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Motorola Sells Chip Unit for $1.6 Billion 34

Posted by CmdrTaco from the fabricating-the-evidence dept.
Rude Turnip writes "Motorola is selling its semiconductor components unit to privately-held Texas Pacific Group. Motorola hopes to concentrate on the high-end semiconductor business that provides embedded chips, while keeping some interest in the components business. "
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Motorola Sells Chip Unit for $1.6 Billion More

Motorola Sells Chip Unit for $1.6 Billion

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  • Sigh... (Score:1)

    by Erich ( 151 )
    Does this mean that my Motorola TTL manual is going to be obsolete? Surely they won't change the pinouts on the good ol' 74LS00 quad 2-input NAND gate chip!

  • Uh-huh, that's why all these models/actresses are rushing to have their implants removed, because there aren't any health effects.


    Yes, I try to get all of my science from models and actresses too. After all, it's not like they might emotionally follow trends or anything.


    Millions of people choose to smoke, drink, eat fatty foods or have risky sex lives, too. It doesn't mean these activities aren't dangerous...



    Just because no one has found any evidence doesn't mean that there isn't any to be found.


    No, but the fact that no scientific investigation has found any evidence after years of intensive study does suggest this is the case. Or are you one of those conspiracy lunatics who thinks that every single investigator is controlled by a Large Evil Corporation?
  • Maybe they settled.
    Years ago the silicone implant companies settled a lot of lawsuits, but after years of studies, no data linking silicone and ill health could be found. It just doesn't happen!
  • You're speaking of different thnigs. There's hard evidence that cigarettes cause cancer. It's been around for years now.

    Cell phones haven't even been around long enough that such data can be reliably collected. It'll be several more years before anything truly conclusive can be drawn up.

    By the way, the same theory which says that cell phones cause cancer also works for power lines, hair dryers, and other such nasties. Face it; being born inevitably leads to death.

    Someone alert the media.
  • As far as I know, they (we) are only getting rid of the 'discrete' components, such as OP-amps. Personally, I feel it's a bit of a shame... I know of several designers who specify only Motorola parts when available due to the very high quality. But, I guess if we can make more profit by doing something else with the capital, that's what should be done...

    Jim C. Nasby
    Motorola AIEG (That's the automotive group, so don't bother asking me for a free cell-phone! :P)

  • Maybe someone else with more information can comment, but I believe the problem with WinModems is not so much in writing the drivers, but in the licensing costs of the V.90 protocol.

    Go see this page [opensrc.org] for a little more information.

    Or, if you want to see why most of the real linux kernel guys hate Winmodems, follow this thread [linuxhq.com].

    Alan Cox estimated 200k+ lines of code, running in kernel space.

    So, forget about the specs. Even if you had them, they would be either too expensive to use or not worth the impact to the kernel to implement. Better off spending the few extra bucks, and taking a load off your CPU.

  • Personally, I haven't even heard of a plausible mechanisim. This is a far cry from ciggeretes where major components, like nicotine, are known carcinigens.
  • Actually, a woman won in court against Motorola over that. Her husband died because of a brain tumor, his wife blamed the cell phone and the court found Motorola liable. This was something like 4 years ago. Whether it was a frivolous lawsuit, I dunno. Maybe early cell phones really were dangerous, maybe she just needed to point the finger quickly. Either way, she won.
  • First of all, ENOUGH WITH THE "DEJA VU" COMMENTS! So far this discussion is content-free.

    Now, I think this is a good idea for Motorola. By selling off their components division they can concentrate more on advancing things like the PowerPC and, of course, all their embedded microprocessors. This, of course, means better Macs, better cell phones, and better whatever-the-heck-else-they-use-embedded-microproc essors-for.

    This may also help boost profits -- after all, how much do they really make on op-amps? It can't be all that much.

    Anyway, I think it makes good business sense, sort of a trimming-the-fat move.
  • I was initially worried when I heard the news about Motorola, because I like a number of their 8-bit chips for embedded work. But it sounds like what's really being divested is the non-CPU silicon, i.e. logic gates, and discrete semiconductors like transistors, diodes, and thyristors. Has anybody heard to the contrary? I 'm not working in a job right now where I have a Motorola rep I can call to be certain they aren't killing the 'HC11 and 'HC05. I like those chip families (it can be a matter of pride to be able to say the code you're working on runs in 512 bytes of RAM, with a 500 KHz clock).
  • They should be the same ol' pinouts that I find in my hardbound Texas Instruments TTL manual from about 1975. Some things will never change.

    I have TTL gates from the very early 70's. And at least a few op-amps from the late 60's. I wonder if chips will eventually become collectable? My Intel 8008 is probably already collectable...
  • Uh-huh, that's why all these models/actresses are rushing to have their implants removed, because there aren't any health effects. Just because no one has found any evidence doesn't mean that there isn't any to be found. So what was the "it" in "it just doesn't happen?"

    cheers,

    Matthew

  • well... (Score:1)

    by / ( 33804 )
    It still does lovely things like dilate your arteries. Besides, who wants to put an insecticide into one's body anyway (nicotine, like caffeine, is a pesticide). It's just one of those things like not consuming most artificial dyes is probably a good thing, since most were originally developed by the German textile industry as textile dyes. It's not a hard rule, since, in this world, your poison may be my dietary nutrient. It's a good rule of thumb, though.
  • Anybody know if this sell-off includes their SM56 winmodem chipset? Hopefully this will loosen up programming documentation for it, since I'd like to write some Linux code.
    -russ
  • No, of course a Linux user wouldn't bother with winmodem. However, at $17 it makes a very servicable telephony interface, particularly when it comes with a full-duplex speakerphone. There's more information on the Linmodems [linmodems.org] page.
    -russ
  • There seems to be alot of misunderstanding about
    Motorolas structur. The organization that produces
    the CPUs and MPUs is not part of SPS, let alone
    SPG.
    SPG is Motorolas jelly bean factory. They make the
    cheap commodity parts. Much of what SPS, the larger
    organization that SPG belongs to, does is custom.
    Look at your hard drive. There is a good chance that
    there is a fairly large LSI flatpack with the
    batwing logo. Commodity parts just clog up the
    fabs. Other companies are better suited to cranking
    out standard TTL and CMOS, etc. As far as anolog
    ICs, most of the good stuff is made by a different
    organization within SPS. SPS is still a huge part
    of Motorola.

    I spent 10 years with the company and enjoyed
    every one.

    Couldn't /. come up with a decent "Batwing"?

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