Date: 04-25-2008
Apple Inc has bought PA Semiconductors, a chip company based in Santa Clara, CA, for a reported price of $278 million. The deal will give Apple access to the same PowerPC-based chips it had abandoned in favor of Intel chips before. Analysts speculate that Apple’s real motive for buying a chip company is to give it some differentiation from competitors in the iPod and the iPhone market. PA Semiconductors has been working on energy-efficient microprocessors, including a 300% energy-efficient chip which has a speed of 2 GHz but consumes only 5 to 13 watts. Though Apple has not offered any comment on how it will be using PA Semiconductor’s 150 employees, some sources suggest that Apple will be focusing on intellectual developments and the company’s engineering staff, which might well leave the door open to Intel’s Atom chip for future Apple gadgets.
