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| 23-04-08 / 22:20 : Apple buys PA Semi : new PPC (cjed) | Apple buyed PA Semi, designer and maker of power efficient processors (used for onboard and signal processing chips - mainly military purpose). These processors are in fact derived from the POWER architecture, and a 64 bits dual core chip at 2Ghz only requires 5 to 13 W ! The company founder was the lead designer for Alpha and StrongARM processors.
The price (278 millions $, that is a half the price Apple paid to get NeXT in 96) shows the implications : we could se soon these processors in ultra portable macs (MacBook Air), derived chips in iPhone, and some coprocessing chips in macs. The skills of PA Semi could allow Apple to put pressure on Intel, and monitor their work on the ATOM architecture, for what they don't benefit from a long experience, contrary to Motorola (Freescale) or PA Semi. | | | Comments | | Write a comment | |
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