Apple’s been getting itself more immersed in the mobile chip business with the latest acquisition of Intrinsity, which many believe is responsible for the Apple A4 ARM processor in the iPad. Apple was also rumored to want to acquire ARM Holdings, the company that licenses the ARm designs to Intrinsity, Qualcomm and others. At one point, Apple was a co-investor in UK-based ARM Holdings before selling off its shares.

Intrinsity is the only other company besides Qualcomm with its Snapdragon design that has so far been able to escalate ARM processing power several hundred MHz past the ARM reference designs to 1 GHz. Intrinsity is also responsible for the Hummingbird chipset design, which will be appearing in the Samsung Galaxy S, which is powered by a 1 GHz processor–like the Apple A4 design–and is said to be faster and more capable than most smartphones at similar clock speed on the market.

The terms of the Intrinsity deal were not disclosed though analysts estimate it to be in the realm of $121 million.

(via: The New York Times and AllThings D)