4 ms·

Amazon looks to acquire TI mobile chip business, report says

68 points by drone 14y ago

numeral_two 14y ago
Wonder if this means no more Beagleboards/pandaboards, etc...
- gonzo 14y ago
  Yup
- _red 14y ago
  Thinking the same, but encouraging a hobbyist / developer effort around the OMAP has huge strategic benefits for Amazon. I think the worst decision they could make would be to isolate development by killing off the nascent BB market.
- drone 14y ago
  I would think it's in Amazon's overall interest, not necessarily in Amazon.com's interest, to further ingratiate themselves in the developers community. That being said, much of the TI development kits are sold at-cost, or even nearly below (see the launchpad series, $5 development boards), so it may not be as economically feasible for Amazon to match that pricing, giving that selling bulk chips aren't their business.
  - zokier 14y ago
    Launchpads would not be affected by this deal which only is about the OMAP series.
    - drone 14y ago
      I know, I was implying that beagleboard/pandabaord may be being sold at a limited profit much like the launchpad boards, to attract interest to the platform.
chrismorgan 14y ago
This post's title is inaccurate and needs fixing. The article's title is: "Amazon looks to acquire TI mobile chip business, report says". It's an external report which is claiming that the two companies are in talks. It's not a press release from Amazon or TI saying they're doing it. [BTW: what is flagging meant to be used for? Why is there no documentation on these features?]
- freehunter 14y ago
  Flagging is the extreme version of a downvote. Rather than expressing the uselessness of a post, it expresses the need for the post to be reviewed by a moderator (removed from the site altogether, reworded headline, merged with another article). Generally it's used on articles that are obvious troll articles, completely illegitimate articles, or highly inaccurate headlines.
lmm 14y ago
There are enough companies making ARM processors that I'm not worried about the loss of competition; Barnes & Noble could easily switch to NVidia or Qualcomm or Samsung or...
benologist 14y ago
Rewording of Engadget's rewording of The Next Web's translation of http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.calcalist.co.il%2Finternet%2Farticles%2F0%2C7340%2CL-3584838%2C00.html http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&...
- aristidb 14y ago
  We need more efficient ways to get tech news than via chains of rewordings, indeed.
programminggeek 14y ago
This would be a good move for Amazon. Look at the biggest phone/tablet sellers right now - both Samsung and Apple design their own chips and exercise a great deal of control on the manufacturing as well. At a certain scale, there is a big benefit to making your own hardware. If nothing else, it lets you optimize for your own requirements instead of for the requirements of other customers.
- Someone 14y ago
  I think it could be a good move. Execution will be everything here, and it is a fairly new market for them (anybody know who designed the Kindles?)
blinkingled 14y ago
Considering how many Kindles Amazon sells at break even or at cost to them, this would indeed be a good business for them even if they kept all of TI's output to themselves. SoC has got to be an insignificant part of the cost with margins etc.
- steevdave 14y ago
  Actually the processor itself is normally fairly cheap, the LCD is normally the largest price (or storage, depending on what type and how much space is provided.)
st3fan 14y ago
This is awesome. I'll have a cheaper ARM-based EC2 host please. Has anyone considered that this could also be for ARM-based servers instead of just Kindles? :-)
- ruchirablog 14y ago
  arggg really dude? I dont want my web site on that please!
  - freehunter 14y ago
    Is there anything inherently wrong with ARM servers that give you legitimate reason to immediately balk at the suggestion? As far as I can tell, ARM servers are no less reliable or speedy as x86 servers. They just cost less to own and run. In fact, there's already a sizable precedence of ARM server clusters like EC2 (and including EC2). See: [1] http://www.ubuntu.com/download/arm http://www.ubuntu.com/download/arm [2] http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Canonical-releases-EC2-image-for-Ubuntu-ARM-Server-1585740.html http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Canonical-releases-EC... [3] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/your-very-own-arm-based-ubuntu-servers-in-the-cloud-for-free/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/your-v... [4] http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA5Nzk http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA5N...
    - ruchirablog 14y ago
      Yes this argument is becoming true with time because ARM is really gaining phase. But we have Virtualization and its already cheap and works best at the moment. I dont see why anyone should go for separate ARM server ( in normal scenarios of course ) instead of using virtualization
- eli 14y ago
  I could be wrong, but I think this is only talking about TI's mobile baseband chips, not ARM processors.
  - 14y ago
cbaleanu 14y ago
Busines is mispelled in the title.
MaxTipper 14y ago
If this goes through, I would think it would only accelerate (or even solidify) Amazon's rumored entry into the smartphone market.

68 points by drone 14y ago

numeral_two 14y ago

Wonder if this means no more Beagleboards/pandaboards, etc...

gonzo 14y ago
Yup
_red 14y ago
Thinking the same, but encouraging a hobbyist / developer effort around the OMAP has huge strategic benefits for Amazon. I think the worst decision they could make would be to isolate development by killing off the nascent BB market.
drone 14y ago
I would think it's in Amazon's overall interest, not necessarily in Amazon.com's interest, to further ingratiate themselves in the developers community. That being said, much of the TI development kits are sold at-cost, or even nearly below (see the launchpad series, $5 development boards), so it may not be as economically feasible for Amazon to match that pricing, giving that selling bulk chips aren't their business.
- zokier 14y ago
  Launchpads would not be affected by this deal which only is about the OMAP series.
  - drone 14y ago
    I know, I was implying that beagleboard/pandabaord may be being sold at a limited profit much like the launchpad boards, to attract interest to the platform.

chrismorgan 14y ago

This post's title is inaccurate and needs fixing. The article's title is: "Amazon looks to acquire TI mobile chip business, report says". It's an external report which is claiming that the two companies are in talks. It's not a press release from Amazon or TI saying they're doing it. [BTW: what is flagging meant to be used for? Why is there no documentation on these features?]

freehunter 14y ago
Flagging is the extreme version of a downvote. Rather than expressing the uselessness of a post, it expresses the need for the post to be reviewed by a moderator (removed from the site altogether, reworded headline, merged with another article). Generally it's used on articles that are obvious troll articles, completely illegitimate articles, or highly inaccurate headlines.

lmm 14y ago

There are enough companies making ARM processors that I'm not worried about the loss of competition; Barnes & Noble could easily switch to NVidia or Qualcomm or Samsung or...

benologist 14y ago

Rewording of Engadget's rewording of The Next Web's translation of http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.calcalist.co.il%2Finternet%2Farticles%2F0%2C7340%2CL-3584838%2C00.html http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&...

aristidb 14y ago
We need more efficient ways to get tech news than via chains of rewordings, indeed.

programminggeek 14y ago

This would be a good move for Amazon. Look at the biggest phone/tablet sellers right now - both Samsung and Apple design their own chips and exercise a great deal of control on the manufacturing as well. At a certain scale, there is a big benefit to making your own hardware. If nothing else, it lets you optimize for your own requirements instead of for the requirements of other customers.

Someone 14y ago
I think it could be a good move. Execution will be everything here, and it is a fairly new market for them (anybody know who designed the Kindles?)

blinkingled 14y ago

Considering how many Kindles Amazon sells at break even or at cost to them, this would indeed be a good business for them even if they kept all of TI's output to themselves. SoC has got to be an insignificant part of the cost with margins etc.

steevdave 14y ago
Actually the processor itself is normally fairly cheap, the LCD is normally the largest price (or storage, depending on what type and how much space is provided.)

st3fan 14y ago

This is awesome. I'll have a cheaper ARM-based EC2 host please. Has anyone considered that this could also be for ARM-based servers instead of just Kindles? :-)

ruchirablog 14y ago
arggg really dude? I dont want my web site on that please!
- freehunter 14y ago
  Is there anything inherently wrong with ARM servers that give you legitimate reason to immediately balk at the suggestion? As far as I can tell, ARM servers are no less reliable or speedy as x86 servers. They just cost less to own and run. In fact, there's already a sizable precedence of ARM server clusters like EC2 (and including EC2). See: [1] http://www.ubuntu.com/download/arm http://www.ubuntu.com/download/arm [2] http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Canonical-releases-EC2-image-for-Ubuntu-ARM-Server-1585740.html http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Canonical-releases-EC... [3] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/your-very-own-arm-based-ubuntu-servers-in-the-cloud-for-free/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/your-v... [4] http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA5Nzk http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA5N...
  - ruchirablog 14y ago
    Yes this argument is becoming true with time because ARM is really gaining phase. But we have Virtualization and its already cheap and works best at the moment. I dont see why anyone should go for separate ARM server ( in normal scenarios of course ) instead of using virtualization
eli 14y ago
I could be wrong, but I think this is only talking about TI's mobile baseband chips, not ARM processors.
- 14y ago

cbaleanu 14y ago

Busines is mispelled in the title.

MaxTipper 14y ago

If this goes through, I would think it would only accelerate (or even solidify) Amazon's rumored entry into the smartphone market.