Here are some snippets of the report highlights, as noted by CNET:
StrongARM: Apple’s interest doing its own central processing unit (CPU) design dates back to its $278 million acquisition of PA Semi in April 2008. Some of the team members had previously worked on low-power StrongArm processors under PA Semi CEO Dan Dobberpuhl at Digital Equipment (DEC) in the 1990s. The “CPU design team had developed a high-performance PowerPC processor under the leadership of Jim Keller and Pete Bannon.”
A6: By early 2010, the team was done with the A6 microarchitecture design and started the physical-design phase. “To bolster its physical-design capabilities” Apple bought chip design house Intrinsity for about $120 million in April 2010. “This deal brought in an experienced team of chip designers that specialized in high-speed physical design, having just finished boosting the speed of Samsung’s Hummingbird CPU (which Apple used in its A4 processor). The A6 taped out about a year later, and Apple received the first samples last summer. To support the iPhone 5 launch, the new processor must have been cleared for production around June,” Gwennap wrote.
North of $500 million spent: Apple spent about $400 million to buy PA Semi and Intrinsity, tens of millions for an ARM CPU license, and probably more than $100 million to support its CPU design efforts over a span of four years. “It appears that the end result will be that Apple ships a Cortex-A15-class CPU about three months before arch-enemy Samsung does.”
A purported Geekbench result for the iPhone 5 surfaced and the score revealed it was faster than any current Android smartphone, even though it was running just two cores. Looks like Apple’s investment into chip R&D has paid off, as the current A6 is able to run faster and be equally as efficient even though there’s a larger screen and LTE support.
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