retroremakes
February 8th, 2010, 21:20
A curious tidbit from VentureBeat: The A4 chip that Apple's pimping hardcore in iPad promos might not've been done by their PA Semi (http://gizmodo.com/tag/pasemi/) team (which Apple acquired (http://gizmodo.com/382929/apple-buys-itself-a-little-chip-company-known-for-super-efficient-processors) for $278 million). Their source says it was designed by Apple's existing VLSI team, who made custom chips like northbridges for the old G5 Macs.
Sounds possible, since there likely isn't a whole lot "custom" going in the A4's actual design, which by all appearances is an ARM Cortex A9 wrapped up with a PowerVR graphics core and some other parts in a custom SoC. So, new question, if it's true: What's PA Semi, which Apple said would be working on chips for iPhones actually working on? A more customized chip would be interesting, since PA Semi's true talent was in designing chips (http://gizmodo.com/5457620/a-last-minute-consideration-of-the-apple-tablets-guts) with ridiculous power efficiencies. [VentureBeat (http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/06/apple-a4-cooler-battery/)]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1)http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/jAjp-YN9ptY
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/jAjp-YN9ptY/apples-pa-semi-might-notve-designed-the-ipads-a4-chip)
Sounds possible, since there likely isn't a whole lot "custom" going in the A4's actual design, which by all appearances is an ARM Cortex A9 wrapped up with a PowerVR graphics core and some other parts in a custom SoC. So, new question, if it's true: What's PA Semi, which Apple said would be working on chips for iPhones actually working on? A more customized chip would be interesting, since PA Semi's true talent was in designing chips (http://gizmodo.com/5457620/a-last-minute-consideration-of-the-apple-tablets-guts) with ridiculous power efficiencies. [VentureBeat (http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/06/apple-a4-cooler-battery/)]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1)http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=jAjp-YN9ptY:GA3R3A0hPAM:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/jAjp-YN9ptY
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/jAjp-YN9ptY/apples-pa-semi-might-notve-designed-the-ipads-a4-chip)