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When Apple acquired PA Semi back in April, the reasoning behind the deal seemed clear: the company would now be able to design its own microprocessors for use in iPhone and possibly iPod products. That was confirmed in June by Steve Jobs himself, but beyond that Apple has been coy about any specific plans.

A bit more information has surfaced over the weekend though. A New York Times blog post points to the public LinkedIn profile of PA Semi's senior principle architect Wei-han Lien, where he lists his current job function as “Senior Manager Chip CPU Architect at Apple” managing the “ARM CPU architecture team for iPhone.”

While it’s a minor revelation, at the very least this appears to confirm the type of chip to be used in future iPhone / iPod products and supports earlier speculation that ARM had given a long-term architecture license to Apple. By developing its own brand of ARM chip in-house, Apple will be able to further innovate and possibly benefit from cost savings, all while keeping a tighter lid on upcoming products.