Ever since the acquisition of PA Semiconductor and the hiring of Mark Papermaster, it has been fairly obvious that Apple has been looking to get into the chipmaking space. The question now seems to be just how deep they want to get in.

Most reports thus far have suggested that the company would like to produce its own ARM processors for the iPhone and iPod. This makes a lot of sense, as the iPhone already runs on Apple software and the company likely wants to fine-tune it in a way that a 3rd party would not want or have time to do.

But might it go further than just mobile device chips? Could Apple be looking to go as far as some day using its own line of PC and server chips as well?

The company did spend more than a decade working with IBM and Motorola on the PowerPC line of chips. And while the switch to Intel's x86 line has brought some very nice perks such as dual-boot capabilities, perhaps Apple may be looking in the long term to dump Intel. After all, the pervasive attitude at Apple seems to be that any product the company makes should be better the very best in the world, and that the company is the very best at what it does.

Surely it must grate on the company at some level to have to accept the defects and limitations of what Intel engineers can create.That's not to say Intel doesn't make a good product, but I'm sure there are engineers and execs at Apple who believe that the company could make even better processors if they wanted to.

01 May 2009