According to reports Apple is to purchase boutique sized microprocessor maker P.A. Semi, based in Santa Clara, California. The chip company was founded in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl and produces custom designed low-powered chips. No sale price was disclosed, but the rumour mill has it pegged at $278 million.
The new low-power chip is called PWRficient and is the first chip to be designed from
scratch outside the 'AIM' (Apple, IBM, Motorola/Freescale) chip monopoly and could be bad news for Intel as the new chips will likely replace the Intel chips currently in iMacs, iPods and iPhones.
This latest move by Steve Jobs comes on the back of robust second quarter earnings reports released yesterday which puts Apple firmly back in the drivers seat.
I guess from Intel's perspective, when the chips are down, they are really down.