Episode 30: P.A. Semi + AuthenTec

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Topics covered include:

P.A. Semi’s original moniker ("Palo Alto Semiconductor”) and its celebrity founder (in the semiconductor world) Dan Dobberpuhl
History of the back and forth tradeoffs between Intel’s powerful x86 chips and low power alternatives like ARM processors
Dobberpuhl’s technology breakthroughs throughout his career that enabled true low-power + high-performance chips
The initial target markets for P.A. Semi’s chips (surprise: NOT mobile phones)
P.A. Semi’s first foray into a potential deal with Apple, dashed by Cupertino’s surprise switch to Intel processors in 2005
The rise of mobile finally creating the huge market need for low-power / high-performance, Apple’s acquisition of P.A., and launch of the first Apple-designed chip, the “A4”, with the original iPad in 2010
Geekbench: the single-core performance of Apple’s latest generation of smartphone processors (A10 Fusion) has basically caught up with Intel’s laptop CPUs
AuthenTec’s beginnings in the late 90’s as a spinoff from the defense contractor Harris Corporation (named by Wired Magazine as the #2 threat to internet privacy in the US), based in Melbourne, Florida
Early versions of the technology that became TouchID, the sensors for which were many times larger than today’s iPhones themselves!
AuthenTec “not very Apple-like” website on Archive.org (and screenshot)
AuthenTec’s deal that almost was to put their technology and sensors into Samsung’s flagship phones
Apple’s acquisition of AuthenTec for $356 million in July 2012, and the rapid introduction of TouchID in the iPhone 5S one year later in September 2013