Daniel Eran Dilger wrote an interesting piece about Apple’s PA Semi acquisition where he ponders the reasons Apple might have for doing this, for many, seemingly odd deal.
While the transition to Intel has afforded Apple tremendous new opportunities, the downside to using commodity chips is that Apple’s roadmap is now closely tied to Intel’s. That means there are fewer surprises Apple can pull off and less differentiation between Macs and generic PCs.
Apple has invested heavily in building software tools that spin processor intensive tasks out to specialized hardware.
By developing more its own integrated components, Apple could potentially save money, support new proprietary features, and throw copycats off its trail and force them to develop their own devices from scratch. As Apple blazes into uncharted territories by accelerating its iPod line into a new series of WiFi mobile devices, cost savings, differentiated features, and difficult to copy designs will all become increasingly important. PA Semi’s hardware expertise can help in that regard.
So, in short, Apple is betting on built-in or add-on acceleration chips to stand out from the increasingly similar competition. Snow Leopard’s Grand Central and OpenCL technologies are additional proof of this direction.
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