PA Semi founder and CEO, Dan Dobberpuhl, has apparently left Apple to join a Silicon Valley startup company founded by other former PA Semi employee, although exactly when he left is uncertain, as reported by CNET (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10465618-64.html).
Dobberpuhl isn’t alone. Other key PA Semi team members have left Apple, including one of PA Semi’s leading members, Mark Hayter, adds “CNET.”
On April 22, 2008, it was made public that Apple had agreed to buy a boutique microprocessor design company called PA Semi. The company was known for its design of sophisticated, low-power chips.
PA Semi is a fabless semiconductor company that makes PWRficient processors for the embedded-computing markets. It was established in 2003 by industry veterans, including Dan Dobberpuhl, lead designer of the DEC Alpha series of microprocessors, the StrongARM microprocessors, and the first multicore systems on chip with the SiByte 1250. PWRficient processors are based on, and fully software compatible with, the Power Architecture instruction set, licensed to P.A. Semi by IBM. P.A. Semi’s first dual-core system on chip, the PA6T-1682M, enables system manufacturers to design in three to four times more functionality and performance at a given power level than previously possible, the company says.
PWWRficient are 64-bit multicore processors designed to be power efficient. For example, the first PWRficient processor, a dual-core chip running at 2GHz, dissipates just 5-13W typical, depending upon the application — up to three to four times less power than similar high-performance microprocessor platforms, according to the folks at PW Semi.