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Sources Say Apple Originally Planned AMD Chip For MacBook Air
Several media sources (here's PC Magazine's version), all seemingly based on an account at SemiAccurate citing (but not naming) "multiple sources," report that Apple originally planned an AMD-chip based MacBook Air, rather than the Intel-based version that emerged later ("Plan B," says the report).
The AMD chips had a significantly better GPU, at the cost of a slightly slower CPU (which is a good tradeoff). Apple didn't go with it because AMD couldn't guarantee the volumes that Apple needed.
And this is essentially the story of AMD for the last decade.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I guess I'm just not sure why people are writing articles about this. Apple of course has prototypes with various chipsets. I find it interesting that they likely bailed on AMD because they were not up to the volume requirements, but that's not news so much as a market assessment people in the computer supply chain logistics business probably already knew.
I wish Apple had gone with AMD processors from the beginning. Maybe then AMD would not have a mobile platform practically dead in the water. Try this: find the battery life for any AMD laptop, and compare that with an Intel offering. You'll probably find the AMD one is two hours short.
So Apple were trying to chose between the only two players in the performance x86 world?! They actually stopped to consider the alternative rather than just picking the default when millions of dollars were at stake?
I'm blown away, like everyone else I thought Steve Jobs just picked names out of a hat.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
AMD is always considered before negotiating prices with Intel. Flirting with AMD before choosing Intel is a pretty common practice, even for those who planned on going with Intel all along.
Okay.
So, are we just going to run any old article with Apple in the title now?
The AMD chips had a significantly better GPU, at the cost of a slightly slower CPU (which is a good tradeoff).
In the context of something like a MacBook Air power consumption is a far greater factor than CPU or GPU performance.
Hackintosh community as drivers for AMD based netbooks and laptops would've become available. So wish AMD had the resources to meant high volume demands. Maybe next time!
AMD for iphone, wow, the phone would require a heat sink bigger than the phone itself. http://wwe.montuori.net/
It was also the story of Motorola back in the early Eighties, when IBM was developing that first Personal Computer: the story I always heard was that IBM chose the Intel line over Motorola's more capable 68K series simply because Intel had secondary sourcing and could guarantee volume, but Motorola was the sole source and couldn't.
Years ago when Apple dropped the PowerPC in favor of Intel, Jobs claimed it was because the electrical W:MIPS of PPC was predicted to soon fall short of the performance of x86, with battery, fan and other limits to consider - just as iP* and other mobiles dominated Jobs' vision.
How has that turned out? Have PPCs really fallen behind, or hit a wall, compared to Intel's CPUs Apple uses? How do the AMD x86es compare to the Intel ones on that criterion?
--
make install -not war
AC originally planned for a massive shit rather then at the frosty piss that emerged.
I can confirm that this is so.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
At least AMD doesn't build hardware level backdoors into their CPUs.
That you know of.
So you believe. http://www.i-programmer.info/news/91-hardware/1586-secret-debug-registers-in-amd-processors.html
-]Phreak Out[-
Honestly, who cares? You're mischaracterizing the DRM feature as something that is a backdoor into your computer that can what, spy on you? Remotely disable your computer? I haven't seen a single source demonstrate that their DRM feature does this.
also intel doesn't license thunderbolt to any other chip maker, so I can't see why they would possibly go with something else at this point.
I planned on getting rich by now. It didn't happen, I guess something changed.
I think you'll find there are lots of examples of companies planning to do something and then changing their mind. Not sure any of it is newsworthy...
For it to get Thunderbolt as it seems unlikey to be part of any add in video card.
So what will the new intel MB with TB look like? will the high end Core i7 and sever chips have no hope of TB in less intel add's video to the cpus and even then how will TB work with a add in ATI or nvidia card?
I remember at the time that the Air launched, it was somewhat big news that Intel developed a customised core 2 duo.
That in itself wasn't unusual, but that the chip came out of nowhere, with no availability to other OEM's was.
I guess Intel stepped up and did what it needed to woo Apple into taking their chip.
Probably gave Apple cheaper pricing for having an all Intel lineup too...
You never want to deal with just one supplier. You need competition, and the continual threat that you can always go with supplier B.
And when the specs are met and the price is right for the current generation, you drop the alternative supplier, and start discussing the next.
Whatever it is, AMD is up to something new, and will announce in February.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
And I'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling whiz!
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Take a look at what vPro does sometime. If you have hardware that supports it there's an actual embedded processor in there, directly connected to your network cards (both wired and wireless) and with full access to your RAM, and there's no way to tell what code it's running. If you don't, your Intel-based computer still supports isolated processes whose memory can't be peeked into or scanned for malicious code.
I don't get it.
Oblivion Awaits
vPro doesn't exist for the evulz, it exists because it is a network management feature that IT professionals wanted.
So what will the new intel MB with TB look like? will the high end Core i7 and sever chips have no hope of TB in less intel add's video to the cpus and even then how will TB work with a add in ATI or nvidia card?
Can someone please translate this to English.
Learn to love Alaska
Why would guaranteeing Apple's volumes be a problem? It's not like AMD is filling up Intel shortages w/ other customers - whatever business they have is on projects they win w/ OEMs on certain models. Even if Apple were to go sole sourced w/ AMD, which I think unlikely, their volumes are just a fraction of the PC market - just b'cos AMD might not be able to satisfy all of Dell's or HP's needs doesn't imply that they'd have the same problems w/ Apple. All AMD would have to guarantee Apple is their supply of CPUs, GPUs and chipsets, of which the first 2 comes out of their 5 fabs, and the last out of other chipset manufacturers like SiS, Via, ALi...
More likely, as far as supply issues go, it's more likely that the delay in AMD's fabs in moving to the smaller & more competitive lithographies is what made Apple not go w/ them, since they ain't likely to be as cost competitive as Intel.
Going forward though, doesn't it make sense for Apple to port Lion to the A5 or A6, and make both their Airbooks as well as their iPhones/iPads on those? And have a common apps for both platforms, and increase the Mac's market share that way? If performance is inadequate, maybe add a core or 2 to the CPU?