Analysts debate P.A. Semi's role in forthcoming Apple wares
By Darren Murph 
posted January 20th 2010 9:19AM
posted January 20th 2010 9:19AM
It's easy to forget that Apple snapped up P.A. Semi for a song way back when, but now that we're just days, hours and seconds away from Apple's expected tablet reveal, a new wave of processor-related conjecture is hitting the fan. Richard Doherty, director of technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group, has come forward with some exceedingly detailed rumors on said tablet, a touchscreen MacBook and an OS X-based unicorn that lives in the cloud. As the story goes, Apple's pickup of P.A. Semi was primarily an effort to acquire a huge pool of engineering talent to use for its own internal designs, and now Doherty is saying that "before the year is out, Apple will have the most powerful, lowest-cost SoC in the industry." According to him, there's nothing from "ARM licensees or Intel that could challenge the power-per-watt, the power-per-buck, the power-per-cubic-millimeter of size," and he anticipates that four new products are in the pipeline from Cupertino. Need details? How's about a touchscreen iMac, an "iPod touch on steroids" with a 5-inch display, and "two different versions of media pads in the 7- to 9-inch (screen size) area." Alright Dick, you just put your reputation on the line -- here's hoping you've got your story straight.Update: Looks like UBS Investment Research has been hearing something similar. According to it, the forthcoming tablet "will be powered by a processor designed by P.A. Semi and built by Samsung."
@Atkins
It's quite amusing how the same people who are 100% convinced Apple will fail are the same people who are convinced a tablet should run a fullscale version of Windows 7 or OS X.
Newsflash, guys. That is one of the main reasons WHY nobody buys tablets! The only reason the tablet form factor hasn't caught on is because nobody's done the UI right! A desktop-scale UI is simply not meant to be used exclusively by fingers.
Apple will hit a homerun with OS 4.0. All they have to do is bump the resolution, allow multitasking via elegant multitouch gesture-based app switching, and introduce iTunes book/magazine/newspaper store.
In addition they could make people cream their panties by announcing the 3GS at $99, or that 3G service for the tablet is "only" $9.99/month more, for existing iPhone customers. They could offer a new app that turns the tablet into BOTH a secondary display and input device for Macs. Just a couple of juicy tidbits like these is all it would take to maintain the hype.
If they offer additional carriers, and a removable keyboard that turns the tablet into a laptop form factor, the place will go ape shit.
It's been a while since Apple's hit a homerun. They're due.
I doubt that apple has some earth shattering new mobile processor that is just going to blow everyone out of the water.
PA Semi may have a bunch of talented people, but so do a lot of other bigger chip companies.
The big deal for apple would be that if they own all the IP, they can increase profits perhaps.
@Atkins
I think they will use ARM .. There are some good ARM stuff in the pipeline like a dual core Snapdragon cruising at 1.5 GHz per core.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212002603
Maybe it's finally here? I know if I was Steve Jobs I'd be on that (though where the F is Microsoft).
That's an interesting question though .. what are they doing with PA Semi .. The ARM cpus are very power efficient .. I dunno if PA Semi even with improvements on PWRficient can beat them. It's possible they could with a totally new architecture and instruction set.
@crawdad689
You are absolutely correct. I see this Apple tablet as being the first legitimate attempt at making the tablet form factor a useful product. All other attempts I have seen are nothing more than a laptop with the keyboard removed, with touch support plastered on top of the OS. I find it a little amazing that nobody has attempted this before, but perhaps the technology hasn't been quite right.
If Apple does create a table with a finger friendly UI, some people will proclaim that Apple has "invented" tablet computing, while haters will reference the years of failed, half-baked attempts that share the form factor and say that Apple has copied them.
Personally, I don't care who makes the tablet, so long as somebody eventually does it right. The first company that can ditch the full desktop OS and make a tablet OS meant for fingers and can provide compelling software and content for it will be the one, in my eyes, who truly "invents" the tablet. At this point in time, it looks like it'll probably be Apple.
Regarding iPhone OS 4.0, it seems totally obvious to me that Apple has an opportunity to once again create a world beater. The major criticisms to the current iPhone can be outlined in just a handful of bullet points. If they throw a slick multi-tasking ability in, a unified inbox, and a new homescreen with some UI tweaks it will be near perfect. At that point, all haters can complain about is App Store policies, which the public at large couldn't care less about.
So hype for a Power ISA processor from PA Semi. I'll be curious where they've gone since the PA6T core which there certainly is/was a comparable processor for in the Titan from AMCC.
Both are Power ISA v.2.03 - So OS X will be back on a PowerPC core, after Apple dropped support for Intel. Now that's interesting.
@Patriot
Seems like a dumb move for apple no? I think alot of what drove apple back into popularity was being able to run windows easily on the mac. What's going to happen when windows will no longer run on the devices, and the wonderful mac version of office crashes every time they try to open it?
@(Unverified)
HAHAHAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....
Wow.. Just, Wow.
@Atkins
Good to hear this. Apple will PWN the entire mobile industry. Any chipset that will get better battery life from mobile products is a blessing.
I can't wait until Apple share price hits $300.
@crawdad689
sure they can, but they'll still have a device that's no more useful than an ipod/iphone. Guess what, tablets are a dumb idea for just about anyone but a doctor or star trek wannabe.
I find it funny everyone keeps saying the OS is the barrier to the success of tablets. Perhaps the form factor just isn't useful for most people.
@(Unverified)
Print media is going the way of the dinosaur. It just is.
Every day I see more and more Kindles out there. People are catching on.
Most people don't want a Kindle though, because it's expensive, and the e-ink causes tons of limitations.
A tablet PC is a reader, and it can also be a million other things:
It can be used as a notepad. It can be used as a picture frame or an alarm clock. It's a "super" PMP. It can be used as a new age trackpad+2nd display for your PC. It can turn into a laptop with an optional attachable keyboard.
I'm certainly not saying ANYONE NEEDS a device like this, but I think it's shortsighted to say that the tablet form factor can't possibly be useful.
So does this processor have an ARM core (Cortex A9, presumably) like every other new mobile processor, or is it a different architecture, or what?
@ebgolfin Completly agree.... my only issue is, it's still a freaking tablet! I can't wait to have a play with one, but I'll never buy one as I don't want to carry one around, it doesn't fit in my pocket, I'd be worried about the screen getting scratched constantly and my phone will do 90% of what it can.
Aside from couriers, real estate agents, the fanboys and the few others who this product would suit, is there really a big enough market for this to be the success everyone is predicting?
@crawdad689 Generally agree, though I think a couple more things, namely FLASH and MOVE support (so I can watch web videos from the likes of Hulu and Comcast) would be a very very good idea for a larger tablet, even if Apple continues to ignore it for the iPhone itself. Perhaps this will happen with the GPU offloading in the 10.1 Flash update, and an updated PowerVR core.
I also think something like the Intel WHDI interface would be a GREAT idea for a tablet if the above were true... let me browse to Hulu, then project the screen onto my TV wirelessly. It would replace the Apple TV and kill off most of those TV-side media center PCs (the ones without cable cards anyway) in the process...
SOC is the way to go for mobil devices! Talk about bringing the cost and power consumption down. Just smash all of the discrete IC component masks onto one good size lithography system and pump out a single system GPU/ CPU/ RAM/SSD solution! Word, I hope this rocks the heavily rumored tablet!