Whoops! - Apple and PA Semi

Interesting story from The Register:

Apple shunned superstar chip start-up for Intel
Did Apple make a mistake by switching to Intel? We may never know, but Apple had more options than has been previously reported, The Register can exclusively reveal.

A chip start-up that created a high performance, low power processor compatible with existing Mac software had been working closely with the computer company for many months.

Apple was looking for a new chip supplier largely because it was struggling to find a decent part for its key laptop line. IBM could not deliver the right performance per watt characteristics needed for slim, powerful kit and was struggling to produce chips as efficiently as Apple would like.

PA Semi - a maker of low-power Power processors - formed a tight relationship with Apple - one meant to result in it delivering chips for Apple's notebook line and possibly desktops. The two companies shared software engineering work, trying to see how Apple's applications could be ported onto PA Semi's silicon. When word leaked out that Apple had signed on with Intel, it shocked the PA Semi staff, according to multiple sources.

"PA Semi was counting on that deal," said one source. "They had lots of guys walking around in a daze when Apple went to Intel. They had no idea that would actually happen."

PA Semi secured a large amount of venture funding due in part to the stellar technical reputation of its staff. Former Digital alumni include VP of architecture Peter Bannon - aka Mr. Tanglewood - Leo Joseph, the COO and Jim Keller, the VP of engineering. Several of these engineers did much of the key work behind DEC's Alpha chip, which for much of the 1990s was consistently the fastest microprocessor on the market. Apple and PA also shared some heritage: PA Semi's Wayne Meretsky was formerly the technical lead for Mac OS at Apple during the company's transition to PowerPC.

Behind the scenes, however, the notion of an Apple win helped stoke investor confidence.

PA Semi's first processor - the PA6T-1682M - is due to sample in the third quarter of 2006 as a 2GHz, dual-core product with two DDR2 memory controllers, 2MB of L2 cache, and support for eight PCI Express. The product will ship in volume next year and be followed by single-core and quad-core chips. It also supports the Altivec floating point instruction set that currently provides a massive speedup for multimedia and scientific Mac software. At 2GHz, the chip consumes just 7 watts of power according to PA. Intel's Core Duo consumes between 21 and 25 watts.

It's features such as these that made PA Semi an obvious fit for Apple.

PA Semi certainly had some top people -- the DEC Alpha chip was no slouch in performance but the days of RISC are pretty much over. There are lots of markets for various micro-controllers but for general purpose computing, workstation and server use, the Intel and Intel clones are pretty much it. Multiple sources, rich instruction set and installed base count for a lot. Apple would have had to do a major re-write anyway so it made more sense to go with Intel than to adopt a new chip sourced by only one (very brand new) company. Most software vendors used to support both Intel and Apple so this will be a big plus for them as well -- the basic core will be the same for both platforms. Win/Win