arm

Rumored Apple buyout of ARM would be messy

The idea of Apple buying chip designer ARM, a rumor originating in London that swirled over to the U.S. on Thursday, would be messy, pricey, and unpopular.

None of those reasons necessarily preclude such a buyout, but simply make it more difficult than snapping up tiny chip designers like PA Semi or Intrinisity--which Apple has done already without hardly lifting a finger.

And ARM CEO Warren East has chimed in with less-than-supportive comments, according to the Guardian. "Exciting though it is to have the share price pushed up by these rumours, common sense tells us that our standard business model is an excellent way for technology companies to gain access to our technology. Nobody has to buy the company."

Let's look at three facets of the fallout following a hypothetical acquisition.

Messy: It would probably attract regulatory scrutiny somewhere in the world, if not the U.S., because ARM, though relatively small, holds the keys to the cell phone chip kingdom. ARM licenses technology to virtually every large chipmaker, including Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung, Freescale, Marvell, and Nvidia--all suppliers of the core silicon in smartphones and portable media players. The upshot: ARM technology is in virtually every smartphone in the world and will be in many of the tablets (e.g., Apple's iPad) that hit the market over the two years.

"Historically, Apple makes bite-sized acquisitions and then they customize to get better bang for the buck," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw. "Why not just focus on this core expertise? Silicon is not in their DNA and, besides, it's a commodity these days," he added.

Unpopular: A corollary to messy, this would trigger a chain reaction of events that would not be healthy for the ARM chip architecture, as CEO Warren East intimated above. No matter how many assurances Apple gave about respecting the integrity and independence of ARM, every chipmaker would be immediately wary.

"If Apple owned ARM, Apple could exert on undue influence… Read more

A VW Rabbit gets independent throttle bodies

So as we saw in Monday's video blog, there are some car owners who not only love their Volkswagen Rabbits, but also want to update and upgrade their European bunnies. Well here's another adventurous Rabbit owner who sought to give his cottontail a power boost under the hood and did so with a little help from some independent throttle bodies.

For those of you not familiar, a throttle body controls the air intake into the engine in correlation to the pressure put on the accelerator. And this VW Rabbit gets blessed with a few Suzuki GSXR 650 throttle … Read more

Report: Apple adds engineers for new chip design

Apple is adding engineers from Intrinsity, a small chip company that has been working with Samsung to boost processor performance and may be connected to the iPad's A4 chip design, according to a Macrumors report.

As reported last month, Linley Gwennap, president and principal analyst of The Linley Group, believes the iPad's 1GHz A4 chip uses an ARM CPU designed by Intrinsity and manufactured by Samsung. Apple's iPhone also uses ARM chips supplied by Samsung. Typically, chip companies take the basic ARM blueprint and mix and match features as they see fit.

Samsung announced last year that it had collaborated with Intrinsity … Read more

Core of original Apple tablet lives on in iPhone, iPad

In tearing down the original Apple tablet, iFixit demonstrates that more than a decade later, a core piece of Newton technology lives on in the iPhone and iPad .

At the heart of the iPad is Apple's A4 processor, which is based on core technology from United Kingdom-based ARM. Ditto for the ARM-based iPhone. More than 15 years earlier, in 1993, the Apple MessagePad, aka Newton, also used an ARM chip. By 1997, the Newton design had evolved into the MessagePad 2000 with a StrongARM chip from Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC).

And ARM has been a stunning success, as evidenced … Read more

Open-source innovation: A matter of price?

If human progress can be measured by the number of blades we've managed to fit on a single razor, it's clear we have arrived on a massive scale. Both Gillette and Schick will shortly have a five-blade razor on the market.

Certainly it's progress of some kind, but whether its utility outweighs its cost is another question (and one that Wall Street Journal columnist Neal Templin answers in the negative). It also leaves plenty of room for a one-bladed, disruptive innovator to steal a march on the Gillette/Schick arms race, as Jeff Stibel argues in Harvard … Read more

Robot's handshake helps stroke survivors

For those who question whether handshakes can heal, here's a piece of literal evidence.

Shaking hands with a robotic arm could help stroke patients re-learn how to use their hands, arms, and even shoulders, according to researchers whose pilot trial results appear in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

The idea is for patients to try to guide the robot, nicknamed "Braccio di Ferro" (Iron Arm, also the Italian's name for Popeye), in a figure-eight motion above a desk. The arm pulls if they are moving in the correct direction and resists if they are moving … Read more

ARM expects tons of iPad-type devices

I'm among the many who will purchase an iPad on April 3. I'm not some huge Apple fanboy, but I did have a hand in a successful iPhone app last year and plan on creating more this year. I'll need an iPad to test it out and show it off.

But I'm also in lust with Microsoft's Courier. It drives me nuts that I know someone here in Seattle who has one and won't let me anywhere near it. Bastard.

Then there are the dozens of other devices about to hit. Make no mistake … Read more

ARM, Globalfoundries outline 28-nanometer plans

ARM and Globalfoundries have released details on their upcoming system-on-a-chip platform, which they say will combine "PC-class performance" and a huge jump in battery life for mobile devices.

The companies revealed the details Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Their system-on-a-chip platform is based on ARM's Cortex-A9 processor and Globalfoundries' 28-nanometer manufacturing process. The platform will be used in smartphones, tablets, and smartbooks.

The 28-nanometer process will allow devices built on the platform to have 40 percent more computing performance, 30 percent less power consumption, and 100 percent greater battery life than devices built using existing … Read more

Analysts ponder the power inside Apple's tablet

As speculation over an Apple tablet reaches a crescendo before the January 27 event, analysts offer their insights into what will power the device--or devices, as the case may be.

Richard Doherty, director of technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group, believes that multiple tablets and/or a Macbook with touch-screen features will emerge. So, what's inside depends on the device. "Anything that's not a Mac touchscreen, will be an ARM processor," according to Doherty, who said he believes that Apple, sooner or later, will also bring out a MacBook that has tablet-like features, in addition to tablets. … Read more

Chip designer ARM leads Android alliance

ARM on Tuesday announced the launch an alliance of 35 tech companies to support development of Android-based products using its widely used chips.

ARM-based chips power the world's most popular smartphones, including--in the U.S.--the Apple iPhone, Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre, and Motorola Droid.

The Solution Center for Android alliance will serve as a resource for designers and developers of ARM technology-based products running on the Android operating system, which is the software on the popular Motorola Droid smartphone and Acer Liquid.

In addition to smartphones, Android powers digital picture frames and smartbooks--what the Windows-Intel camp prefers to … Read more