Could Apple Be Secretly Working On A New "Power" Chip With Samsung?

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
There were reports earlier this year that Apple was designing its own Powerchip. Could Apple be secretly working with Samsung who is the #2 manufacturer of chips behind Intel on the project?. Just asking.



[ 12-13-2002: Message edited by: MacsRGood4U ]</p>
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    kidredkidred Posts: 2,402member
    Samsung? Huh?
  • Reply 2 of 23
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    You people will NEVER be happy, will you?
  • Reply 3 of 23
    This is **CONFIRMED**



    Apple has Santa and his elves working on a new 980 chip which will be ready by chirstmas. Get your American Express cards ready to order! <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
  • Reply 4 of 23
    Samsung is #2 in chip manufacturing after Intel.
  • Reply 5 of 23
    noseynosey Posts: 307member
    So Apple just gives them the specs and they build the chips? Isn't that what NVidia are doing? Designing some killer graphics chips but contracting out the actual production?
  • Reply 6 of 23
    This is aboslutely NOT happening......





    .......or so the germans would have us believe <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
  • Reply 7 of 23
    Actually (and this is given to you folks on the down-low, so I'm trusting you guys not to disseminate this confidential information by posting it on the internet or something), I can without a doubt say that Apple is NOT working with Samsung to develop a new chip, as I have personally hired myself out to design and manufacture the new chip in my garage. I'm using a cutting edge new fabrication technology where the silicon used in the chip comes in a squeezably-soft D-cup form. It's slow as hell, but fits into lacy underwear better, which will expand the Macintosh peripheral market to include items that many a PC user, quite literally, has drooled over.
  • Reply 8 of 23
    All I want to know is can this "Power" chip make the internet go faster?
  • Reply 9 of 23
    I'm sure that this option has been considered at least briefly by various parties within Apple: it's their job to consider all options, as opposed to being merely a hobby as it is for us.



    My own guess is that if Apple and Samsung were to collaborate on any major new product, it would probably be some sort of mobile phone. This plays to Samsung's strength. On the other hand, I don't think that Samsung could justify entering the PPC market: it's just not big enough.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
  • Reply 11 of 23
    Didn't Apple invest in Samsung (might have been someone else) for LCD technology?
  • Reply 12 of 23
    [quote]Originally posted by Analogue bubblebath:

    <strong>All I want to know is can this "Power" chip make the internet go faster?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    No, you need an intel chip for that. They have Netburst technology! Mac g4 chips are optimized for printing homemade greeting cards.

    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
  • Reply 13 of 23
    krassykrassy Posts: 595member
    [quote]Originally posted by Chris Cuilla:

    <strong>Didn't Apple invest in Samsung (might have been someone else) for LCD technology?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    yes that's what i heard too...
  • Reply 14 of 23
    hoshos Posts: 31member
    Just for fun... let's make a serious case for Samsung and Apple designing and manufacturing a PPC-compatible CPU.



    1) Ties are close between Samsung and Apple, Apple having bought a $100M Samsung bond- the idea was to help Samsung finish building a LCD plant. This bond was slowly paid off over the past few years, and Apple got both priority and Good Deals on LCD displays. The 22" Cinema Display is a good example of that.



    2) Samsung used to build Alphas. They _want_ to be a Tier 1 supplier, which means building all chips from small to great. In fact, when DEC was bought by Compaq, one of the big surprises was that Samsung didn't step in to bid for the Alpha design unit, it instead having gone to Intel, along with DEC's fabs.



    3) Apple's been looking around for a long time at the many CPUs on the market, and coming-to-the-market. The famous Jobs quote is "We like options." Although one surprise is that Apple hasn't talked with Transmeta (that we know of), although when the Crusoe was first launched, the claim was that a PPC-to-VLIW translator was actually simpler to implement than the IA32-to-VLIW code morphing scheme they currently ship.



    So, _if_ Samsung wants to be a Tier 1 vendor and sell CPUs, partnering with Apple guarantees it a large market (in the millions of CPUs per year), they have manufacturing experience with the Alpha which could presumably be applied to a high performance PPC, so the only remaining details are design- and Apple employs a fair number of CMOS engineers as they design their own chipsets, so it's hardly inconceivable for them to put something together.



    Of course, the likeliness of this all actually happening is slim to none, and Slim just left town... but I think it's pretty interesting to note that it's not an impossibility.



    Yours in prognostication,



    -HOS
  • Reply 15 of 23
    IBM would be a much better choise then Samsung. They have vast experience building PPC chips (G3) and of course the Power 4. Apple will use the 970 not some made up Samsung chip.
  • Reply 16 of 23
    frykefryke Posts: 217member
    then again, the 970 will be much too slow when it'll finally arrive at the end of 2003. options are definitely needed. what ibm can deliver at the end of 2003, motorola can deliver with the G4s, too.
  • Reply 17 of 23
    Was Apple working with Toshiba when they were the #2 semiconductor company or ST Micro the year before that? Keep in mind that those rankings are in terms of revenue. Samsung makes it's money putting the memory inside of a large percentage of the PCs and electronic devices in the world. They produce a variant of the Alpha processor but its pretty silly to say they will produce a new chip for Apple of all people based on them moving up a few spots on the semiconductor leaderboard.
  • Reply 18 of 23
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    [quote]Originally posted by fryke:

    <strong>then again, the 970 will be much too slow when it'll finally arrive at the end of 2003.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    How do you know? Have you seen it in use?
  • Reply 19 of 23
    xypexype Posts: 672member
    [quote]Originally posted by Chucker:

    <strong>How do you know? Have you seen it in use?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    He probably is basing his conclusions on the assumption that Apple will use it and thus it has to be slow
  • Reply 20 of 23
    stunnedstunned Posts: 1,096member
    <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />



    Sam sung "no, no, no"
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