Comments on: How Apple’s PA Semi Acquisition Fits Into Its Chip History http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/ Daniel Eran Dilger in San Francisco Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:23:17 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Apple iPad: Specifications In Detail http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-23620 Apple iPad: Specifications In Detail Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:11:39 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-23620 [...] awesome article by written by Daniel Dilger back in 2008 about the acquisition. It’s over at RoughlyDraftedMagazine and totally worth a read. Some great [...] [...] awesome article by written by Daniel Dilger back in 2008 about the acquisition. It’s over at RoughlyDraftedMagazine and totally worth a read. Some great [...]

]]> By: Apple and the Mini DisplayPort — RoughlyDrafted Magazine http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-15449 Apple and the Mini DisplayPort — RoughlyDrafted Magazine Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:03:21 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-15449 [...] Inside the new MacBooks: Audio and Video How Apple’s PA Semi Acquisition Fits Into Its Chip History [...] [...] Inside the new MacBooks: Audio and Video How Apple’s PA Semi Acquisition Fits Into Its Chip History [...]

]]> By: WWDC 2008: New in Mac OS X Snow Leopard — RoughlyDrafted Magazine http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-9296 WWDC 2008: New in Mac OS X Snow Leopard — RoughlyDrafted Magazine Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:43:03 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-9296 [...] Why Did Apple Buy PA Semi? How Apple’s PA Semi Acquisition Fits Into Its Chip History [...] [...] Why Did Apple Buy PA Semi? How Apple’s PA Semi Acquisition Fits Into Its Chip History [...]

]]> By: Eric http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-8140 Eric Fri, 09 May 2008 04:03:03 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-8140 From cost/ margin angle (which Apple is very sharp about), can only have enough economy of scale where it dominates - so likely to be chips levearging on PMP market where it already dominate (as compared to small % in PC market where the benefit of economy of scale belongs to Intel), then up to the iPhone class - so very likely chips for portable/ mobile device. This is a battle between "Custom/ Need based" vs. "Open/ Mass based" approach From cost/ margin angle (which Apple is very sharp about), can only have enough economy of scale where it dominates – so likely to be chips levearging on PMP market where it already dominate (as compared to small % in PC market where the benefit of economy of scale belongs to Intel), then up to the iPhone class – so very likely chips for portable/ mobile device.

This is a battle between “Custom/ Need based” vs. “Open/ Mass based” approach

]]> By: tehawesome http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-8073 tehawesome Sun, 04 May 2008 20:20:57 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-8073 @ dentaldoc My thinking is that hardware which is designed to specifically accelerate OS X Core technologies wouldn't make any difference to a virtualized alternate OS: it simply wouldn't have any way to make use of the additional hardware. As long as the implementation doesn't alter the hardware architecture so fundamentally as to render it unusable by that virtualized OS, all that really happens is that you get a genuine hardware advantage to running OS X on the machine rather than anything else. Which leads me to an additional thought: if this accelerated hardware were to be made available through virtualisation, suddenly a Mac becomes a much more attractive machine no matter what OS you run. Apple is, after all, a hardware company. @ dentaldoc
My thinking is that hardware which is designed to specifically accelerate OS X Core technologies wouldn’t make any difference to a virtualized alternate OS: it simply wouldn’t have any way to make use of the additional hardware. As long as the implementation doesn’t alter the hardware architecture so fundamentally as to render it unusable by that virtualized OS, all that really happens is that you get a genuine hardware advantage to running OS X on the machine rather than anything else. Which leads me to an additional thought: if this accelerated hardware were to be made available through virtualisation, suddenly a Mac becomes a much more attractive machine no matter what OS you run. Apple is, after all, a hardware company.

]]> By: dentaldoc http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-8060 dentaldoc Sun, 04 May 2008 00:37:18 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-8060 As a non-professional in the computer world I will bury my face if my comment is "silly", but it seems to be that if Apple were to start introducing several custom hardware implementations to accelerate core audio, core video, core animation, etc, wouldn't it tend to make the Apple "boxes" less competitive and less attractive to the virtualization market (i.e., Parallels to run Windows). It seems that as they move to custom hardware solutions for these functions, they will necessarily devote less talent toward evolving these technologies in software. Won't it be much harder for companies like Parallels to hook into these custom chips to keep the virtualization experience snappy and transparent? It seemed like the whole reason why virtualization has been so successful is the fact that the current Apple hardware is, not identical to, but very similar to the generic Windows boxes. As a non-professional in the computer world I will bury my face if my comment is “silly”, but it seems to be that if Apple were to start introducing several custom hardware implementations to accelerate core audio, core video, core animation, etc, wouldn’t it tend to make the Apple “boxes” less competitive and less attractive to the virtualization market (i.e., Parallels to run Windows).

It seems that as they move to custom hardware solutions for these functions, they will necessarily devote less talent toward evolving these technologies in software. Won’t it be much harder for companies like Parallels to hook into these custom chips to keep the virtualization experience snappy and transparent? It seemed like the whole reason why virtualization has been so successful is the fact that the current Apple hardware is, not identical to, but very similar to the generic Windows boxes.

]]> By: airmanchairman http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-8051 airmanchairman Sat, 03 May 2008 18:14:23 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-8051 @kovacm: That name sure is a blast from the past. Atari ST lovers will always remember the venerable TOS (Tramiel Operating System) which, like GEM, AmigaOS, DR-DOS and amazingly OS/2 totally misjudged the software threat that Microsoft posed to their futures with the PC/OEM juggernaut and sadly, sank without a trace... @kovacm: That name sure is a blast from the past. Atari ST lovers will always remember the venerable TOS (Tramiel Operating System) which, like GEM, AmigaOS, DR-DOS and amazingly OS/2 totally misjudged the software threat that Microsoft posed to their futures with the PC/OEM juggernaut and sadly, sank without a trace…

]]> By: kovacm http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-7964 kovacm Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:10:34 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-7964 xexexe... Jack Tramiel (Commodore) even gave some MOS 6052 chips for free to Wozniak and Jobs (they where collage boys) to "play" with them :))) xexexe… Jack Tramiel (Commodore) even gave some MOS 6052 chips for free to Wozniak and Jobs (they where collage boys) to “play” with them :)))

]]> By: Berend Schotanus http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-7904 Berend Schotanus Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:11:16 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-7904 @John Great explanation! I wasn't so much aware of the competition between Intel and AMD. Your story makes perfect sense. @John

Great explanation! I wasn’t so much aware of the competition between Intel and AMD. Your story makes perfect sense.

]]> By: ARM, x86 Chip Makers Fight to Ride Mobile Growth — RoughlyDrafted Magazine http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/comment-page-1/#comment-7893 ARM, x86 Chip Makers Fight to Ride Mobile Growth — RoughlyDrafted Magazine Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:54:20 +0000 http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/04/28/how-apples-pa-semi-acquisition-fits-into-its-chip-history/#comment-7893 [...] ← How Apple’s PA Semi Acquisition Fits Into Its Chip History [...] [...] ← How Apple’s PA Semi Acquisition Fits Into Its Chip History [...]

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