A little light has been shed on what exactly Apple has planned for P.A. Semi, that is recently acquired for $278 million. It is rumored that prior to this acquisition, Apple had invested in P.A. Semi back in 2005. You will remember back in 2005, Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel chips. At the time P.A. Semi was operating with a PPC license, and it is assumed that Apple had come to them to manufacture low power PPC chips for there Mac lineup.

It seems that Apple again has their eye on P.A. Semi, but it does not answer the question of why they bought them. It would appear that P.A. Semi had acquired a little obligatory debt, that Apple paid off, and brought P.A. Semi under Apple's control. Now Apple has access to all of P.A. Semi's intellectual property and patents, and to Apple they must have been worth the cash.

Apple's plans behind the acquisition are foggy. They want P.A. Semi not for a product that they currently design, but for their experience. Apple most likely will use P.A. Semi to design a chip for a new portable device, as it is very unlikely they would switch CPU architectures again for the Mac line. Unfortunately, we will just have to wait and see.

[Via MacRumors]