Apple rumor roundup: Intrinsity behind the A4, ARM being eyed
By Darren Murph 
posted April 22nd 2010 7:22AM
posted April 22nd 2010 7:22AM
Mama always said that downpours followed Spring showers, and sure enough, the Apple news has been flowing hot and heavy overnight. For starters, an IEEE Spectrum report has people talking once more about Intrinsity; if you'll recall, rumors flared up earlier in the month about Apple nabbing said company, similar to the way it acquired P.A. Semi way back in the naughties. Now, it seems that round two of those whispers are gaining steam, with some analysts suggesting that without Intrinsity's expertise, there was simply no way the silicon within the iPad could've been pushed to 1GHz in time for launch. In related news, we're also hearing that Cupertino is interested in acquiring ARM Holdings, and considering just how much business Apple pushes ARM's way, it's not illogical to imagine Apple wanting to just bring ARM in-house. If the deal went down, Apple would obviously hold a huge amount of control over whether or not ARM chips ended up in rival products, and if it yanked those Cortex slabs out from the market place, you can bet there would be a mad scramble to create a competitive portfolio to serve those suddenly chip-less product makers. Finally, a new iPhone OS 4 (beta 2) video has surfaced, giving the world a solid look at a new circular side-swapped animation that occurs when switching apps -- head on past the break to check it out, and give those links below a visit for more of that succulent nitty-gritty. 
@Brother Unit No 4
And you just destroyed Taligent's credibility. LOL.
Look, I like Apple almost as much as any brainwashed poser out there. I can honestly say I stuck with Apple from the very beginning. But this is not good.
There is too much hypocrisy going on among fanboys. The Apple faithful laments the domination of MS yet they cheer on this stupid rumor. Typical unprincipled sheep.
Too add to that. This will never happen.
Apple MAKES HARDWARE. Makes sense.
Google is an internet advertising company.
At least 95+% of Google incomes states that.
Oh, and the Apple hate here is AMAZING.
@SCXFAN
apple does not 'make" hardware it designs it and out sources the 'making" to foxconn and such. apple designs it and slaps their os on it
@DefPoet
That slap part is considered one of the most tightly integrated processes in the industry, one that has been accused by the competition of being totally vertically integrated lockdown/proprietary.
Careful the way you throw words around... They're not MS, they don't slap their OS on anything.
I'll wait while you download drivers.
@Wesscoast
actually between windows update and a little program that i wrote that auto downloads the drivers for me i don't have to download anything..... installing on the other hand does require some interaction :P
@Wesscoast
oh and Microsoft does not put their OS on one computer or phone just so you know the OEM's do
@DefPoet
Yeah, ... so..HP/Dell just slaps it on... not the guys who do it all, software, hardware, services, under one roof.
*walks away shaking his head
Pretty much anything out there that isn't an x86 chip is an ARM based design. Not just in phones, but anything that's low power and needs a bit of CPU.
I would have thought an ARM buyout would be a very expensive deal.
@Gregorian .. About 8 billion or so. Apple has around 40 billion in cash and it would be a very, very smart investment.
@taligent "very, very smart investment" and you say I'm ignorant. This, *might* be a very smart gamble, but it's a gamble at best. Please do some research on this rather than talking out of your #$@ and intuition. While there are plenty, maybe hundreds -if not thousands- of posts concerning this rumor; the commentary is really better where there is actual analysis of the good and bad points of said rumor.
Dear Apple...
Hurry your asses up and pay this money before the Eric the Moleman gets *sniff sniff wind of this *sniff sniff rumor.
Remember the great words of our Founding Fathers:
"Fool me once..er.... Fool me twice.. er...hehehe... You don't get fooled again."
@Wesscoast
I believe the quote is "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on..... Well fool me once, (sic) can't get fooled again!"
Hooray for Apple I remember in the mid-90's, as a young teen, people laughed at me because of my apple fascination. shank!
@CMiCH
Don't shank yet, wait till Apple passes MS in market cap... then the real gang warfare begins.
WESSTSAAAAAIIIIIDE
/itsajokerelaxandputawayyourlightsaber
OMG!! An Apple takeover of ARM would be the most interesting thing ever to happen this century! I want to see, just for the chaos that ensues ;-)
Apple, or anyone buying ARM would effectively end ARM. The reason ARM is so popular is because it is an independent company who only sells IP and sells it for (relatively) cheap to anyone who cares to license and the fact that with that IP, it provides a plethora of support and accessories (peripheral IP, subsystem IP, verification IP, etc.)
Apple is not good at playing with others nor are most end-user product companies. If somebody, be it Intel, Samsung or Apple buys ARM, then the industry will move to MIPS or PowerPC.
@metafor
Genius, they don't care about that. They want to integrate it into their systems and... *deep breath.... prevent the competition from getting that technology.
Ok. There. I said it. Apple's evil and should be shut down for their anti-competiti---- Oops, just got a phone call
" What's that? Microsoft is still in operation.. they haven't been split up? Oh... but the Europeans are mad? Ok..."
Nevermind... Go Apple Go.... The march to 300 bucks a share continues
*chugs Kool Aid
@Wesscoast I'm not saying this would stop Apple. It's actually just the kind of thing I think they'd do. But it is something to the ARM board would seriously consider. Unless Apple offers a number so ridiculously above the market value that they can't say no, there is very little reason to destroy your whole business in a purchase like that.
That and any wind of this to all of the ARM licensees would just start a bidding war. There are quite a few companies with a lot of cash on hand who would not want ARM falling into Apple's hands.
@Wesscoast +1 hilarious!
@Wesscoast
Anything that becomes uneconomical it gets dropped; ARM architecture isn't irreplaceable.
Conflict of interest here. If Apple controls ARM, they could raise prices stratospherically for competitor products and drive them out of business. I doubt the US govt will approve this, and I don't see the EU being too happy about this.
@Jacob1 raise prices? Seriously? It will bring prices on Apple products down, and force the competition to deliver a better product at or near that price.
If you owned a company that operated as the shunned-loser in the tech world for decades while your competitors took all the glory, only to work your way back to being the tech world's darling through solid products, great design, and good prices - would you want people upset with you?
@trainwrecka It'll bring Apple products prices down, but if they control ARM, then competitors will have to pay prices dictated by Apple, which Apple could raise at a whim. If you don't see a conflict of interest here, then I'm sorry but you are blind.
@Jacob1 Let's just say Apple keeps ARM tech the same, but shoots prices up - do you really see all the other companies being okay with that? They would jump ship and be done with ARM.
I picture Apple adding Intrinsity+PA+ARM tech into something better than what is out there. Putting more value on that would be expected.
The real question would be whether Apple still licenses ARM tech...
@trainwrecka
They would jump ship and be done with ARM...
and the whole smartphone industry would take 18 months to restart as all of the current smart phone OSes only work on ARM processors (mostly the ARM A8). WP7 and Droid would have to be completely rewritten. During this time of course everyone would switch to the iPhone which would be the only licensee for the updated latest ARM tech. This is a pretty huge conflict on interest for an Apple ARM merger.
Wait, didn't Apple used to own a lot of ARM? If I recall correctly, they sold a TON of their shares at the late 90s, and that was one of the first thing that helped them get back into the black after their bleak mid-90s period.
Apple wants ARM for their braintrust, not the silly notion of crippling competitors (who already own the licenses for the chips they use). In an unstable world, being vertically-integrated can be a huge advantage if one day the SHTF.
@Ed T
The companies have the rights to produce the current designs as long as the like, but what happens in 2011? When happens when Qualcomm wants to make a Snapdragon II that supports LTE, USB 3.0, 1080p decode, and is manufactured at 28nm? It is unclear if their current license for original Snapdragon would cover this, especially as the process shrink would require re-engineering ARM Cortex A8 core on the chip.
go apple, take over everything!!
Everyone at PA semi quit after apple took over. They wanted to develop their own chips, but steve jobs is to big of a dick to work for in the long run. If they buy ARM, the same thing will happen. Short term they will own the IP's and screw consumers, long term, they will just piss off more people on their march to 300 dollars a share.
@stabbytheicepic
Stop lying, they left because they didn't get enough stock options. This is Engadget, where people just talk crap.
@Kwame Nkrumah The P.A. Semi defections had zero to do with stock options. It had everything to do with Apple acquiring the company they previously spurned by going with Intel at the last minute. P.A. Semi pretty much designed the PA6T with Apple in mind, and had an understanding Apple would utilize it. Apple and the P.A. Semi team were still negotiating the deal to incorporate PA6T into Apple's offerings right until the WWDC Announcement. To say Dan was shocked and annoyed would be an understatement. Apple's announcement made it all but impossible to secure further rounds of VC, despite some lucrative military contracts. These guys poured years of their lives into this project only to be acquired by a company and told their purpose would no longer be driving processor technology foward, but designing SoCs. Apple all but threw away everything P.A. Semi did in one fell swoop. The only value in the acquisition was the gate switching patents. The PA6T was a slick part, and quite competitive with Intel's Core offerings at the time. It also incorporated the PCI-E, Ethernet, and Memory Controller in the same PPW envelope. P.A. Semi had little to sell without further VC, and the writing was on the wall regarding departures as contracts expired. Dan and his team have "been there, done that" with ARM, and aren't interested in packaging SoCs. They're innovators at the core, and Power Arcitecture presented their skills a better opportunity. I have no idea what Agnilux is doing, but we'll find out.
Since when has Google morphed into such an evil entity? Everything they offer is free, and fairly open. Can Apple say the same? Imagine if Apple was an ISP? Do you think they'd offer 1Gbps Fiber for $49; or simply resell cable broadband at a premium and send you a glossy bill? I like Apple and Google. I hope both continue to compete and innovate. Google may be far reaching, but they're hardly as evil as Microsoft or Apple.
TOLD YOU THIS RUMOR IS HOGWASH:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362956,00.asp
I hope whoever started this rumor enjoys whatever stock price manipulation they were going for.