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Google Acquires Chip Maker Startup Agnilux

Posted by timothy on from the keeping-up-with-the-jobses dept.

bobwrit points out a story at PC Magazine, from which he extracts "Google has purchased Agnilux, a secretive chip house made up of engineers who architected the heart of the iPad, then left the company. Reuters' PEHub reported the story Tuesday night. A Google spokesman also confirmed the acquisition to PCMag.com. 'We're pleased to welcome the Agnilux team to Google, but we don't have any additional information to share right now,' a Google spokesman said Tuesday night via email."

13 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Android by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google wants to make phones, netbooks and tablets. They've been investing money in coding for ARM, but it makes sense to look into producing their own chips for these devices.

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    1. Re:Android by Jeng · · Score: 5, Insightful

      With everyone saying ARM is so efficient how are we to know that Google is not investing in ARM to make more energy efficient ARM based servers?

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    2. Re:Android by MBGMorden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Google's famous for being a risk taker. They try a ton of stuff and keep what seems to work. It keeps them fluid. The search engine game was good for them for a long time but they seem to get the hint that the way of the world is "innovate or die", so they're branching out. Gmail/Google Apps and the Android seem to be working out for them pretty well.

      I think that this branching out is just a sign of a company doing the right thing and keeping active rather than resting on it's laurels.

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    3. Re:Android by inKubus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seems smart. Why am I paying for (and paying to power) this Intel floating point unit when I'm only serving web pages?

      But, Google's growth has been perpetuated by use of cheap commodity hardware, ie: profiting off the fact that the rest of us drive the price down by buying lots. A switch to specialized chips would mean a new direction for the company.

      I mean, they could have done this from the beginning with fancy IBM or SUN or Unisys mainframe stuff, which typically allow you to configure IO subsystems (which is the main bottleneck of web serving). Likewise if they are doing database stuff you'd want a lot of RAM and wide I/O bandwidth, 128 bits or more. All standard for a long time on IBM stuff. But it's expensive, not commodity. Even Google's 100-300K servers (or maybe it's a million now, who knows) is not going to bring the scale of the whole worldwide market for Intel chips (100M plus annually).

      So I don't see how this could benefit them long-term. Sure, power savings might add up to a lot so it's a good investment. And since they want to be the entire Internet (including your desktop), it's really a matter of energy over all else. But they are definitely going to need to keep adding hardware to keep growing, so that means higher chip expenses upfront. But, if they can spin the same processor into a little home or mobile computer to connect to their services, they might be able to start leveraging this scale thing again. But it seems to be a big risk to get into the manufacturing business.

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  2. Maybe Google feels theatened by Apple by Orga · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple has a good handle on their vertical, from hardware to content. Google is just beginning its jump into the hardware portion. I imagine this is just another rung in the ladder from the bottom to the top, control all the way.

    1. Re:Maybe Google feels theatened by Apple by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Google has had their hands in some aspects of hardware for a while now. They have their own custom designed server motherboards.

  3. One Word by codepunk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    GPad

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  4. Re:"architected"? by wonkavader · · Score: 4, Funny

    How about...

    "The firm's enormous security guard reacted quickly to the arrival of Carlos the Jackal. Reaching for the closest blunt instrument at hand, the guard picked up I. M. Pei and architected the terrorist to death."

  5. Servers by imgod2u · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google has been spending a lot of effort -- from custom power structures inside their buildings to buying that magic box that generates power form minerals to custom-making their own server blades -- to reduce power and make energy efficient servers; they have so many of them after all.

    These guys, while formerly PA Semi, focused their new business on energy-efficient server CPU's. So I wouldn't so much expect a gPad. It's likely the consumer will never see the chips that are being produced here.

  6. Re:"architected"? by StrategicIrony · · Score: 4, Informative

    I just looked and the Oxford dictionary recognizes it, and points to archived letters from Keats in 1813 using the word as a verb.

    It was considered an "overly formal" usage for awhile, but I think the use in computer-speak has brought it back toward mainstream.

  7. I worry about robots by jwhitener · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now that Google is getting into hardware, it's only a matter of before we see:

        The Google Search (and destroy) Robot. ;)

    1. Re:I worry about robots by Nadaka · · Score: 4, Funny

      Its ok, all you have to do is tattoo the following on your forehead and they won't bother you:

      User-agent: *
      Disallow: /

  8. Different Take by JackSpratts · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the times has a different spin. it's not chips so much as low-power hardware/software integration google's paying for. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/google-acquires-another-piece-of-the-tablet-puzzle/?hpw