Just now, Apple bought a chip company.

Apple currently has remarkable strength in the field of chips. However, looking back at Apple's development, its acquisition of PA Semi in 2008 was a turning point in the company's chip destiny.

It is reported that this chip company with 150 employees was founded in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl, who was the chief designer of the highly - acclaimed Alpha and StrongARM microprocessors developed by Digital Equipment in the 1990s. PA Semi's chips at that time were based on IBM's Power architecture.

According to the reports at that time, Apple didn't state the purpose of this acquisition. But insiders revealed that the negotiation was led by Steve Jobs, the then CEO of Apple, with the aim of using PA Semi's PWRficient processor as the core of the iPhone and future iPods. Subsequent developments have confirmed this view.

To some extent, Apple's acquisition laid the foundation for the company's subsequent development in mobile phones, earphones, PCs, and a series of devices. Now, Apple has made another move.

Acquired Another Chip Company

According to the list of acquisition cases where the European Union designates companies as "gatekeepers", Apple has recently secretly acquired the chip company IC Mask Design. The EU's listing documents show that "Apple will acquire all the issued shares of IC Mask Design Limited (hereinafter referred to as 'ICMD') and hire some of ICMD's employees."

Relevant information shows that IC Mask Design Limited was established in 2002. Since its establishment, the company has been providing IC layout design services, methodology - based IC layout training courses, and complete IC layout outsourcing solutions. After years of development, the company has become a leader in the design services of the global semiconductor industry, with a global customer base.

IC Mask Design Limited claims that the company has cooperated with more than 250 "cutting - edge technology companies" in 35 countries around the world. These companies include Moortec, Motorola, and Ikon Semiconductor, but Apple is not included in the customer list announced by IC Mask Design.

It is worth mentioning that a few months ago, the company's website was deleted, and its social media accounts were also shut down. These signs confirm that the company has been acquired, and it happened not long ago.

Since many of the company's materials have been deleted, we can't know in detail what they were doing. But from some archived materials, we can see that the company's greatest expertise lies in the VDSM technology node.

"With our expertise in the VDSM technology node, we have accumulated rich experience and become the preferred partner of leading semiconductor companies. In the field of IC mask design, we are well - versed in the key aspects of IC layout design and provide cost - effective, high - quality solutions. This can help customers avoid expensive rework and enable them to focus on the functions and performance of their products with confidence and freedom," the company said.

The company said in a statement on the archived version of the IC Mask Design website, "When it comes to all technology nodes from 350nm to 3nm and below, few companies can claim to have the depth of knowledge that we have internally."

This makes me can't help imagining that the skills Apple has obtained through this acquisition will help it further optimize its chips, including developing alternative interconnection models and continuing to focus on energy efficiency, as these seem to be one of the core skills provided by this formerly independent company.

The company's expertise may also help Apple develop the "UltraFusion" packaging technology for high - end M - series processors and server chips. Although this is just speculation, the company's website has been taken down, and Apple may not disclose more information, so the specific truth is unknown to us.

The Rise of Apple Chips

After more than a decade of R & D, acquisitions of companies and intellectual property rights have been the main guarantee for their rise.

First, in terms of company acquisitions, after acquiring PA SEMI in 2008, Apple acquired Intrinsity in 2010. The company developed technologies to support the development and improvement of microprocessor cores. It is reported that Intrinsity's Fast14 NDL circuit technology allows the construction of embedded IP processor cores that can run twice as fast as ordinary versions or even faster, with little increase in silicon area or power consumption per MHz. These microprocessor cores can be built using the same process as standard cores. Apple's acquisition of this company will give it more control over the production of its consumer electronic devices.

In 2012, Apple acquired the Israeli semiconductor startup Anobit Technologies. It is reported that the NAND flash memory chips developed by Anobit are key components to improve the performance of the NAND flash memory chips used in iPhones, iPads, and iPods. As Robin said, Anobit provides flash memory solutions for the enterprise and mobile markets based on its proprietary MSP (Memory Signal Processing) technology. Its solutions are designed to improve the speed, durability, and performance of flash memory 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 memory.

Also in 2012, Apple acquired another chip company, AuthenTec. It is reported that AuthenTec was founded in 1998 and focuses on fingerprint scanning technology. Its wide - range of sensors can be embedded in computers to read fingerprint images and can also detect motion and fingerprint patterns. For enterprises, the company provides independent fingerprint readers that can be connected to computers to enhance login security. Information shows that by the time of the acquisition, AuthenTec had shipped more than 100 million sensors. Its customers include several mainstream 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 Passif, a low - energy chip manufacturer in Silicon Valley. It is reported that Passif was founded by Ben Cook and Axel Berny, who were doctoral students at the University of California, Berkeley at that time. Its technology includes a radio based on low - energy Bluetooth (called Bluetooth Smart). This system allows users to pair Android phones or tablets with low - power devices such as Fitbit One or Jawbone UP. Since the communication chips developed by Passif have extremely low power consumption, it has a very bright future for health monitoring and fitness devices that require ultra - long battery life.

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 acquiring 300 Dialog engineers (and assets) who have been focusing on Apple chip development, and $300 million for purchasing Dialog products to be delivered within the next three years. Apple seems very happy to take control of the development of PMIC. "Dialog has deep expertise in chip development. We are very happy that this group of talented engineers, who have supported our products for a long time, can now work directly for Apple," said Johny Srouji, senior vice - president of Apple's hardware technology.

In 2019, Apple and Intel signed an agreement to acquire most of Intel's smartphone modem business. Approximately 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple, along with intellectual property, equipment, and leases. Apple said that by combining the acquired existing and future wireless technology patents with Apple's existing patent portfolio, Apple will have more than 17,000 wireless technology patents, covering various fields from cellular standard protocols to modem architectures and modem operations. Intel will retain the ability to develop modems for non - smartphone applications (such as personal computers, IoT devices, and self - driving cars). It was this deal that gave birth to the company's subsequent basebands.

Conclusion

In the past development, Apple has continuously expanded its resources and capabilities in the semiconductor field and has launched a series of chips. According to incomplete statistics, Apple has now launched multiple series of chips, including the A series (mobile phone chips), C series (baseband chips), H series (Bluetooth chips), M series (PC chips), N series (wireless chips), S series (watch chips), and U series (UWB chips). Meanwhile, in the past decade, Apple has applied for about 1,000 CPC G06F - class patents each year.

Apple's rise path and achievements in the field of chips have inspired other large high - tech companies to enter this market. For example, as early as 2010, Alphabet acquired the chip manufacturer Agnilux (founded by former PA Semi employees) and launched the Tensor SoC on the Pixel 6 smartphone in 2021; Amazon acquired the microelectronics company Annapurna Labs in 2015, and the company is currently using this division to design chips for Amazon Web Services (AWS); Meta recently rumored to acquire Rivos, and so on.

As the competition in the high - tech industry intensifies, major manufacturers will undoubtedly continue to enhance their capabilities in the semiconductor field. What chip companies Apple will acquire in the future and what chips (especially those for data centers) it will launch are of particular concern to the author.

*Disclaimer: This article is originally written by the author. The content of the article represents the author's personal views. Semiconductor Industry Watch reprints it only to convey a different view and does not represent its approval or support for this view. If there are any objections, please contact Semiconductor Industry Watch.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Semiconductor Industry Watch" (ID: icbank). Author: Editorial Department. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.