Apple buys P. A. Semi, designer of ultra-efficient processors

Here's an interesting tidbit sure to stoke the rumor mill. Forbes is reporting that after negotiations in Uncle Steve's own home Apple has acquired the small Santa Clara chip company P. A. Semi founded by Dan Dobberpuhl, the former lead designer of the DEC Alpha and StrongARM processors. What's interesting about P. A. Semi's chips is their great power efficiency, on the order of "300% more efficient than any comparable chips" according to the company.

This of course has tongues wagging about future iPhone / iPod touch iterations which might use some of this highly efficient technology. The development is particularly interesting in light of Apple complete transition to Intel on the Mac, and perhaps suggests that its mobile platforms will be going in a different (more traditionally Apple) direction. Given Apple's proven ability to have OS X running on multiple underlying architectures, however, it not that surprising that Apple might like to retain more control over handheld hardware than it can on the desktop.

[via Gizmodo]