[Info-vax] OT: About proprietary chips

[John Wallace]

On Jan 27, 11:38 pm, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> John Wallace wrote:
> > Yes it seems to be an ARM-based chip.
>
> OK, so your arguments about it being less difficult/costly to have your
> own version are very valid.
>
> But it is still costlier than buying some off-the-shelf ARM processors
> for your adult toys/phones.
>
> Will be interesting to hear more about whether Apple was able to do much
> more with its "own" chip than if it had bought off the shelf ones.

I don't know whether you're aware or not, but you cannot buy an "off
the shelf ARM processor" from ARM. ARM don't make chips. ARM do the
core designs and that's what they sell. Other companies ("ARM
licensees") take the core designs and add their own value to turn them
into manufacturable chips which are relevant to, and bought by, phone
builders, router builders, PDA builders, whatever. So Apple could have
bought one of these off the shelf designs, but they would then have
had even less uniqueness in their product than they have today. For
some manufacturers that wouldn't be a problem, but Apple like their
premium prices, which are presumably easier to justify when there is
no directly comparable product.

As for "Alpha failed because it didn't reach sufficient numbers": look
again, and tell me with a straight face that Alpha wasn't taken off
the market as a result of backroom political deals between Palmer and
Intel. The "insufficient numbers, so continued development costs too
much" was merely a convenient nearly-plausible excuse to spout in
public. Not that it matters much in the grand scale of things.

ps re Bob's "But that is "Would of", "Could of", "Should of"
speculation. "

NO! As Steven Schweda already pointed out slightly differently:

"Would've" (short for "would have"), etc.

"Would of" (etc) is never right, is it?