Industry Expert Blogs
Apple's Ax Chronicle-March 23, 2015 |
In April 2008, Apple baffled the semiconductor industry by acquiring the system-on-chip (SoC) pioneer PA Semi for US$278 million. The acquisition, took place at the height of the iPhone fever, left the technology and trade media with an endless suite of guessing games. In the end, it was just about Apple's quest for having better chips for the mobile devices.
PA Semi co-founder, Dan Dobberpuhl, was a pioneer in microprocessor design and had contributed to the landmark T-11, Alpha and StrongARM processor developments at DEC. After leaving DEC in 1998, He had founded SiByte, which developed the first multicore SoC device and was later sold to Broadcom for US$2 billion.