Slashdot Mirror
Apple Plans To Make Chips For Handhelds
Preedit writes "Apple plans to get into the business of designing microprocessors for handheld devices, according to legal papers that are part of a dispute between IBM and one of its top technology executives. IBM is suing Power chip expert Mark Papermaster for allegedly violating a non-compete agreement and accepting a job at Apple. In court papers, IBM claims Apple wants Papermaster 'to design microprocessors for incorporation in a variety of electronic devices, including handheld devices.' The suit, according to Infoweek, also notes that Apple earlier this year bought out P.A. Semi. IBM thinks it knows why."
When you buy a mobile chip designer what else are you going to do with it?
non compete employment agreement are not viewed very favorably in California.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/08/california-supreme-c-1.html
http://www.workforce.com/section/03/feature/25/82/12/index.html
http://www.employlaw.com/noncompete.htm
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
OS/X is portable. They are still supporting Power based Macs last time I checked.
The next IPod touch could be moved to power if they are low enough power.
The next AppleTV could use a Power CPU.
A netbook could use Power as well. That might be a big win for Apple since they wouldn't takeaway any sales from Macbooks.
Now I am just waiting for Apple to buy AMD and Foxconn :)
I think they have the cash on had for AMD for sure.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Nope. PowerPC is not coming back on the desktop anytime soon for Apple. The P.A. Semi purchase is about SoC likely built around ARM for small devices (aka iPhone).
Steve's more like Henry Ford than Big Brother. Any color you want as long as you don't want page-up and page-down keys.
except non-compete agreements were ruled unconstitutional
And rightly so, I shall add. Non-compete agreements are total crap and I hope IBM gets smacked down hard in court over this frivolous lawsuit.
What, you thought I was going to support IBM on this one? Don't believe everything you read in the subject line ;o)
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Apple chips are bland and only favored by dieters and health nuts. Now if the company was called 'Tortilla,' well, then...that would be delicious!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
THere are other laws that handle those situations. Telling a person he cant work in his professional field because he USED to work for you is wrong and unethical. People > Corporations.
Good-bye
Stealing designs is already illegal in the first place. Non compete agreements prevent you from taking a similar job after your current job has been terminated, even if you have no intention to steal your former employer's trade secrets.
The real aim of non compete agreements is to lower your negotiation power. Take this salary cut, and no you can't go to the competition because of the non compete.
Why? If you spend 5 years at a company and learn 'the trade' on their dime they should be safe from you running to the next company and spilling everything they worked hard to make, at lest for a short time. It would be massively unfair for me to take your designs for "insert tech here" and run to "insert corp/country of choice" and beat you to market , or, very closely join you.
Yea..the keyword there is if. If you do that, then you should suffer the legal consequences (if there are any), but you shouldn't be punished simply because you could do that. In any event, treat your valued professionals like they are valued, otherwise somebody else will. Like it or not, the labor market succumbs to the same market forces that every other market does...
Power.org is the standards body that controls the POWER(PC) ISA specifications, among other things. Its members include IBM, *Apple*, Freescale and many others. If you want to build a custom designed chip based on one of the ISAs "owned" by Power.org, then all you need to do is become a member and license the ISA of your choice. You are then free to design any kind of custom *micro*-architecture your heart desires as long as the ISA presented by your chip/micro-architecture is compatible with the ISA you licensed from Power.org .
I want some of whatever the hell IBM is smoking.
jdb2
If they can't keep you there by treating you well, providing you opportunity to grow or paying you well. Then why does a company deserve to hold a monopoly on your employment?
The other problem with non-competes is that there have been numerous cases where employees are laid-off, but their NC are enforced preventing them from getting jobs in the industry.
Also a company should not be defined by an individual contributor. A company's success depends greatly on the culture and teamwork within that company. Something that is not easy to export (or import, as many merged companies have found out).
Also "trade secrets" and patents are outside of the scope of a non-compete clause. And you are liable for civil damages if you distribute trade secrets. Even if you no longer work for that company.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Chip designing these days is like the child game you used to play called connecting the dots.
People use the term SoC(system on chip) to describe them. It's actually quite modular. Basically you can license a arm core or a mips core and put in all your other blocks(PCI, USB, ethernet) all on the same chip, so if Apple were to license the ppc architecture from IBM I'm sure IBM would be happy. I doubt thats what they are doing since the iPhone is based on ARM.
Not a lot of people design processors from scratch anymore.
Unless he designs the processor from scratch he's really not competing. I can't imagine apple doing something that stupid.
That article alludes to his experience with low power. He probably knows a few tricks on how to reduce power load. This is the expertise they are drawing from. He isn't competing with IBM; MIPS, ARM and intel is.
Not quite true. A lot of companies still design microprocessors from scratch.
For example, look at Chinese Longsoon CPUs, nanochip, OpenCores, and so on. I also know that several CPUs are designed from scratch in Russia.
OS X ran on Intel the entire time it was in development. They didn't mention or release an Intel version until 10.4. I wouldn't put it past Apple Inc. to have an internal version of OS X for PPC, or anyother architecture, ready for the right moment.
Chip supply is a major weakness/obstacle for Apple. Smart business practice will have options should the current supplier have trouble with yields or other issues, not to mention forward looking technology ideas. Apple is not just smart about tech, they're smart about business. They won't risk their whole business on the fortunes of Intel. Let me repeat that, they won't risk their whole business on the fortunes of Intel. And t