Brian's Brain

Now this is bizarre. Granted, I've just had my first gulp of coffee, so I may not be thinking as clearly as usual (whether or not I ever think clearly is, of course, also up for debate...) but I just saw a Gizmodo post indicating that Apple's acquired microprocessor developer P.A. Semi for the bargain basement price of $278 million. P.A. Semi, as you may remember from my past coverage, has historically developed PowerPC architecture CPUs.

"But Brian, didn't Apple announce in early June 2005 that it was migrating its computer lines away from PowerPC and to Intel x86?" Well, yes. "And Brian, isn't Apple's iPod lineup, including the iPhone, based on ARM architecture system CPUs?" Well, yes. Therein lies my confusion.

I'd wondered if (and suspected that, as a 'just in case' hedge) Apple was continuing to develop a PowerPC-based version of OS X. But unlike the PowerPC dark days of times past, Intel's x86 roadmap appears to be quite healthy, and ARM and its partners aren't slouches, either. Has Apple found a product niche where PowerPC is optimum? Or are the former P.A. Semi design engineers off doing ARM designs now (I'm assuming here that Apple's not trying to tackle its own x86 design, but maybe I shouldn't assume...)?

Regardless, I'm not surprised that Apple's 'cutting out the middle man' and bringing IC design in-house. Microsoft made the same move in the Xbox-to-Xbox 360 generation transition, and it has both cost and control benefits in high-volume situations (but then again, Apple's also incurring incremental forecast risk). Regardless, I bet current CPU suppliers such as Intel (Atom) and Samsung (ARM) are mighty bummed to hear the news. And I wonder what Apple's next step will be; flash memory design?

Or, speaking of Xbox...could Apple be developing a game console? Now there's a rumour mill catalyst! Sound off with your thoughts in the comments.

Followup: More from Ars Technica and Slashdot...and from my buddy, Suzanne...