A curious tidbit from VentureBeat: The A4 chip that Apple's pimping hardcore in iPad promos might not've been done by their PA Semi team (which Apple acquired for $278 million). Their source says it was designed by Apple's existing VLSI team, who made custom chips like northbridges for the old G5 Macs.

Sounds possible, since there likely isn't a whole lot "custom" going in the A4's actual design, which by all appearances is an ARM Cortex A9 wrapped up with a PowerVR graphics core and some other parts in a custom SoC. So, new question, if it's true: What's PA Semi, which Apple said would be working on chips for iPhones actually working on? A more customized chip would be interesting, since PA Semi's true talent was in designing chips with ridiculous power efficiencies. [VentureBeat]