Apple taps Samsung partner for processors
Reported to have acquired Intrinsity to boost inhouse apps processor arsenal
Published: 6 April, 2010
READ MORE: M&A | Apple | Semiconductor | iPhone | Tablet
In silicon terms, the iPad was big news because it marked the first outing for Apple's inhouse A4 processor, the results of its acquisition of PA Semi. But its ambition to control its own chip destiny, maintaining a cutting edge for its devices, goes further, and it may have acquired a second IC design house, Intrinsity. If so, this could further complicate its relationship with Samsung, which has been developing its own leading edge apps processor with the start-up.
According to processor design news services EDN.com, Apple has acquired Texas-based Intrinsity, or at least many of its engineers. The company may even have had input into the creation of the A4 with its Fast14 technology, which focuses on domino logic for embedded cores.
Samsung and Intrinsity showed off their jointly developed processor, Hummingbird, last year, running on an ARM Cortex A8 core at 1GHz. Unusually for Samsung's chip arm, it was reported to have secured two design wins with its own handset sister company, which has a history of buying its silicon outside the family fold. This was potentially a blow to Qualcomm, whose Snapdragon 1GHz app processor is currently leading the field in high end smartphones and mobile internet devices - the Korean giant is Qualcomm's largest handset customer.
If Apple owns or controls Intrinsity, it is unclear whether it would use a customized version of Hummingbird itself, or turn its new unit to enhancing A4, leaving Samsung without its ally. However, with new Apple resources behind it, Intrinsity could also keep both developments in parallel. Samsung and Apple are already close - the former provides the app processors for the iPhones, and is the manufacturing partner for the A4.
Not everything is harmonious in the Apple silicon world though. A number of the A4 design team, acquired in 2008 with PA Semi, have already left, according to EETimes, to form a new start-up, Agnilux. PA Semi was co-founded in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl, the lead designer of Digital Equipment's Alpha and StrongARM microprocessors (the latter acquired by Intel and then by Marvell). Dobberpuhl is one of the team to have left Apple, according to reports.
As for other silicon in the iPad, the first teardown comes from UBM TechInsights, showing Samsung and Broadcom to be the big winners. David Carey, VP of technical intelligence at the firm, says the A4 is supporting richer graphics with a 64-bit path to main memory, twice the width of the memory bus in the iPhone. Samsung provided NAND flash for the 64Gb iPad, while Toshiba supplied flash for other models. Broadcom has scored from the iPad's increased use of touchscreen chips - three instead of just one in an iPhone. The firm is providing its BCM5974 and BCM5973 controllers, both used in previous Apple devices, while the third, analog, chip comes from Texas Instruments. Broadcom is also thought to have won a slot for its BCM4329 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip.
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