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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: Matt_H on April 23, 2008, 10:44:19 PM

Title: Apple buys PA Semi
Post by: Matt_H on April 23, 2008, 10:44:19 PM

A few sources are reporting this (http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/04/23/apple-buys-pasemi-tech-ebiz-cz_eb_0422apple.html) now. This one's via Amiga-news.de (http://www.amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2008-04-00057-DE.html).

I'd say this sinks whatever hope was left for Amiga, Inc.'s imaginary machines from last year.

For Apple, though, it looks like a page out of the ol' vertical integration playbook. They were sort of promoting the fact that the iPhone runs a version of OSX, but compatibility advantages are close to nil since the iPhone uses ARM chips. If they switch new models to PPC, suddenly they don't only have a potential data exchange device, but also an application exchange device thanks to the Universal Binary format. A cheap, 100% compatible handheld Mac could be quite the product, especially for Apple fans. Similarly-sized PCs are still in the $1000+ range, and without phone capabilities, if I'm not mistaken.

Title: Re: Apple buys PA Semi
Post by: bloodline on April 23, 2008, 11:13:04 PM

Goodbye any future PPC products from them... Apple won't use the PPC in any computing device, I expect they might use the technology in consumer electronics... But they might not even use it at all... Apple have bought quite a few companies and then just sat on the tech.

Title: Re: Apple buys PA Semi
Post by: weirdami on April 23, 2008, 11:31:18 PM

Quote

Apple have bought quite a few companies and then just sat on the tech.

Remember when they bought LazyBoy? Man, that was sweet.

Title: Re: Apple buys PA Semi
Post by: AeroMan on April 24, 2008, 01:53:53 AM

Oh, boy... :boohoo:

Well, hope is the last one to die. Maybe they will do Power Macs again. It is a shame to see these PPCs wasted...

Title: Re: Apple buys PA Semi
Post by: sdyates on April 24, 2008, 02:02:05 AM

I am curious to see what they end up doing. Once things is for sure, since Mr. Jobs has returned, the company has turned around significantly. Todays earnings beat Wall Street consensus once again: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8592.

While I am not sure what they have planned, I give them the benefit of the doubt... besides with UAE, Mac makes running the Amiga possible without glitches ;)

Title: Re: Apple buys PA Semi
Post by: DonnyEMU on April 24, 2008, 04:51:39 AM

Quote

Similarly-sized PCs are still in the $1000+ range, and without phone capabilities, if I'm not mistaken.

These chips are aimed like the ATOM and low cost machines, for several different markets. This includes sub $500 machines like Asus's EeePC..

I really think Apple doing anything with PPC at this point is just wishful thinking.. If you look at ARM's history PocketPCs (running Windows Mobile) is based on the ARM architecture, and all of The Xscale processors were formerly owned by intel, has an ARM core..

The article I read said PA's new processor featured ARM cores. Which means nothing special to me, and it's more attempts to generate buzz and news because it's Apple. There really isn't news here, at least anything of a unique nature..

Check out the article, on XScale on Wikipedia.. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale)

There is an arm binary of PocketUAE the last time I looked by the way..