IBM who took action in a US Court last week to stop a 26 year old Wizz Kid moving to Apple have a lot to lose say insiders.
According to a lawsuit filed in United States District Court IBM claim that their Vice President of Microprocessor Technology Development, Mark Papermaster has significant knowledge of IBM technology and has had access to highly confidential IBM trade secrets which if they land in the lap of Apple could create “irreparably harm” for Big Blue who were in part responsible for the development of the Cell processor found in the Sony PS3.
IBM claim that if if Papermaster goes to Apple after his resignation on the 22nd of October 2008 Apple could get access to IBM’s new PowerPC Thunder technology. In Court documents lodged in Manhatten IBM claims that Papermaster signed a noncompetition agreement in 2006 when he said that he would not to work for competitors for one year after the conclusion of his employment with IBM.
ChannelWeb in the USA claim that Apple isn’t shelling out big bucks for Papermaster for bragging rights. Apple plainly and simply has its sights on leveraging Papermaster’s PowerPC intellectual capital and put it to use by building an enterprise system that has all the ingredients that make Apple Apple: a more elegant design and user experience backed up by innovative technology. Letting Papermaster loose at Apple is the equivalent of giving an inventor the chance to work with the Albert Einstein of computing: Apple CEO Steve Jobs. It has also been claimed that Apple is set to move into the server market and that by hiring Papermaster they will get access to information on IBM’s Blade Server technology.
ChannelWeb said that the blade market is the most innovative and explosive segment of the enterprise computing market. Papermaster has the technical muscle, but Jobs has the vision. They also claim that Apple will get access to IBM’s Cloud Computing technology. To do cloud computing right you need hardware smarts. That’s what Papermaster brings to Apple. Besides getting a chip and server whiz, Apple is also getting a top technical mind that could propel the graphical user interface kingpin into the cloud computing stratosphere.
Earlier this year Apple purchased P.A. Semi, a company founded by the lead designer of the highly regarded StrongARM and Alpha processor. ChannelWeb say that if Apple put Papermaster side by side with P.A. Semi founder Dan Dobberpuhl and you’ve instantly got a processor design powerhouse poised to design and build new processors that could power the next generation iPhone and T1.
