Venture Beat claims a “very trusted” source has informed them that Apple’s PA Semi team might not have been behind the new iPad‘s Apple A4 chipset:

PA Semi didn’t do the A4. It was the existing VLSI team. Apple has made custom chips for years like the Northbridges for G4 and G5.

This information was appended to an article that focused on how great, and power-efficient, PA Semi’s chip design really was. So why wouldn’t Apple use them? Gizmodo speculates:

there likely isn’t a whole lot “custom” going in the A4′s actual design, which by all appearances is an ARM Cortex A9 wrapped up with a PowerVR graphics core and some other parts in a custom SoC. So, new question, if it’s true: What’s PA Semi, which Apple said would be working on chips for iPhones actually working on? A more customized chip would be interesting, since PA Semi’s true talent was in designing chips with ridiculous power efficiencies.

So, we won’t see PA Semi until… Apple A5?

According to Bright Side of the News, it turns out that newly spun Apple A4 system-on-a-chip that debuted alongside the iPad does indeed pack more punch than the Sammy in the iPhone 3GS:

A4 is a System-on-a-Chip, or SOC, that integrates the main processor [ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore i.e. Multi-Processing Core, identical to ones used in nVidia Tegra and Qualcomm Snapdragon] with graphics silicon [ARM Mali 50-Series GPU], and other functions like the memory controller on one piece of silicon – not unlike what Intel is trying to achieve with its future “Moorestown” Atom processor that debuted inside LG’s Smartphone

Cortex A9 indeed? But no PowerVR SGX like the iPhone. Engadget says this is also similar to the Tegra2 platform. So, it’s more of an Apple assemblage of ARM components rather than anything PA Semi unique, but is it a first step towards more customized silicon? Either way, we’d still love to see this baby powering the 4th gen iPhone and iPod touch.

Still no word on RAM though…

During ARM’s Q3 financial results announced today, 9to5Mac noticed this little gem:

including a license for ARM’s 2GHz implementation of a dual core Cortex-A9 processor.

We’ve heard about the Cortex A9 before. Purportedly, is 5x faster than an intel Atom, yet uses the same amount of power in a 60% smaller package.

Could this be for next year’s iPhone? For a mythical (maybe even second generation) iTablet? We don’t know, but 9to5mac speculates:

Apple is rumored to be an ARM licensee and that that they’ve reportedly split the PA Semi group up into two parts. One working on Smartphone chips the other working on tablet processors. It is now generally accepted that the Apple tablet will run a ARM Cortex processor. It will likely want a bit more horsepower than the ARM Cortex A8-class Samsung chip inside the iPhone 3GS.

Whether or not it’s Apple, the PA Semi group is working on something, even if it won’t be until next year that we get to see it. Anyone else care to speculate?

Following up on rumors of a $800 Apple netbook, MacBook, iTablet, etc. VentureBeat reports that Apple might also use the new platform to introduce their long-rumored custom system-on-a-chip.

This would be the result of Apple purchasing fabless chip design firm Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) and hiring Papermaster from IBM and graphics processor (GPU) gurus x2 from AMD/ATI (though whether or not it includes the ARM and PowerVR licenses for cores found in the iPhone and iPod touch, or beefier Intel chips found in the Mac line is uncertain).

While Steve Jobs said PA Semi was going to be used for iPods and iPhones, VentureBeat claims the team was actually split in two, half for iPod/iPhone and half for the tablet.

TUAW speculates that, given recent news of problems between Apple and Nvidia, who currently makes the Mac integrated chipsets, perhaps Apple will push the custom work into that line as well.

Either way, we’ve seen the huge benefit shared software technology has provided for the iPhone and Mac (Spotlight, QuickTime X to name but two), Apple going in-house with the chipsets could be just as beneficial…

Apple Insider is reporting (via CNet) that Apple has hired away Mark Papermaster, IBM’s VP of Microprocessor Technology Development.

When Apple bought Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi), and reportedly signed licensing agreements with ARM and PowerVR, we kinda sorta suspected Steve Jobs was getting serious about spinning his own custom systems-on-a-chip for the iPhone and the greater iPod platform.

Hey, if they can switch from Intel integrated to Nvidia chipsets to support their Core 2 Duos on the Macbook line, they can certainly role their own mobile brains, right?

IBM is suing on the grounds of a no-compete clause, which has historically been worthless in California (which is likely why IBM is suing in New York!)

TiPb, of course, doesn’t really care about no frivolous lawsuit. We just want to see what kind of “screaming” fast new iPhones we can has next year!

We love it when a plan comes together. What plan? How’bout Apple buying super low-power fabless chip design firm Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) back on April 23, which Steve Jobs later said would make “system-on-chips” for the iPhone and iPod? How about PowerVR graphics cores reaching a mega-licensing deal with an unnamed company? (Which might just rhyme with Snapple…) And how about now, a Mr. Wei-han Lien, formerly of PA Semi, updating his Linked[In] profile to read: “Senior Manager Chip CPU Architect at Apple”, and more specifically, “ARM CPU architecture team for iPhone”? (ARM having reportedly also reached a long term licensing deal with an unnamed company)

Put them all together, and what do we get? A scary hardcore look at what will drive the next (and/or next after next) iPhone v3. And according to Macrumors:

By developing its own ARM variant, Apple could create a processor that meets the specific needs of the iPhone and iPod, building support for functions such as the touch screen or scroll wheel into silicon and possibly savings on costs by reducing the number of processors needed in each device. In addition, Apple’ will be able to maintain tighter controls on who knows what about its future products by disposing of an outside chip supplier.

Wanna bet Steve calls them “screamers”? And Carmack claims PS2-class gaming?

Got an iPhone or iPod Touch? Then you’ve already got a PowerVR graphics core crunching your eye candy. This week, however, Imagination Technologies revealed that an “unnamed company” has acquired a new mega-license for their current and future tech.

While this could be Apple and could just mean incremental adaption of new graphics cores going forward, tie it together with some other recent news and rumors, including the equally “unnamed” deal with current iPhone/iPod Touch processor licensor, ARM, and Apple’s more public acquisition of fabless chip design firm Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi), and MacRumors thinks something bigger could be in the works:

Apple is positioning itself to deliver custom chipsets based on existing iPhone technologies for future devices.

We agree. iPhones and iPods aren’t the Mac, where a unique chipset (PowerPC) lacking the volume needed for competitive pricing led to Apple’s famed Intel switch (and the rebirth of the black/grey market clones). Handsets and iPods, and whatever else becomes part of Apple’s new Mobile WiFi Platform could just leverage some custom hardware not only for differentiation, but to deliver that advanced, “unmatchable” technology Apple keeps harping on about.

We reported, and reported again, and pondered, and speculated some more about Apple buying Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi), but now Steve Jobs himself has put the rumors to rest with a pretty clear statement as to his intentions:

PA Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods

We know OS X is amazingly portable, having already run on PowerPC, Intel, and ARM architectures, so transitioning shouldn’t be a problem for the hardware makers, but what about software developers? Will we be looking at Universal App Store apps on day?

(Universal Apps are the name for applications that are currently compiled to run on both PowerPC and Intel Macs — with increased effort on the developers side).

And what makes an in-house design so compelling it will overcome the lost economies-of-scale Apple enjoys by using more widely adopted architectures? (One of the reasons they switched to Intel on the Mac side).

Ars Technica offers some ideas (and further analysis):

Though there aren’t any more details available than the quote above, it’s plausible to infer that the SoCs in question will be ARM-based. Some of the key members of the PA Semi team were formerly part of Intel’s XScale group, which designed a line of low-power, ARM-based embedded processors before being sold off as part of a company-wide restructuring.

Guess we’ll have to just wait (for WWDC 2010?) and see. Curiouser, as they say, and curiouser.

Read

What’s going to power the next generation iPhone 3G? Infineon again? Insider Intel? A curveball from PA Semi? And more importantly — when are we getting our hands on one?! What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here’s a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 3G chipset and ship date rumors. Epic-style. Because let’s face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: “Nice! What’s the next gen going to be like?”

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It’s become almost impossible to keep track of them all. But we’re going to try!

One week from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be rounding up a different set of next generation rumors, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we’ll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Balland a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let’s get in on!

[Digg it!]

WWDC -7 and Counting: Of Baseband Chips and Release Date Trips

Categorically unrelated much? Here’s the thing: the rumors swirling around the iPhone’s 3G chipset and the iPhone 3G’s release date, much like how the terms iPhone and 3G have become inextricably linked as the de facto name for the next generation Apple handset, always seem to show up together. So that’s how we’re going to tackle them.

Now, we don’t really know anything for certain. Not that Jobs is going to be announcing the iPhone 3G. Not that it’s going to be officially called the iPhone 3G. Or even that it’s even going to be 3G (though at this point it really has to be!). All we have is rumors. Tons of them. More of them than perhaps for any event in Apple’s history, and in the tech industry, that’s saying a lot. Enough rumors to stun a blogsphere.

The current iPhone operates on the GSM networks 2.5/2.75 G (Generation) technology known as EDGE, which provides for data speeds roughly analogous to the dial-up internet connections of yore. (We joke only slightly). 3G GSM cell networking uses the more broadband-like HSPA, and while I mentioned before that you can never say certain, it’s pretty much certain the next generation iPhone will support 3G. But which 3G chipset will it use exactly, and when will this iPhone 3G be released?

Let’s start at the beginning and work our way forward:

September 18, 2007: At the “Mum’s No Longer the Word” iPhone launch in the UK, Steve Jobs gave Apple’s first public comment on 3G and the iPhone:

I think we’ll see that hopefully late next year.

Boom. The 3G rumor mill was on!

September 20, 2007: Intel demonstrated a next generation MID (Mobile Internet Device) proof-of-concept that resembled what can only be termed an iPhone “Stretch” based on their then 45nm Silverthorne/Moorestown, now called Atom architecture, which could integrate functionality like 3G. The interwebs lit up, and Intel Inside looked like a possibility for iPhone 3G.

Nov 29, 2007: Once again proving they could make a leaky bucket seem airtight, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson confirmed Jobs “guesstimate” of an iPhone 3G in 2008, though without the “late” part:

You’ll have it next year.

February 28, 2008: Analysts and suppliers brought word from Asia that first generation iPhone 2.5 G baseband supplier Infineon was ramping down production of their S-Gold-2 chips in anticipation of a switch to 3G by mid-year.

That made it a two chipset rumor race, though this one seemed more credible than Intel’s from the get go.

March 6, 2008: This was SDK day. The big one. Steve Jobs and Co. officially announced iPhone 2.0, with immediate beta, and general release in “late June”, which in Apple parlance would roughly translate to June 30, 11:59 pm. But does 2.0 mean new hardware? Does it mean 3G?

March 13, 2008: Skipping right over the 2nd generation iPhone to the 3rd, the Inquirer went back to the Intel MID, predicting Apple would jump from ARM as they had PowerPC, and lent some more weight to the chip-now-known-as-Atom getting into the iPhone (at some point).

March 14, 2008: Pouring fuel on the fire of mid-year release rumors, Apple officially lit the June match by announcing their annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) would run from June 9 to 13, and prominently featuring the iPhone as the second bridge/track, next to the traditional Mac focus.

WWDC began to get more and more interesting…

March 25, 2008: Digg founder Kevin Rose used his massively popular Diggnation Podcast to say the 3G HSPA iPhone would arrive in a few months. Rose, of course, had been wrong in his predictions for the first iPhone…

March 26, 2008: More analysts, more Asia, led to reports that Apple may have already placed orders for up to 10 million iPhone 3G handsets from manufacturers. That meant things were moving quickly, and an introduction could be sooner rather than later.

March 29, 2008: And yet more! This time the rumors said 10 million iPhone 3G’s from longtime Apple supplier Hon Hai, some perhaps as early as May (probably test units for carriers), and release in June. Word also came that the New York Apple Store was sold out of current gen iPhones.

April 1, 2008: “Foolish” timing not withstanding, Apple Stores suffered the first in what became a series of current generation iPhone shortages, leading to increased order times and then reports of complete sell-outs.

April 3, 2008: Gizmodo “did lunch” with AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, and when pressed about the release of the iPhone 3G, de la Vega leaked:

Let me repeat what I said: I think that you’re going to see our integrated devices be 3G devices in the not-too-distant future, and I mean months. That should be clear enough.

April 6, 2008: Apple’s go-to review guy, none other than Uncle Walt Mossberg, off-handedly quipped that the iPhone 3G would be released in less than 60 days (by June 6). Mossberg later retracted the quip, but the timeline, so close to WWDC’s keynote on June 9, seemed a little too convenient…

April 9, 2008: Jailbreaking wizards ZiPhone deep dove the iPhone 2.0 Beta 3 firmware and came up with strings referencing SGOLD3, which was immediately linked to Infineon’s S-Gold-3 chips, one of which supported 3G. Not conclusive, but inching closer…

April 10, 2008: TG Daily reported that the iPhone 3G would indeed debut at WWDC, and went so far as to offer price points at $399 for 8GB, $499 for 16GB, and potentially $599 for a huge 32GB model.

April 16, 2008: Deeply discounted iPhones began to appear in the UK via O2, mirroring discounts available from from T-Mobile in Germany, and followed by Orange in France as well. Euro-liquidation in preparation for the 3G onslaught?

April 18, 2008: Word came from Asia that Infineon would provide the 65nm 3G chipset for the next generation, to be manufactured by UMC. Seemed like a done deal, but then…

April 23, 2008: The interwebs woke to the shocking news that Apple had purchased Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) for $287 million. PA Semi, from the guys who spun us the DEC Alpha and StrongARM, focused on super efficient mobile chips, suddenly creating a potential 3G love triangle for the iPhone, and making Infineon less of a done deal than it had appeared. Or did it? 3G may never have been, or may never ever be, part of the PA Semi package, and other ideas rapidly surfaced for their potential in the iPhone, primarily as proprietary, special-purpose chips.

April 28, 2008: More for the heap, as Engadget reported that Foxxcon (aka Hon Hai), manufacturer of the first generation iPhone, was ramping up the 3G assembly line for the end of May, with production of 3 million units expected for June, and 25 million during product lifetime.

April 29, 2008: Rogers’ announced the iPhone will be coming to Canada “sometime later” in the year. This began a tsunami of similarly short and vague iPhone announcements across Europe and for the first time in Asia, Latin America, Australia, and Africa. Most significantly, many of these were countries where 3G not only made sense but verged on being a deal-breaker.

May 5, 2008: derStandard.at reported that Austria(!) would shortly be serving as the testing ground for the iPhone 3G.

May 6, 2008: Amid rumors galore, a leaked memo from AT&T revealed that once again employees were instructed not to take vacation between June 15 and July 12 due to an expected big bump in traffic from a new promotion… Hmmm…

May 12, 2008: AT&T’s website suddenly showed an “iPhone Black”. They later claimed it was an error, but the reasons given were nonsensical.

May 13, 2008: Surprising absolutely no one, Apple announced that Steve Jobs, joined by a team of execs, would be keynoting WWDC on June 9. More and more, all rumors led back to that date.

May 15, 2008: Fed up with AT&T hogging all the leaky glory, Intel Germany Geschäftsführer Hannes Schwaderer let slip that:

There is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone.

Intel tried to claim it never happened, but others in attendance’s take on the comment was:

The Intel CEO mentioned furthermore, that the display on iPhone 2 would be bigger than on iPhone 1 (although it is already quite big). iPhone 2 is also thinner than iPhone 1.

Was Intel still in the running?

The same day, banking on a Jobsnote announcement of the iPhone 3G to make history, WWDC sold out for the first time in history.

May 20, 2008: Gizmodo reported that “people in the know” said the iPhone 3G would be announced on June 9, day and date of Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote.

May 21, 2008: InfoSync claimed confirmation that the iPhone 3G would be announced June 9, and further added that AT&T would have it available for sale roughly 10 days later — June 19 or 20.

May 23, 2008: Import Genius analyzed data from thousands of U.S. customs declarations for Apple, Inc. and found 188 “electric computer” containers of a product never before imported by the company. What could that be…?

May 26, 2008: In a move eerily reminiscent of last years original iPhone launch, AT&T is reported to be hiring temps to bolster their ranks from June 16 – August 16, under code-name “Summer Project Pro”.

May 28, 2008: Though everyone expected an iPhone 3G announcement by WWDC, based in part from leaks by Ma Bell herself, AT&T CFO Rick Lindner decided to play coy about pricing details, telling the media:

There’s not been a product announcement. There hasn’t been any pricing decisions made. That’s yet to come.

June 1, 2008: In a move amazingly reminiscent of last year’s pre-original iPhone “Fine Edge” project, which boosted 2.5 G speeds, AT&T began an upgrade to boost the speed of their 3G HSPA network. Coincidence? Not.

UPDATED:

June 5, 2008: Fortune’s Brian Caulfield (via Apple Insider) had word of yet more mysterious boxes, this time at supposed current iPhone manufacturer Quanta. While some were labeled “iMac”, 20 others were in plain brown wrappers, with employees either unavailable or unwilling to elaborate.

June 6, 2008: Apple Insider kept up with the box news, and showed packages arriving in Australia with ominous “under NDA” and “do not open until June 10″ warnings.

Your Turn!

So there you go, now it’s your turn. Tell us what YOU think will power the iPhone 3G. Current supplier Infineon? Powerhouse Intel? Recent acquisition PA Semi? And when will we be getting an iPhone with that chip? WWDC like everyone expects? Late June? July? Sometime before the holidays?!

And after you’re done telling us, don’t forget to head over to our iPhone Blog’s super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, with whatever chip’s in it, on the very day it’s released!

Continue reading Part 2: What’s the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?
Continue reading Part 3: What Surprises Will Be in iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?
Continue reading Part 4: What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?
Continue reading Part 5: What Will the iPhone 3G’s Hardware Features Be?

Apple Insider‘s Prince McLean, whose pieces often seem.. ahem… Roughly Drafted… brings us an in depth look for what we might see in the next generation, 3G iPhone, and in a word, it’s hardcore.

McLean begins with a profile of Imagination’s Open GL ES 1.1, PowerVR MBX that powers the current iPhone (and many other mobile devices), and then gets into the next generation, 2.0, PowerVR SGX — which brings the shaders, and the VDX core with its mobile HD video codec.

Putting the pieces together, including an unprecedented Samsung announcement that it will be manufacturing these technologies, Imagination’s mysterious unnamed licensee, and the flexibility the newly acquired PA Semi gives them, design-wise, McLean (through some assumptive leaps, to be sure), paints a glowing picture of Apple’s future gaming and video potential:

By gaining access to exclusive new generations of mobile graphics technology, Apple can differentiate its products from other smartphones and mobile Internet devices with an edge in performance while offering full support for industry standard OpenGL ES graphics. [...]

Whether this theory is ultimately proven true or not, I think the SDK event — and its clear focus on games — showed that Apple finally might just be taking the space seriously. What do you think?

Following Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi yesterday, and some of the early theories surrounding it, comes word on reaction to the deal, and some more theories as to how Apple may leverage its new technology.

First up, Apple Insider (via EETimes) points out that the Palo Alto semiconductor design firm warned existing companies that:

[A] buyout by a then-unnamed company was entirely disconnected from its existing and future architectures

This bit of news, which is interpreted to mean Apple did not buy the company for its energy efficient PowerPC-based chip designs, wouldn’t be using them in upcoming products, and may not continue with previous roadmaps, has sent ripples through PA Semi’s current customer base (which includes military juggernauts Lockheed Martin and Raytheon).

Next, Roughly Drafted delves deep into the purchase and comes up with the following: the ability to differentiate their products by developing proprietary hardware components (e.g. for video acceleration, something already prepared for via Core Services), making it harder for others to copy (and clone?) their offerings, while simultaneously getting engineers that specialize in areas Apple values (low level, energy efficient), and have relationships (RD conjectures Texas Instruments, which invested in PA, manufactures their designs) that could benefit Apple.

[P]owered by Intel processors, Apple has seen phenomenal growth in Mac unit sales. That has helped the company amass a $19 billion cash pile that allowed Apple to snatch up the team at PA Semi at a bargain basement price in the midst of a recession. Apple is having its cake and eating it too.

What do you think?

Following up on Casey’s story this morning about Apple buying chip designer PA Semi, Valleywag (yeah, I went there…) brings another possible angle to the “yeahbuwhy?” table:

[The PA Semi chip's suitability for the iPhone] may well have nothing to do with why Apple bought the company. PA Semi’s prize is its founder, Dan Dobberpuhl, a famed chip designer, and his 150-person staff. At less than $2 million per engineer, the price Apple paid is in the range Cisco pays to snap up talented engineers. With them working at Apple, Jobs can push established chipmakers to adopt its technical innovations and perhaps swap licenses for intellectual property. That’s far more likely than actually switching away from Intel chips for the Mac; Apple actually explored using PA Semi’s chips before choosing Intel. Even the iPhone, which would benefit more from PA Semi’s low-power chips, is an unlikely candidate for an all-new chip design. Why? Volume economics favor Intel and Samsung so strongly that it’s hard to imagine that a new microprocessor design from the PA Semi team could replace their wares. $278 million doesn’t buy Jobs a rival chip; it buys him a tool to chip away at his suppliers’ prices.

Of course, other angles remain actually using the chip design (though PA Semi does not manufacture their own chips, meaning someone with a fab, like Intel, would still be needed), licensing the technology/technologies to someone like Intel to produce proprietary chips to differentiate Apple offerings (and make life harder for Hackintosh’ers??), or just to beef up the patent portfolio and put a little fear into Intel to, as Valleywag put it, increase their bargaining position.

Personally, getting the engineers and licensing the tech makes the most sense to me at this point, but who knows if come Macworld 2009, El Jobso will pull the back off a 4G iPhone to reveal a brush-metal PA Semi chip glittering inside? What do you think?