This sounds like "plan b". There was lots of talk of "intel partnership", but if Intel won't build what Apple wants, perhaps because they think it is stupid, th

This sounds like "plan b". There was lots of talk of "intel partnership", but if Intel won't build what Apple wants, perhaps because they think it is stupid, then enter plan b. Apple has a long tradition of using custom chips where x86 uses a northbridge through the 68k and PPC eras. I don't know if they hired out the work or did it with an in house team, but the distinction is largely irrelevant now that they brought a chip design team in house. I believe the rationale was to keep the part count down by integrating as many functions as possible. This is especially important in small consumer devices. Consider as an example, not Apple but similar issues or how the big chip companies can miss on specific requirements... I need to run a server in a remote location off of solar power and batteries. I am tired of wrestling with the OpenWRT and wrtsl54gs that I use now, but it runs on a couple of watts and that is good. Intel releases their fabulous Atom processor that takes only 2 watts which is great because I can use a standard mini-itx motherboard, regular old debian x86 and be happy... except the northbridge chip on the motherboard takes 15 watts because Intel apparently didn't see a need for a lower power northbridge. I can't afford another 360 watthours/day just for the northbridge. Obviously my volume is wrong for custom silicon, but a system asic that supports just the peripherals I need and memory I need designed with an eye to power dissipation instead of top notch performance would be a big win.