Intrinsity
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Report: Apple mulling second Israeli facility after Anobit purchase
It looks like Apple's acquisition of Anobit was only one part of its Israel-based plans -- business daily Calcalist is claiming that the company will open a research center there by the end of February. It's unrelated to the purchase of the flash-chip maker, since Ed Frank was apparently despatched to scope out suitable bases for a new facility in early 2011. It's reportedly going to be based in the Matam Technology District, south of Haifa, adjacent to similar facilities operated by Microsoft, Intel and Philips. It's already received hundreds of resumes for engineers: it's looking for those with specific know-how in chip development, hardware testing and verification. The new complex is to be kept separate from Anobit, with no communication allowed between the two teams. Another tidbit that emerged from yesterday's conference call was that Bob Mansfield is integrating Anobit's team into Apple's, but company founder Ehud Weinstein will depart for pastures new -- much in the same way that some of Intrinsity and PA Semi's staff departed after being swallowed by Cupertino's cash.
Apple's A5 chip rumored to have 4X the power of A4
AppleInsider is reporting that both the iPad 2 and the next generation of the iPhone, both rumored to be released later on this year, will feature the next generation of chips designed by Apple. The A5 (named after the A4, the current chip in most iOS devices) is rumored to have two cores, making for faster graphics performance, and enabling things like the iPad 2's rumored Retina Display and HDTV out of the next version of the Apple TV. There's a lot of technical information out about the new chip (it will likely include the new SGX543 graphics core, an upgrade from the current model used by Apple), but with two cores running, the new chip model is supposed to offer around four times the processing power of the current generation. That allows for both the mentioned graphics upgrades, as well as faster computing tasks straight off of the processor with OpenCL. Apple's Intrinsity and P.A. Semi are likely to be the companies behind development, while Samsung is likely working on actual production. We can look for faster, better, stronger Apple chips later on this year. [via Engadget]
More details emerge on Apple's A5 chip for upcoming iPad 2 and iPhone 5
So, AppleInsider has some new info on Apple's successor to the A4, which we were talking up last week, and our sources say it's spot on. Specifically, AI claims that Apple is moving to dual-core SGX543 graphics, up from the A4's single SGX535 GPU (also known as the PowerVR 535). What's particularly great about this move is that the graphical power improvement is rated at around 4X the current generation -- which makes a true 4X resolution iPad "Retina Display" upgrade seem much more of a possibility. We're also starting to see 1080p HDMI video output as a "default" spec in this year's generation of devices, so there's no reason Apple will want to be left out -- particularly in the Apple TV -- and these dual graphics cores could handle that easily. The same cast of A4 characters are to credit for this new A5 generation, including the Apple-owned Intrinsity and PA Semi, while Samsung will again do the production duties. But details aside, we're just excited to play around with all this new horsepower when it hits -- apparently the PSP 2 is rumored to use the same graphics architecture with even more cores. Isn't Moore's law a grand thing?
Apple's A4 is like Samsung's S5, except where it's not
Though the Apple iPad and the Samsung Wave most assuredly share the same brain, EE Times would like you to know there's more to a chip than its core -- analyzing Apple's system-on-a-chip designs in detail back to early iPhones, the publication noticed that Cupertino's silicon both has custom design quirks on top of ARM and shows heavy influence from Samsung as well. EE Times claims that while the A4 and Samsung S5PC110 are similar, there are certainly differences, enough to call the A4 a custom design. Essentially, Apple has a taken a one-size-fits-all product originally engineered to meet the needs of a broad range of OEMs and reduced its complexity, footprint, and cost to match Apple's particular goals. As far as whether PA Semi or Intrinsity had a hand in that design, the authors suggest only the latter seems very involved. What all this means for intellectual property questions is anyone's guess -- we'll let the lawyers fight that one out -- but when you encounter diehard fans that claim one's ripping off the other, at least now you'll be able to calmly explain the situation. Find the deep technical dive at our source link.
Apple iPad and Samsung Wave share a brain
At his keynote yesterday, Steve Jobs very proudly touted the "wonderful" A4 processor, saying it was "designed by our own team" and, additionally, "is so good." That chip is the muscle inside the iPad and the new iPhone 4, but now we're finding that others are using it too... a little more quietly. We knew that Intrinsity was the company behind the (previously dubbed) Cortex A8 chip, and that Intrinsity worked with Samsung to develop and manufacture it. Now we're finding that Samsung is keeping a little of that sweet, sweet silicon for itself. The Samsung Wave uses a processor called the S5PC110A01, which UBM TechInsights has verified shares the same 1GHz A8 core as Apple's A4. No, Bada may not be showing quite the potential of iOS 4, and something tells us the new iPhone will be a bit more popular than the Wave, but it's safe to say these two handsets have definitely fallen from the same ARM family tree.
Apple gobbles up chip maker Intrinsity for $121 million
Apple's buying spree for chip technology companies continues, with The New York Times reporting that the company has acquired Intrinsity. The Texas-based fabless semiconductor company was widely thought to be the engineering brains behind the iPad's A4 system-on-a-chip. Intrinsity's 1 GHz hummingbird processor was developed in partnership with Samsung last year, and the A4 is believed to be based on that technology. The terms of the agreement have not yet been made public, but analysts have reported a price tag of US$121 million. Apple-watchers expected this deal to be closed this month after many Intrinsity employees changed their pages on LinkedIn to show their new job titles at Apple. Intrinsity's acquisition by Apple continues the trend of the Cupertino-based electronics manufacturer bringing more chip expertise in-house, with the 2008 purchase of P.A. Semi being the most widely-publicized example. Some of Intrinsity's former customers include Samsung, ATI, LSI Corporation, and AMCC. [via Mashable]
Apple purchases Intrinsity, just 498 more ARM licensees to go
With P.A. Semi under its belt, and now "people familiar with the deal" reporting to The New York Times that a purchase of Intrinsity is a go, Apple's march to ARM preeminence is becoming much more clear. A rumor about an Intrinsity purchase surfaced a few weeks ago when the processor design firm's website went down and a few of its employees switched their LinkedIn employee status over to Apple, but now we've got some solid confirmation -- though Apple and Intrinsity are still staying tight-lipped about the deal. Intrinsity's rumored contribution to the iPad's A4 chip is a modified A8 core it designed dubbed the Hummingbird, which squeezes 1GHz of performance out of a chip regularly limited to a mere 650MHz. It's unlikely that this acquisition will shed much more light on the internals of the iPad or future Apple devices -- in fact, it might help obfuscate them -- but it's clear that Apple is dead set on owning as much IP and "smart people" in relation to ARM as it can muster. Of course, the next big rumor on this front is a purchase of ARM itself, but that's an entirely different can of worms.
Apple rumor roundup: Intrinsity behind the A4, ARM being eyed
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.
iPad tech specs reveal Cortex A8, 256MB Ram, PowerVR SGX 535
Now that the iPad has been out and tested for a few days, developers have a much better idea of what's exactly under that perfectly-formed hood. Turns out the A4 processor is modeled on the Cortex A8, a fact which was not only expected, but gives a little extra credence to the theory that chipmaker Intrinsity (who are behind the A8) was recently purchased by Apple. Elsewhere on the iPad, you can find the same PowerVR SGX 535 GPU and 256MB RAM that can be seen in the iPhone 3GS. But apparently the whole is better than the parts -- our buddy Craig Hockenberry sat down last weekend and did some serious benchmarking, and found that the iPad is actually many times faster than the iPhone 3GS at all sorts of tasks. As Craig said, this is doubly remarkable when you think about it: not only did they get these kinds of speed improvements in just a matter of years, but they've increased the battery life as well. Apple's purchase of PA Semi (and possibly Intrinsity) and their commitment to make their own chips has paid off in spades already. In other words, the hardware tells us what we already knew about the iPad: it's a beautiful and amazing device. And since there is so much shared hardware, it'll be interesting to see what kinds of speeds we get out of the next version of the iPhone. Lots of these changes and updates in the hardware seem directly transferable right back there.
Rumor: Apple buys Intrinsity
We've heard a few times now that Apple was ready to pick up some smaller, innovative hardware companies, and the rumor mill now says that chipmaker Intrinsity was purchased by Apple late last week. Rumors first hit on April 1st about the company being sold to a bigger buyer, and on Friday at least one employee was saying the buyer was in fact Apple. There's still no official word of a sale, as far as we can tell, but maybe Apple is waiting for a certain press conference to reveal that a new company will be providing chips for future, oh I don't know, iPhones. Intrinsity certainly fits the bill for the kind of company that Apple would want to buy with all its cash -- it's behind some of the fastest mobile processors out there, and that's certainly what Apple is looking for. It's also unencumbered by other ownership (which means Apple can pick it up outright), and it's got that nice mix of innovation and quality that Apple usually looks for. In short, even before the event on Thursday, we can probably expect to see Intrinsity behind some of Apple's processors in the future -- if they haven't made a few already. [via Engadget]
iPad misses out on Office romance, but gains a $900 app and more
Stephen Elop, el presidente of Microsoft's business division has stated that his company has "no current plans" to port its Office productivity suite over to the iPad. Contenting itself with a "wait and see" approach, the Redmond outfit isn't willing to completely close the door of possibility, but earlier hopes of seeing family favorites like Word and Excel on the iPad might have to be doused for the time being. Should that hamper the enjoyment of your new slate, you might want to console yourself with the extravagantly priced SiteClone Publisher, also available for the iPhone, which converts $900 of your hard-earned cashola into a tool that downloads data off particular sites while online, so that the user may access that content even without a connection. Doesn't sound worthy of a tenth of its price, but maybe the government and corporate entities it's aimed at will appreciate it more. Finally, Apple Insider is reporting whispers that Apple retail employees will be getting freebie iPads at some indeterminate point in the future, while NeoSmart has a particularly insightful breakdown of the differences between PowerPC, x86, and ARM CPU instruction sets. Hit up the links below for the full edifying experience.
Is Intrinsity Apple's latest chipmaker acquisition?
This one's still strictly in the realm of rumor for the time being, but there's a growing amount evidence cropping up suggesting that Apple may have acquired another processor design firm. The company in question this time is Austin-based Intrinsity, which specializes in ARM processors, and has suddenly seen its website replaced with an old school "under construction" image -- supposedly due to "scheduled maintenance." That wouldn't be much to go on by itself, of course, but EDN is reporting that it has a "solid rumor" that Intrinsity has indeed been sold, and a number of Intrinsity employees have apparently already changed their current employer status on LinkedIn to Apple only to promptly change it back. There's even some speculation that Intrinsity may have actually contributed as much or more to the A4 processor in the iPad than P.A. Semi has, although any confirmation of that will likely have to wait until an official announcement -- if there's one to come at all, that is.
