[wmf]

Apple did not have the IP rights to continue PowerPC development

Didn't they get those rights when they bought PA Semi? I think it didn't make sense for Apple to develop their own processor in 2005 because they were just in a much weaker position than they are now.

And it was said that in the old days Exponential got their PowerPC license from Apple.

[ChuckMcM]

I don't believe PA Semi ever had a transferable license to Power. They had their own architecture which was very power efficient and they were a CPU design house with ARM experience (they did StrongARM at DEC). What it looks like from the outside looking in, is that Apple bought out a full architecture license (with derivative ownership) from ARM and bought PA Semi to be the core team to start building CPUs that they had 100% of the rights to.

[nickpsecurity]

That's how I saw it. I did recently discover PA's PPC looking into various implementations of the architecture that might be salvageable. It was quite impressive. Still better specs on 65nm than the Rocket RISC-V that's on 45nm:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWRficient

EDIT: Funnier is it was used in a desktop for Amiga's (AmigaOne X1000) before acquired by Apple. Had to hurt what little ego the Amiga people had left.

[ChuckMcM]

Linked in there was the EE Times article (http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1168406) which refreshed my understanding of the licensing issue. It reads like the Power license they had would have to be re-negotiated with IBM as a transfer if they were to keep selling and making their parts.

[nickpsecurity]

Another source I had said they do sell EOL'd parts to legacy customers. License must have went through at least for that.