“In the January 2010 issue, IEEE Spectrum featured chip firm Intrinsity, of Austin, Texas, for its innovative streamlining of the standard smartphone CPU, the ARM Cortex-A8,” Mark Anderson reports for IEEE Spectrum. “Today, analysts speculate Intrinsity’s enhanced A8, dubbed ‘Hummingbird,’ powers the 1-GHz Apple iPad and may (within a chip bearing the Apple logo) lie at the heart of the next version of the iPhone, too.”
Anderson reports, “‘Actually, there’s no speculation,’ market analyst Will Strauss, from Tempe, Ariz.–based Forward Concepts, says of the Hummingbird-iPad claim. ‘It’s only the Intrinsity folks who could have taken it up to a gigahertz. Period.’
“Strauss, one of a number of industry analysts who have made the case that Hummingbird powers the iPad, points to the fact that X-ray photography and analysis by reverse-engineering firm Chipworks have confirmed that the iPad runs on some version of the single-core A8 processor,” Anderson reports. “But, Strauss says, an unmodified A8 can clock up to only 650 MHz. Speeding up the A8 further requires the bag of tricks Intrinsity used to make its 1-GHz Hummingbird.”
Anderson reports, “Strauss adds that the teardown confirms that the iPad’s mystery CPU was made by Samsung, also the manufacturer of Hummingbird.”
Apple may have “quietly bought up Intrinsity to join the PA Semi team as in-house Apple chip designers,’ Anderson reports. “Intrinsity has lately gone silent, Strauss says, reporting unsuccessful attempts from both the press and industry to make contact with company officials. As of Monday afternoon, Intrinsity’s Web site was off-line, while last week it displayed a generic ‘this page under construction’ graphic. Intrinsity’s unresponsiveness would make little sense if something like an acquisition weren’t, in fact, under way, he says.”
Full article here.
[Attribution: AppleInsider. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
If so it will be interesting to se what they can cook up with the A9.
More power to Apple!
So much for buying AMD or ARM. On second thought, ARM could still be in Apple’s sights. A buyback could be in the cards.
Google might buy up anything Apple even looks at. Maybe Apple should start rumors that they are interested in buying “some crappy company” just so Google rushes in and pays too much for it.
Maybe Apple should float offers to buy up the USA. See what Google does with it.
@silverhawk
The USA is bankrupt, so it would be a cheap buy!
@madmac
couldn the USA file bankruptcy first, so they wouldn’t have to assume the debt?
I think Apple should buy California.
Yeh-heh-hehehesssss . . .
Hey, listen . . . don’t laugh. We’re all out here. De whole staff. You know, after de brilliant move from New York. And let me tell you — this state could be had for pretty cheap right now.
“couldn the USA file bankruptcy first, so they wouldn’t have to assume the debt?”
Yup. But you’d be F’d-economically for the next 50 years. American Bonds ( the real backbone of the credit markets) would totally crash, and you’d be a 3rd world country in short order.
Instead of trying to flake out on your commitments, raise taxes, and start paying off your damn debts. Cut the credit cards, and stop bloviating around the world. And for god sakes, pick up a second language… if not Spanish, then Mandarin Chinese… its 2010.
Hey “mike” —
Why don’t you take that “raise taxes” part and STICK it!?!
Sure, that’s Obama’s plan — that’s why they’re spending so damn much. But how’s about we QUIT SPENDING SO MUCH in the first place?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
two words in the topic title “may have” made me come in here to say that I’m not reading this article!
DOWN WITH ANDROID!!!