LONDON — The confirmation earlier this week that Apple has hired two former ATI/AMD chip designers has rekindled suggestions that the company is handpicking a team of engineers and semiconductor specialists as it seeks to create its own semiconductor design business.

The feeling has been reinforced as Apple has, over the past few months, made a number of strategic acquisitions and investments, including the purchase for about $277 million of P.A. Semi last year and taking a 3.6 percent stake in Imagination Technologies Group plc (Kings Langley, England), the graphics intellectual property licensor.

Following the P.A.Semi deal, the group was tasked with designing a brand new, more energy-efficient ARM processor for the iPhone.

The latest hires add to the company's growing prowess in silicon at a time when some observers have said Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch are becoming increasingly interesting as game platforms.

It also coincides with Mark Papermasters official return to work at Apple, which was delayed owing to the legal settlement between them and his former employer, IBM.

Papermaster was instrumental in developing the PowerPC architecture with IBM.

A recent post on the AppleBlog, referencing a Wall Street Journal report, speculates on how these new recruits will forge a chip design effort at Apple, and why.

It concludes that if Apple is working to develop its own chips, they’re going about it the right way: hiring lots of experience, and not rushing a bad or underdeveloped product out the door.

The report in the Wall Stree Journal said analysts expect a 2010 date for the introduction of any proprietary Apple chips.

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