Dan Dobberpuhl, the PA Semi founder and CEO who came to Apple with the acquisition of his company, has jumped ship along with several of his employees. Reports are that he has started another chip company. It is not clear where all the other former PA staff have gone.

Apple acquired PA Semi in April of 2008 for $278 million. At the time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the company was purchased to design system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods. Dobberpuhl was the leader of the team Apple hired. However reports are coming in that team members did not really like the environment at Apple and have started to leave.

In fact there is one rumour that Dobberpuhl's departure may have even walked late last year. Dobberpuhl appears to have joined Amarjit Gill, a former PA Semi principal, at Silicon Valley start-up Agnilux. Other key PA Semi team members have left Apple, include one of PA Semi's leading members, Mark Hayter.

Linley Gwennap, president and principal analyst of The Linley Group, said Dobberpuhl was the leading light at PA Semi. But they were start up types of people and within the structure of Apple, “they may have been chafing."