Apple Mac HQ

In a move that will have conspiracy theorist busy for days, Apple has acquired a small microprocessor company named PA Semi according to Forbes. Details of the purchase were not announced, but sources have said the deal was worth $278 million cash. As usual, Apple has said little about the deal.

PA Semi was founded in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl, who was the lead designer for the Alpha and StrongARM microprocessors developed by Digital Equipment in the 1990s. What’s truly interesting about this deal is that PA Semi develops processors based on the Power Architecture. This is the same architecture that previously powered Apple computers prior to the transition to Intel processors in 2006.

It’s highly unlikely that Apple would transition any existing Mac back to the Power Architecture. So what exactly would Apple need a Power based processor for? A new mobile device? More powerful iPods? A new processor for the iPhone? Obviously only Apple knows exactly why they purchased PA Semi. But what is fairly clear is that they are developing some type of device that will contain a Power based processor. Whether or not a new device is being born or an existing one changed, the Power architecture is alive again at Apple.

[Via Macworld]

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