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Shortage of Intel Laptop Chipsets
EvilTwinSkippy writes "Taiwanese notebook vendors are reporting a short supply of Intel CPU chipsets for laptops. This includes the popular Centrino line.
In case you didn't know most "name brand" laptops like Dell, HP, and even Apple are actually manufactured by OEM's in Taiwan, Mainland China, and Korea."
As far as I can tell, Sharp is currently offering notebooks using the Transmeta. (They are IMHO quite expensive but then I tend to be a bottom feeder.) As well there is at least one tablet which is where something like the Transmeta should shine. Maybe if the law of supply and demand pushes the cost of other notebooks up, then Transmeta powered notebooks might become competitive. Or am I missing something?
I think it is some kind of odd thing where it might hint that Apple's notebooks are no better than anyone else's if the same company makes and partly designs both PC and Mac notebooks.
I still don't see how that is relevant though.
Even if the same company makes all Dell, HP and Apple laptops, I don't necessarily consider them to be equal in quality. The brand company can specify the quality of the components and the rigorousness of design validation and so on.
It would be nice if there was more standardization of notebook components, although I do understand that is kind of limiting because form factors shift a lot over time, and a compact design for one particular CPU / chipset might differ from that of another.
Intel northbridge? Not likely since no PowerPC processor has a bus compatible with any x86's.
/may/ share a common southbridge with AMD's 64-bit chipsets. This is possible because the northbridge/southbridge talk Hypertransport. Apple could've saved a bundle by using an AMD ASIC.
I suspect your source may have seen another Intel chip, such as an ethernet controller, or a flash part. Which is definitely not the same thing.
Now, the G5 based computers
Yes they do, and, AFAICS from the docs, the power consumption for the Athlon 64 Mobiles are comparable to the P-Ms'. They're also ~1/2 as expensive as comparable P-Ms (savings are on the order of 150-250 USD/unit in bulk, iirc). But A64 doesn't give you Internet access on the K2. Seriously, it is a question of marketing and semi-knowledgeable people believing that AMD => hotter.
Try Corewar @ www.koth.org - rec.games.corewar
AMD's mobile processors seem to be worth it to me.
I am posting this on a mobile Athlon 64 3400+. It has a 14.1V 4.4 amp-hour battery, and get slightly under three hours on a charge. Much of this power consumption comes from the large LCD (15" WXGA).
True, some Pentium-M notebooks use less power than my machine. However, when plugged in, I highly doubt that any but the most expensive Centrino notebooks can compete with the Athlon 64's in the number-crunching arena. For me, AC-powered performance (I'm a scientist and a gamer) outweigh the gain in battery life on the Pentium-M's.
The Athlon 64 notebooks I've seen, particularly the eMachines 68xx line (I have a 6811) are relatively inexpensive, get respectable battery life on DC, and have unmatched processor performance on AC.
AMD has done a great job balancing the need to save power while on DC with the need for performance on AC.
"Well, just you wait until they savy up and "cut out the middleman". Won't that be an interesting day."
Clevo corporation already has. They are selling their notebooks in the US market under the "Sager" brand.
Personally, I purchased a notebook that was ODM'd by Compal called the CL-56. It's sold in the US under a number of brands such as the VoodoPC Envy M:360 and the Chembook 2056.
If you buy the "brand name", you're getting ripped off. You can get a much better deal if you buy a no-brand notebook from a reputable reseller. You get better support, too - my notebook included a custom driver CD, 24/7 support (and, yes, they have real people based in the US to answer your questions), and a 2-year warranty.
You can get a heck of a laptop for very little if you buy an ODM notebook. Pentium-M 1.7, 512M PC2700, Mobility Radeon 9700 128M, 15" SXGA+ display, Intel PRO/2200 WLAN, a DVD/CD combo drive, and a Hitachi 7200rpm 60GB laptop HDD. All for $1500. No OS of couse, but that doesn't bother me.