Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware
WSJ: Apple moving into chip design
Papermaster. Drebin. Koduri. A law firm specializing in intellectual property? The backcourt starters for the Toronto Raptors? Three key graphics-chip experts now all on the Apple payroll? If you had option C on your answer card, congratulations: now you get to join the WSJ and Forbes in reading the tea leaves about what Apple's dream team of silicon-savvy engineering talent will be building in the secure labs deep in the dwarven mines under 1 Infinite Loop.Apple's body-snatching spree, particularly focused on veterans of the GPU team at processor maker AMD, aligns with the purchase of PA Semi last year in expanding the company's hardware design capabilities. While there's no Apple product yet on the market featuring chips designed by the new squadron, the expectation is that future iPhones and mobile devices will benefit from Apple-only silicon; graphics capabilities built into these new and exclusive chips would be, presumably, unmatchable by competitors in the mobile space.
The WSJ notes that over 100 LinkedIn profiles for chip engineers who recently worked at Samsung, Intel or other hardware companies now indicate they are sporting Apple employee badges (yay for transparency!). With the current economic climate triggering layoffs and shrinkage at many high-tech enterprises, Apple's combination of marketplace strength and Scrooge McDuck-esque giant pile of cash is allowing it to build a brain trust in hardware that rivals its legendary software expertise.
What kind of super iPhone or magic Mac do you think will be built around these chips and this team?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sabotage said 9:35PM on 4-29-2009
Apple is taking over the world.
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danny said 9:53PM on 4-29-2009
can't wait til they start hire ex-car executives. haha. okay. maybe not.
james_t said 9:38PM on 4-29-2009
Smart move. This will push prices down and quality up. They sure know what they're doing over at Apple. Microsoft beware, your turn is over.
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danny said 9:55PM on 4-29-2009
I hope they don't take MS's spot. Apple targets certain types of consumers and that's a lot of what makes them so great. Increased market share is wonderful. Market share dominance would inevitably ruin the best parts of Apple.
(01) said 7:18AM on 4-30-2009
@Danny
+1
Level 5 said 2:32PM on 4-30-2009
I disagree. I think profits will go up, and the prices will pretty much stay the same. Which is good for Apple of course. On the consumer side though, having these items R&D in house, etc would more than likely make the time to market go WAY down as Apply wouldn't have to wait for a shipment of this or that, they design it, send to manufacturing, get it, go.
Plus, an underlying Apple philosophy is that the software is designed to work with certain specific hardware. How much better of an experience could you make when not only do you have software designed specifically to work with the hardware, but also hardware that's custom tailored to meet more needs in an more efficient fashion? A better overall product is what I'd assume.
I'm all about this, even though I'm not the biggest fan of Apple stuff, this is just streamlining their business, it's hard to have anything against that! :)
ianlive said 7:37PM on 4-30-2009
No disrespect Level 5 as your post is intelligent and thoughtful, but if you're not that into Apple stuff, why do you read and post comments on TUAW?
Level 5 said 7:45AM on 5-01-2009
@ianlive
Well.. I've always felt that one should always keep an open mind about tech. I've worked in IT for some time and I've used and had to troubleshoot Macs. Brilliant machines, and although they're not my first choice, I don't mind anyone's opinion who feels they are, and I certainly have no qualms about using the Macs of several buddies. The iPhone again, bloody brilliant; although not for me. Apple as a company is making moves and shifting parts of the game here, the effects of what they're doing ripple across cosumer electronics, consumer computers, and the IT field.
You ask why, and I pleasantly ask why not? ;)
ianlive said 9:44AM on 5-01-2009
@Level 5
I'm impressed. That's one of the more enlightened responses I've read on here. Way to keep an open mind and glad to have you on TUAW.
gman said 9:58PM on 4-29-2009
expect all this new tech to drive iphone, ipod and the new tablet/media pad. unlike the bloated netbooks that are running full OS on slow HW, the new iPhone OS will have great processing power, and memory rivaling that of the Nitendo WII platform.
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(01) said 7:22AM on 4-30-2009
so Apple will reduce processing power in all their devices? That makes sense...
(01) said 7:26AM on 4-30-2009
oops, missed the "phone" there, sorry.
Greg Alexander said 10:14PM on 4-29-2009
You remember how it used to be common to compare the innards of a PC with a car - the engine, chassis... okay so I don't know much about cars so they were always a bit lost on me.
I think, at some level, Steve Jobs wants his 'devices' to not be comparable to regular 'computers'. And he wants to use all the latest computer technologies to do that. When people see the iMac or MacMini - they remark "so THAT is the computer!?!?". The iPhone or iPod Touch "huh...?... it's a computer...?..". The MBA is an attempt to make MacBook's more...invisible. The AppleTV is trying to pretend to be a single attractive lump.
I think he wants solid state, no moving parts as much as possible. Get rid of hard disks. Remove keyboards if practical. No flip phones or sliders. The iPhone already looks like a star trek communicator... but inside it still has the expected pieces.
So I expect we'll see these trends continuing. Apple can't get the intense tiny integration it wants for its products so it'll start setting the pace for the industry. This will also keep it 2 years ahead of competitors as they attempt to follow.
All that said.... I don't think it changes the kinds of products Apple wants to produce, just makes them faster and/or thinner.
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dagamer43 said 10:35PM on 4-29-2009
It's likely they are developing for the next generation of iPod/iPhone products. Hopefully, even some of that tech will come to the Mac as well down the road.
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DPBKMB said 11:05PM on 4-29-2009
Microsoft is toast.
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Matthew said 9:07AM on 4-30-2009
Buttered toast?
SubGenius said 11:15PM on 4-29-2009
They totaly forgot Dan Dobberpuhl(P.A. Semi), the acclaimed lead designer of the DEC Alpha series of microprocessors, the StrongARM microprocessor, and the first multicore systems on chip with the SiByte 1250
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Richard Hinkel said 10:48AM on 4-30-2009
Intense! I'm looking forward to what comes of it and my stock of course.
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Rob said 9:05AM on 5-03-2009
The future is touch interface... Apple have already mastered it and will now excel in the hardware side...
Apple have the lead already and this talent transition is just spinning up the FTL [faster than
The first gen. touch interface products are here, iPhone and iPod Touch, second gen.
is MacBook Touch is almost upon us...
Third gen. is what these guys will be dreaming up for us... a wireless touch interface IT community..
:-)
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FightTheFuture said 2:42AM on 4-30-2009
Apple is putting together this dream team to do with portable computing what they did with portable mp3 players. separating themselves from the low-spec netbook trend on the PC front.
though i don't think this will change macs at all - apple gained a ton of market share and compatibility by going the intel route and allowing to boot and virtualize windows. i doubt they would ditch intel & nvidia hardware in their conventional systems.
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