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> "Designing in-house means Apple doesn’t have to pay licensing fees to third parties to use their intellectual property. For instance, the A4 chip" Isn't the
by staunch 16y ago
> "Designing in-house means Apple doesn’t have to pay licensing fees to third parties to use their intellectual property. For instance, the A4 chip"
Isn't the A4 an ARM + PowerVR and doesn't Apple pay design licenses on both those?
- flyt 16y agoyes, and they pay Samsung to make them too
- ZeroGravitas 16y agoIt's not just manufacturing, Samsung co-designed them too (with the company that Apple later bought, which apparently retro-actively made this chip a great example of how Apple does everything "in-house").
- dfox 16y agoWhen foundry co-designs your ASIC, typical effect on pricing is that IP licensing costs actually go down.
- Samuel_Michon 16y agoMore than just licensing the tech, Apple buys the companies who make it. Apple owns Intrinsity, which designed the A4 processor. Apple also owns P.A. Semi, which contributed to the A4 SoC. Apple partially (10%) owns Imagination Technologies, the makers of PowerVR.
- masklinn 16y ago> Apple owns Intrinsity, which designed the A4 processor. That's a pretty long shot. Intrinsity clearly improved the A4, but overall A4 is a very standard Cortex A8 SoC. > Apple also owns P.A. Semi, which contributed to the A4 SoC. I have not seen any analysis or information pointing to actual PA Semi input in A4. Where Intrinsity is well known for improvements to existing designs (power-wise, mostly), PA Semi is generally credited with brand new and unique design, which the A4 isn't. I also understand most of PA Semi left after its acquisition.
- Samuel_Michon 16y ago> Intrinsity clearly improved the A4, but overall A4 is a very standard Cortex A8 SoC. Agreed. According to the Times, Intrinsity only made the Cortex A8 perform at a higher frequency [0]. An another Times article suggests PA Semi worked on the A4 [1], but no details are given. [0] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/technology/28apple.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/technology/28apple.html [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/technology/business-computing/02chip.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/technology/business-comput...