WSJ: Apple Isn’t Kidding About Making its Own Silicon

5:52 pm, April 29th, 2009, Pete Mortensen

When Apple bought chip design firm PA Semiconductor a year ago, it sparked all kinds of speculation about what the acquisition might bring to the Cupertino Kingpins. Was Apple abandoning Intel hardware in Macs to make totally proprietary systems? Did they just need engineering talent. The answer, not-too-surprisingly, had nothing to do with Macs, and everything to do with the iPod and iPhone universe.

As Steve Jobs told the New York Times last June, ““PA Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods.”

Now, Apple is spending a lot more on chip design talent. Bringing in a very senior executive from IBM and two CTOs from AMD. The Wall Street Journal even reports that Apple has new job listings that include duties like “testing the functional correctness of Apple developed silicon.”

Again, this is all almost certainly device, not Mac-related. The more Apple can up the power and reduce the power consumption of the iPhone and iPod touch, the stronger the platform the company can build, and the more we can do with them. The Journal also claims Apple wants to use technology its competitors can’t get access to, which would be a big throwback to the 1980s, if true. I think it’s far more likely that Apple believes it has the talent to make a chip that delivers world-beating performance in an affordable package at minimal power use, which is way more important than specific features built into silicon.

In all likelihood, we’re talking about the iPhone generation due in 2010 at the earliest, though it would be a lovely surprise for the 2009 edition. What do you think? Do you want to get Samsung out of your iPhone’s CPU?

Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, Hardware, Rumors | Comment on this article

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About the author

Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

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3 comments

I am sort of amazed out how it appears that Apple has a roadmap that it is following into the future. All the pieces start lining up making whatever they have up their sleeve possible. They are going to make life miserable for some of their competitors.

rwinters, on April 29th, 2009 at 6:16 pm

“Do you want to get Samsung out of your iPhoneÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s CPU?”

I don’t care about that. Sure I’d like something better. How about something from 2029. It might be too advanced for me though.

All I know is, 2009 is too advanced for AT&T. My wife has more calls go directly to voice mail than actually ring her phone and we live in Seattle where AT&T usually has 5 bars. So apparently it doesn’t matter how many bars there are when getting phone calls. Let’s get Verizon on board. We rarely had problems making and receiving calls with Verizon. I’d give AT&T a D+ or C-.

Sabon, on April 30th, 2009 at 4:00 pm

Here’s the actual job listing…http://www.simplyhired.com/job-id/2ohmrdcmjs/soc-sw-jobs/

francis, on May 1st, 2009 at 10:13 am