Apple shot down internal project to create server CPU

As we wrote late last year, Apple is going after one of its former CPU architects, claiming Nuvia founder Gerard Williams breached the terms of his contract when he founded his own CPU business. Nuvia countersued and paperwork filed by the new server CPU designer reveals Williams tried for nearly a decade to get Apple to set up a server processor project themselves.

Williams even teamed up with Jim Keller (who worked at Apple at the time) to pitch the idea to then-CEO Steve Jobs, but he got shot down time after time. His server CPU project got rejected because Apple was primarily interested in consumer-based products. Interesting history.

Attorneys for the upstart said that not only did its co-founder wait until after leaving Apple to start his new venture, but he did so after nearly a decade of trying to convince execs in Cupertino to take up the server microprocessor project themselves. And, after being snubbed for nearly a decade, Williams quit to design such a thing, only to be sued by Apple, which previously showed no interest in the project.

The Nuvia team said that back in 2010, Williams and fellow semiconductor industry guru Jim Keller wanted to design Apple's very own data-center CPUs, even going to so far as to pitch then-CEO Steve Jobs on the idea.

Full details at The Register.