Gerade eben hat Apple ein Chipunternehmen gekauft.

Apple currently has remarkable strengths in the field of chips. However, when looking at Apple's development, the acquisition of PA Semi in 2008 was the turning point for the company's chip fate.

According to reports, this chip company with 150 employees was founded by Dan Dobberpuhl in 2003. He was the lead designer of the highly - regarded Alpha and StrongARM microprocessors developed by Digital Equipment in the 1990s. At that time, PA Semi's chips were based on IBM's Power architecture.

According to the reports at that time, Apple did not mention what the purpose of this acquisition was. But according to insider information, this negotiation was led by Steve Jobs, the then CEO of Apple. The goal was to use PA Semi's PWRficient processor as the core for the iPhone and future iPods. Subsequent development has confirmed this view.

In a way, this acquisition by Apple laid the foundation for the company's subsequent development in mobile phones, headphones, PCs, and a series of other devices. Now Apple has made another move.

Has Acquired Another Chip Company

According to the list of acquisition cases classified by the EU as a "watchdog", Apple has recently secretly acquired the chip company IC Mask Design. The EU's publication documents show: "Apple will acquire all the issued capital of IC Mask Design Limited (abbreviated as 'ICMD') and hire some of ICMD's employees."

According to available information, IC Mask Design Limited was founded in 2002. Since its founding, the company has offered IC layout design services, methodology - based IC layout training courses, and comprehensive outsourcing solutions for IC layouts. After years of development, it has become a global market leader in design services in the semiconductor industry and has a worldwide customer base.

IC Mask Design Limited claims that it has collaborated with more than 250 "top - technology companies" in 35 countries around the world. These include Moortec, Motorola, and Ikon Semiconductor. However, Apple is not included in the customer list published by IC Mask Design.

It is worth noting that a few months ago, the company's website was deleted and its social - media accounts were suspended. All these signs confirm that the company was recently acquired.

Since many pieces of information about the company have been deleted, we can't exactly know what it does. But from some archived data, it can be seen that the company's greatest expertise lies in the field of VDSM technology nodes.

"With our expertise in the field of VDSM technology nodes, we have accumulated rich experience and become the preferred partner of leading semiconductor companies. In the field of IC mask design, we understand the key steps of IC layout design and offer cost - effective and high - quality solutions. This can help our customers avoid expensive rework and focus confidently and freely on the functions and performance of their products." The company states.

In a statement on the archived version of IC Mask Design's website, the company says: "When it comes to all technology nodes from 350 nm to 3 nm and below, only a few companies can claim to have the same in - depth internal knowledge as we do."

This makes me can't help but imagine that the capabilities Apple has gained through this acquisition will help it further optimize its chips, including developing alternative interconnection models and continuing to focus on energy efficiency. Because this seems to be one of the core competencies of this former independent company.

The company's expertise could also help Apple in developing the "UltraFusion" packaging technology for high - end M - series processors and server chips. Although this is just a speculation, since the company's website has been removed and Apple may not disclose further information, we can't learn the exact truth.

The Rise of Apple Chips

After more than a decade of research and development, as well as the acquisition of companies and intellectual property, this is the main reason for their rise.

First, let's consider the company acquisitions. After acquiring PA SEMI in 2008, Apple acquired Intrinsity in 2010. The company has developed technologies that support the development and improvement of microprocessor cores. According to reports, Intrinsity's Fast14 NDL circuit technology enables the construction of embedded IP processor cores that can run up to twice as fast as conventional versions without significantly increasing the silicon area or power consumption per MHz. These microprocessor cores can be manufactured using the same process as standard cores. This acquisition will enable Apple to gain more control over the production of its consumer electronics products.

In 2012, Apple acquired the Israeli semiconductor startup Anobit Technologies. According to reports, the NAND - Flash chip developed by Anobit is a key component for improving the performance of the NAND - Flash chips used in iPhones, iPads, and iPods. As Robin said, Anobit offers Flash solutions for enterprises and the mobile market based on its proprietary MSP (Memory Signal Processing) technology. These solutions aim to improve the speed, durability, and performance of Flash systems while reducing costs. The company claims that Anobit's technology consists of signal - processing algorithms that can compensate for the physical limitations of NAND - Flash.

Also in 2012, Apple acquired the chip company AuthenTec. According to reports, AuthenTec was founded in 1998 and focuses on fingerprint scanning technology. Its extensive sensors can be built into computers to read fingerprint images and also detect movement and fingerprint patterns. For enterprises, the company offers independent fingerprint readers that can be connected to computers to improve login security. According to information, AuthenTec had sold more than 100 million sensors by the time of the acquisition. Its customers include several leading smartphone manufacturers such as Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung. After this acquisition, Apple promoted the development of mobile phone fingerprint technology.

In 2013, Apple recently acquired the California - based manufacturer of energy - efficient chips, Passif. According to reports, Passif was founded by then - doctoral students Ben Cook and Axel Berny from the University of California, Berkeley. Its technology includes a wireless device based on Low - Energy Bluetooth (so - called Bluetooth Smart). This system allows users to connect Android smartphones or tablets to energy - efficient devices such as Fitbit One or Jawbone UP. Since the communication chips developed by Passif have extremely low power consumption, the future for long - battery - life health - monitoring and fitness devices is very promising.

In 2018, Apple will acquire most of the Power Management IC business of the British chip manufacturer Dialog Semiconductor for a total of $600 million. This includes $300 million for the acquisition of 300 Dialog engineers (along with the associated assets) who have already focused on the development of Apple chips, and $300 million for the purchase of Dialog products to be delivered within the next three years. Apple seems to be happy to take the development of PMICs into its own hands. "Dialog has in - depth expertise in chip development. We are very happy that these talented engineers who have long supported our product can now work directly for Apple," said Johny Srouji, the senior vice - president in charge of hardware technology at Apple.

In 2019, Apple and Intel signed a contract to acquire most of Intel's smartphone modem business. About 2200 Intel employees will join Apple, along with intellectual property, devices, and lease contracts. Apple has stated that by combining the acquired existing and future wireless technology patents with Apple's existing patent portfolio, Apple will have more than 17,000 patents for wireless technologies covering all areas from mobile communication standards to modem architecture and modem operation. Intel will retain the ability to develop modems for non - smartphone applications (e.g., PCs, IoT devices, and self - driving cars). It is precisely this deal that later stimulated the company's baseband development.

Concluding Remarks

In the past, Apple has continuously expanded its resources and capabilities in the semiconductor field and brought a series of chips to the market. According to incomplete statistics, Apple has now developed several chip series such as the A - series (mobile phone chips), C - series (baseband chips), H - series (Bluetooth chips), M - series (PC chips), N - series (wireless chips), S - series (smartwatch chips), U - series (UWB chips), and many others. At the same time, in the past ten years, Apple has applied for about 1000 patents in the CPC class G06F annually.

Apple's rise in the field of chips and the achieved results have encouraged other large high - tech companies to also enter this market. For example, Alphabet already acquired the chip manufacturer Agnilux (founded by former PA Semi employees) in 2010 and launched the Tensor SoC on the Pixel 6 smartphone in 2021; Amazon acquired the microelectronics company Annapurna Labs in 2015 and is currently using it to design chips for Amazon Web Services (AWS); Meta has recently announced the acquisition of Rivos, and so on.

With the increasing competition in the high - tech industry, the various manufacturers will undoubtedly further improve their capabilities in the semiconductor field. I'm particularly interested in which chip companies Apple will acquire in the future and which chips (especially for data centers) it will bring to the market.

*Disclaimer: This article was originally created by the author. The content of the article reflects the personal views of the author. The publication of this article by Semiconductor Industry Watch only serves to convey a different opinion and does not represent the approval or support of this opinion by Semiconductor Industry Watch. The editorial department is happy to assist with any questions or objections.

This article is from the WeChat account "Semiconductor Industry Watch" (ID: icbank) and was written by the editorial department. 36Kr published it with permission.