Companies and individuals as diverse as mobile chip-licenser ARM, browser-maker Opera, and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich are offering opinions on Adobe, Flash, Apple’s restriction on cross-compilers, and rumors of an Adobe-prompted DOJ/FTC inquiry into Apple — and they won’t be making Adobe very happy.

ARM flat out says Adobe’s Flash has held back the delivery of smartbooks (think netbooks running on smartphone-scale ARM-processors). Adobe and ARM signed a partnership in 2008 and ARM hoped Flash would be up and running by 2009, but say it’s “slipped”. They think we’ll see it in late 2010 (though there was outcry the iPhone didn’t have it in 2007, right?)

Opera, makers of Opera Mini for iPhone, believe Flash still serves a purpose but that that purpose is no longer online video:

“But flash as a video container makes very little sense for CPU, WiFi battery usage etcetera – you can cook an egg on [devices] once you start running Flash on them and there’s a reason for that.”

Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor meanwhile wonders why Apple’s ban on the use of cross-compilers is even on the DOJ/FTC radar:

Apple’s supposed sin was to tell software developers that if they want to make apps for iPhones and iPads they have to use Apple programming tools. No more outside tools (like Adobe’s Flash format) that can run on rival devices like Google’s Android phones and RIM’s BlackBerrys.

What’s wrong with that? Apple says it’s necessary to maintain quality. If consumers disagree they can buy platforms elsewhere. Apple was the world’s #3 smartphone supplier in 2009, with 16.2 percent of worldwide market share. RIM was #2, with 18.8 percent. Google isn’t exactly a wallflower. These and other firms are innovating like mad, as are tens of thousands of independent developers. If Apple’s decision reduces the number of future apps that can run on its products, Apple will suffer and presumably change its mind.

Sounds familiar.

Steve Jobs’ open letter on Flash should be a huge wakeup call for Adobe. While they’re tried to play the victim for developers and complained to the government, increased adoption of H.264 and comments like these show they’re beginning to lose the mindshare battle. Fortunately it looks like Adobe is also going get into making HTML5 development tools.

I’d upgrade to CS6 in a minute for that.

[ZDNet, TechRadar via 9to5Mac, Robert Reich via TUAW, TechCrunch]

ARM, Opera, former US Secretary of Labor weigh in on Apple, Adobe, and Flash is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple has bought chip designer Intrisity for $121 million. Given the rapidity and speed of the Apple A4 chipset debuted alongside the iPad, rumors have persisted that Intrisity was behind the new system-on-chip (SoC), but confirmation took a while to arrive.

Intrisity was able to take the standard ARM Cortex A8 found in 650MHz flavor in the iPhone 3GS and competing smartphones and speed it up to 1GHz.

That’s an advantage Apple reportedly wants to keep to itself.

It follows on the heels of Apple’s previous acquisition of low-power fabless chip maker PA Semi, though a number of employees from that talent pool have reportedly left. (Some to be snapped up again by rival Google).

Where this leaves the upcoming iPhone HD/iPhone 4G is uncertain, those ARM itself has announced a successor, the multicore Cortex A9, and we’d certainly love to see what Intrisity’s talent pool could do with that. (Also uncertain is what part, if any, this played in recent rumors concerning a potential Apple buyout of ARM itself).

Either way, Apple is continuing to expand their ability to integrate and differentiate down to the chipset level, something non-integrated competitors like Google and Microsoft might have trouble matching.

[New York Times]

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ARM chips, including the current Cortex A8, power the iPhone 3GS, iPod touch G3, and form part of the A4 system-on-chip for the iPad — add that to some whispers and we get the full on rumor that Apple is in talks to buy them out.

Here’s where it gets really interesting — ARM chips power a slew of other devices as well, including those running Android and Palm.

Rumors of Apple buying desktop chipmaker AMD were floated earlier in the week, so who knows what if anything is really going on here, but tying up a major mobile CPU maker and locker out your competition must hold a certain appeal for Apple (whose already a major licensor of ARM). With $41 billion in the bank, even the likely $8 billion price tag isn’t out of the question.

We’re doubting it at the moment, but what do you think? They’ve already bought PA Semi and may have bought ARM design company Intrisity, and Google just bought Agnilux. Should Apple buy ARM outright?

[London Evening Standard via MacRumors]

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The interwebs are once again lit up with speculation about the iPad’s new Apple A4 chipset, this time because Ars Technica is saying that instead of the next-generation multicore ARM Cortex A9 unveiled at CES 2010, the iPad is using a variation of the last-generation AR Cortex A8 that powers the 2009 iPhone 3GS.

This is based on 1) Apple being secretive about the chipset and not bragging like other companies would 2) “multiple sources who are certain for different reasons that this is indeed the case.”

First things first. Apple being secretive proves nothing. Apple is secretive about everything, and they’ve said before they don’t discuss chipsets because they don’t think it matters to consumer electronics users (and, hey, Apple is secretive). They didn’t talk at all about the iPhone 3GS chipset — all they said is it was twice as fast. We only know that it uses an ARM Cortex A8 because people bought it and tore it apart to find out.

As to the multiple sources, if one of the “different reasons” is direct knowledge of the chipset, then they could be exactly right. If not, then… eh, maybe, but we’re back to waiting for the iPad to ship and people to tear it down.

In the interest of being complete, however, Ars speculates that if the iPad is indeed running the Cortex A8, this might be what’s making it so fast:

it turns out that the the A4 is a 1GHz custom SoC with a single Cortex A8 core and a PowerVR SGX GPU. The fact that A4 uses a single A8 core hasn’t been made public, but I’ve heard from multiple sources who are certain for different reasons that this is indeed the case. (I wish I could be more specific, but I can’t.)

In all, the A4 is quite comparable to the other Cortex A8-based SoCs that are coming onto the market, except that the A4 has even less hardware. The iPad doesn’t have much in the way of I/O, so the A4 itself can do away with the I/O that it doesn’t need. In contrast, the typical Cortex A8-based SoC has more I/O hardware than a mobile phone can use, because you never know what customers will need which interface types.

Ars, like Venture Beat, also thinks Apple’s PA Semi team may not be involved in the iPad because they’re working on a variant for the 4th generation iPhone. Either way, they believe software will ultimately be more important than hardware — which is something Apple’s been saying for a while now.

So, do we care if the iPad has an ARM Cortex A8 rather than a Cortex A9? Do we want Apple pushing the hardware, or are we happy with them prioritizing software?

Regarding Apple A4 Using iPhone 3GS Cortex A8 Processor is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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According to Bright Side of the News, it turns out that newly spun Apple A4 system-on-a-chip that debuted alongside the iPad does indeed pack more punch than the Sammy in the iPhone 3GS:

A4 is a System-on-a-Chip, or SOC, that integrates the main processor [ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore i.e. Multi-Processing Core, identical to ones used in nVidia Tegra and Qualcomm Snapdragon] with graphics silicon [ARM Mali 50-Series GPU], and other functions like the memory controller on one piece of silicon – not unlike what Intel is trying to achieve with its future “Moorestown” Atom processor that debuted inside LG’s Smartphone

Cortex A9 indeed? But no PowerVR SGX like the iPhone. Engadget says this is also similar to the Tegra2 platform. So, it’s more of an Apple assemblage of ARM components rather than anything PA Semi unique, but is it a first step towards more customized silicon? Either way, we’d still love to see this baby powering the 4th gen iPhone and iPod touch.

Still no word on RAM though…

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Apple A4 iPad Chipset = ARM Multicore Cortex A9 + Mali 50 GPU

While Apple’s current generation iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 use ARM Cortex A8 CPUs and PowerVR SGX GPUs chips from Samsung, as part of their iPad announcement today, Apple also announced their own chip — the Apple A4.

Custom chipsets have been on Apple’s agenda since they bought PA Semi (Palo Alto Semiconductor) and Steve Jobs flat out said they’d be used in future Apple mobile devices. That future, it seems, starts now.

Battery life — 10hrs for the iPad — was stated as a prime reason for going with a custom chip. As is typical for Apple, they didn’t give any details (and likely the reason they’re making their own chips is so that they can keep those sorts of things secret from the competition), but since they’re rumored to be a massive ARM licensee, and owns part of PowerVR maker Imagine, we’re going to go out on a limb and guess those are still the CPU and GPU respectively.

How much RAM lurks inside the iPad, Apple also didn’t say, and since we only found out the iPhone 3GS has 256MB was after the tear-downs, we’ll likely have to wait on those for the iPad as well.

Of course, TiPb’s mind immediately turns to the chances of having an Apple A4, or similar chip, in the 4th generation iPhone and iPod touch. Combine that with 512MB or more of RAM, a Cortex A9 multicore CPU, latest PowerVR SGX GPU, and little PA-Semi magic and… who knows how interesting 2010 will become!

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iPad Also Debuts Apple A4 Custom-built System-on-a-Chip

ARM is showing off their new Cortex A9 multi-core mobile processor, which will scale over 2Ghz at less than 0.25W of power per proc — and since Apple is rumored to be a massive ARM licensee and Apple staff were hinting that developers should prepare themselves for multi-core, rumors once again resurface that this smoking hot chip might become part of the 4th generation iPhone and iPod touch. (As part of PA Semi system-on-a-chip, ‘natch).

The current iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3, as well as a bunch of competing smartphones (and superphones, don’t get us started!) use the ARM Cortex A8. MacRumors is guessing it might just make its way into the iTablet/iSlate as well.

CES is ramping up folks, and remember TiPb will be there, so we’ll bring you back anything more we can find out.

Video highlights after the break…

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Potential iPhone Gen 4 ARM Cortex A9 Multicore Processor Demo