“Apple will indeed support PA Semi’s line of PowerPC-based processors,” Ashlee Vance reports for The Register.
“PA Semi’s staff has started notifying a limited set of customers that the company’s existing dual-core processor will enjoy long-term support,” Vance reports. “Apple will employ a number of old PA Semi staffers just for this task, which is good news for folks making missiles, mine-sweeping gear and storage boxes… Uncle Sam hates to design new missiles only to have the guts ripped out by some dude in a mock turtleneck.”
“Apple has abandoned any efforts to push the PA Semi architecture forward,” Vance reports. “PA Semi was snatched up last month by Apple for close to $300m. Apple has yet to say why it bought the company…”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: MDN Reader “Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son,” who sent us this link, believes that “PA Semi is critical to Apple’s future plans for both mobile devices and specialized Mac motherboard chips that will defeat the would be cloners who install OS X on PCs.” That’s as good a guess as any and probably better than most. Why do you think Apple acquired PA Semi?
“Apple can design more efficient chips (in terms of MIPS/watt) than Intel.”
That’s not very likely. This PA semiconductor acquisition is probably just another mistake in Apple’s long line of processor mistakes.
@Tiger,
Or maybe, Snappy! and not so Cool .
Chips can’t be reverse engineered thus they are an excellent way to prevent cloning of a device. My guess is that Apple plans on using MANY such chips.
there is a great article by d.e. dilger on this one:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/24/why-did-apple-buy-pa-semi/
and as an apple stockholder i am not comfortable with apple now being in the defense industry.
Glad to see Apple is doing its share to support the military-industrial-complex so we can continue to rain hellfire on innocent peoples with extreme prejudice, in the name of the “war on terror.”
Support Total War — Vote McCain 2008
sigue sigue sputnik called they want their missile back…
RDF says: “…another mistake in Apple’s long line of processor mistakes.”
Hmmmmmmmm? You don’t know much about computer architecture do you? When IBM made the bad mistake of choosing Intel chips with their fabulous addressing problems, Apple chose the Motorola 68000, a well-designed, more modern chip with NO addressing problems. Apple chose the Power PC chips because they are RISC and had more modern functional unit design. Apple HAD to choose Intel when IBM and Motorola just could not deliver consistently on their road map.
Ampar, my man, how can you sit by let opportunities like this pass you by?? Come on, weigh in Dude! (hope your health is ok and you are out enjoying the real world)…
Apple didn’t switch because there were inherent problems with PPC architecture, they did it because of scale. The unit numbers of PPC chips were simply not enough to allow Motorola or IBM keep cycling designs as fast as the x86 (Intel/AMD) family. By moving the hardware onto the commodity chipset, Apple didn’t have to worry about keeping up with whatever was happening with x86 and depending upon 3rd parties to do it.
For karma, because the missiles keep missing, contrary to what you’d hear in the news.
Apple is simply preventing the panicking government and defense industry from blocking the deal to buy PA Semi.
As for the custom and proprietary chips on the motherboard, they will only be accessible by OS X code and will have spectacular performance enhancements so that any clone machine, which will not be able to address the custom chips on future Macs, will be so hopelessly at a performance disadvantage as to have no market. The cloners are screwed.
He’s taking a break. I’ll pass along your good wishes.
New Headline:
SJ Grows Used To Dropping Bombs, Takes Next Step
@@Finland,
The Fins didn’t need no stinking missiles to drive the Russians out last time. They can take care of themseleves on on their own, thank you very much.
I agree. Finns not only drive like a devil they can skin reindeer as fast as Kriiiist himself. — He crossed the border. So I shot him. And skinned him. That’s all.
Forget iTunes tagging, I want to launch missiles with my iPhone!!!!
iBomb, coming to an Apple Store near you LOL.
@Pete
Kudos to Finland. They did indeed stand up to defend their country from invasion.
As for ralph from BERLIN. There is now a unified BERLIN again due in part to all the U.S. missiles deployed in Europe in the last half of the 20th century. I’m not saying that they were the only factor, and thank God they never had to be launched, but they served a purpose of preventing the Russian Bear from gobbling up the rest of your fair city. I wish our Defense Department would use more Apple products because they are more secure than the Windows garbage that is predominately used.
Steve Jobs may now be in the weapons making business but he will set things right for the victums of his creations when the robo-suit is complete.
yea! remember what mom always said “an apple a day, keeps the terrorists away!” go apple
It’s the people, not the products. Apple needed some major chip-design talent, and the PPC work they’ve done before is incidental.
Apple now employs the man who led the DEC Alpha design effort. The highest and best use of his time, is probably to develop an entirely new CPU architecture, so that Apple’s not dependent on Intel, AMD, IBM or anyone else for such a critical part of their product line.
Apple is now big enough to be able to afford such a project. This kind of thing doesn’t happen very often, and it’s pretty exciting when it does.
-jcr
“Kudos to Finland. They did indeed stand up to defend their country from invasion.”
In any given war the Fins have switched sides more times than Apple has changed processors in Macs.
In WWII I’d rather have a division of Germans in front of me than a division of Finns behind. At least with the Germans I’d know who I’d be fighting in the morning.
To quote LinuxGuy…
” the custom chips on future Macs, will be so hopelessly at a performance disadvantage as to have no market. “
Yep, the PPC and 68k debacles all over again.
Apple should stick to what it’s good at. Predicting which company will have the best processor 2 years in the future hasn’t been their strong suit. What makes anyone think they can actually design a world leading processor?
“Apple HAD to choose Intel when IBM and Motorola just could not deliver consistently on their road map.”
It doesnt matter if you think a dodo bird was architecturally superior to an Eagle, or that with the right development or support it could have gone faster or been more successful. The fact is it didn’t. Apple backed the wrong horse on processors twice before finally learning what everybody else already knew, that architectural elegance in a processor isn’t worth a crap if you’re not getting newer, faster versions every 6 months.
“The highest and best use of his time, is probably to develop an entirely new CPU architecture, so that Apple’s not dependent on Intel, AMD, IBM or anyone else for such a critical part of their product line.”
Sure, so Apple can switch processors AGAIN, fall behind the curve AGAIN, and switch to x86 architecture AGAIN. Great strategy.
At least you extract money from the fanboy base every few years as they are forced to replace hardware if they want to run new software at full speed.