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by diegof79
2031 days ago
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Check the parent article that explains it well. Apple didn’t defy common comp arch wisdom... they applied it. The reason why is hard for Intel/AMD to do the same is not the lack of engineering geniuses (I’m sure they have plenty), but the support for a legacy ISA, and a particular business model. What Apple defies is common business survival instincts: why spent so much in RD of a chip if there are market leaders that are impossible to beat? The answer seems to be obvious now... but probably it wasn’t obvious when Apple acquired PA Semi in 2008. |
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Having own silicon, means the upstream will not be able to turn lights on you (Samsung — a company keeping a quarter of its host country's GDP hostage.) I believe the immediate goal of PA Semi purchase was that.
> The answer seems to be obvious now... but probably it wasn’t obvious when Apple acquired PA Semi in 2008.
PA Semi was clearly a diamond in the rough. It took a great insight to single out PA Semi, because on the surface it was a very barebones SoC sweatshop, but in reality PA were the last of Mohicans of US chip design.
PA was a place where all non-Intel IC engineers left to after the severe carnage of microchip businesses of US tech giants like Sun, IBM, HP, DEC, SGI..., and etc.
It was a star team which back then was toiling at router box SoCs.