Apple Takes a Bite out of Israel
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
By: Jennifer Frey

The Tech world is abuzz with the news that Apple has reportedly acquired Anobit, an Israeli flash storage technology company co-founded and headed by Ehud Weinstein, a graduate of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The acquisition is reportedly in the range of $400 million to $500 million, making it Apple's largest hardware acquisition and its first in Israel.

At the same time, Apple has announced that it will open its first R&D company outside of the U.S. - in Israel, headed by another Technion graduate, Aharon Aharon. Apple joins Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Intel and others in setting up shop on or near the Technion campus with Technion alums at the helm.

Ehud Weinstein received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion in 1975. He went on to do his doctorate at Yale and became a professor at Tel Aviv University in 1980, where he teaches today.

Prior to co-founding Herzliya-based Anobit in 2006, Prof. Weinstein helped establish Libit Signal Processing (now part of Texas Instruments) and bring its cable modem technology to market. He also has been a consultant to several technology companies in the U.S. and Israel.

Reports say that Apple's interest in Anobit stems from a chip it has developed using proprietary Memory Signal Processing (MSP) that significantly improves the speed, endurance and performance of flash drive storage systems while lowering the cost. Industry observers say the chip could possibly double the memory volume in Apple's new iPads and MacBooks. Anobit's products are already used in iPhones, iPads and the MacBook Air.

If the deal goes through, "Apple is not only getting magical technology, but also some of the world's foremost flash memory technologists," says the popular tech site Zdnet. In addition to Prof. Weinstein's Technion pedigree, Anobit's Dror Salee, VP Mobile Storage, also received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Technion. 

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is consistently ranked among the world's leading science and technology universities.  Home to three of Israel's five winners of the Nobel Prize in science, the Technion commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in computer science, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy, water-resource management, medicine, drug development, and aerospace.  Headquartered in New York City, the American Technion Society (ATS) promotes scientific and technological research and education at the Technion.