Apple hooks Microsoft Xbox tactician

Apple continues to add to its stable of hardware heavyweights with the addition of Richard Teversham of Microsoft's European Xbox division.

The hiring of marketing tactician Teversham adds to speculation that Cupertino is building its own dream team of chip designers and strategists, with the goal of creating its own SoCs (systems-on-chip) for the iPhone and iPod touch - and any other media machines it's cooking up in its well-guarded labs.

Apple's senior HR folks have been busy lately, last week snagging both Bob Drebin and Raja Koduri from AMD's Graphics Products Group. The company also lured chipmeister Mark Papermaster away from IBM in a messy public tug-of-war last year.

These hires put muscle behind Steve Jobs's statement to The New York Times after Apple's acquisition last year of chipmaker PA Semi that "PA Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods."

Well, not PA Semi per se, but PA Semi engineers along with Drebin, Koduri, and now - possibly - Teversham.

Or perhaps Teversham will instead be using his Xbox experience to beef up Apple's increasingly successful game support for its handhelds. After all, the iPod touch is "The funnest iPod ever."

In addition to these high-level hires, Apple is also hunting for average-Joe (or, more likely, average-Amit) engineers in a number of areas relating to its handheld efforts. If you're looking for work, check out the company's postings for a SoC-related "Mobile Silicon IP Program Manager" and a "High Perform/Low Level ARM Programmer." There are also openings for associated positions such as a "2D/3D Embedded Graphics Engineer" and an "OpenCL Drivers Engineer." ®