Hacker News Reader

Comment by joshu | Hacker News Reader

Fully control the supply chain? Please don't editorialize like that.

Maybe he meant "fully control the portion of the supply chain that matters".

Which I'm not sure is the case either...

Yeah, from the looks of it Apple is running some seriously beefy graphics hardware that somehow sips power. We know the CPU is in-house, but what about the GPU (which IMHO is the bigger part of the equation).

The A4 is an System-On-Chip, so no separate GPU.

From http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10442684-64.html :

  By definition, the A4 is a system-on-a-chip, or SOC, that
  integrates the main processor, graphics silicon, and other
  functions like the memory controller on one piece of silicon...

I know there are HN posting standards, but not all editorialization is bad. I find some opinions interesting and it gives you an angle to confirm or falsify when reading the article.

But the opinion can be given in a comment.

"Fully control the supply chain?" that was the question in my mind so it appeared . But I agree with your concerns.

Do they even own a plant or is production outsourced?

Apple bought P.A. Semi, a small chip manufacturer, last year, so it is technically under the Apple umbrella.

P.A. Semi are designers, not manufacturers. I expect fabrication is outsourced to an outfit like TSMC.

Samsung would be an obvious guess at the fab, given Apple's history of working with them.

P.A. Semi is fabless, meaning manufacturing is done by someone else.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com