telling you, they're going back to 68k. I'm sure of it. ;)

April 27 2008 at 7:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Macskeeball's comment

Cool. Think my 128k will be able to run Final Cut Pro?

April 28 2008 at 1:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mare

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.

April 27 2008 at 6:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to mare's comment

Andrew

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!

April 27 2008 at 7:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jon Hendry

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.

April 27 2008 at 5:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply