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Motorola To Spin Off Chip Division

Posted by simoniker on from the parto-of-moto-go-solo dept.

dafz1 writes "According to an article at CNET News, Motorola has announced they will create a new company from their Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS), which builds chips such as the PowerPC. Reasons cited include 'surrendering to IBM a key role in delivering the PowerPC for Apple Computer's top-of-the-line desktop'. This follows earlier news that Motorola's CEO will step down, citing a 'difference of opinion' with fellow executives."

3 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not a strong follower by Exitthree · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't think it will change. Apple is already moving off to greener pastures (IBM). Once IBM can lower the requirements of a G5 so that they are suitable for notebooks, and cheap enough for consumer machines, I expect the G4 to be dropped completely. In addition, Apple will probably use the next revision of the G3 with Altivec, which IBM is developing, for the iBooks.

  2. Good for the semi guys by mveloso · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Years ago I was talking to some of the semi guys, and they were royally pissed at MOTO corporate for screwing them over, funding-wise. The PPC division was always paranoid that they were getting screwed because Moto lost big $$ when Apple shut down the Mac clones way back when.

    Basically, they believed Moto corporate was sandbagging the PPC to "screw Apple."

    One thing for sure, they definitely need better cooks for the broth. They've seem to forgotten how to make chips.

  3. Re:Not a strong follower by herwin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The main problem for Apple was that Motorola found making slower chips for embedded systems to be more profitable than making faster ones for computers. So Apple turned to IBM, which does make computers and understands the issues. The new G5 is very competitive.