Apple Dumping Intel Chipsets... Maybe for nVidia?
AppleInsider reported on Monday that Apple may not be building their next Macbook refresh on Intel's newest Montevina chipset. Since 2006, when Apple ceased the development of their own processors and chipsets and moved to Intel, they've been steadily grabbing marketshare. This move signifies a significant change to that key relationship, and Apple's CFO was quoted: "We’re going to be delivering state of the art new products that our competitors just aren’t going to be able to match".Meanwhile, Paul Otellini could be heard ominously cackling in the distance.
First off, Apple isn't going to be going back to developing their own chipsets, as I've seen some people speculating. Beyond licensing issues, CFO Oppenheimer alluded to margins being negatively affected because of this, which points to a sudden change in cost, which points to someone going out and shopping. Also, doing their own chipset development would fly in the face of everything Jobs has been talking about since he came back in 1997 with the mantra "partners, partners, partners". Apple's not a hardware company anymore. It's a little HP with a proprietary OS and a slam-dunk propaganda -- I mean "marketing" -- department.
nVidia is a good prospect for a chipset. Beyond the fact that Jen-Hsun would do anything to stick it to Otellini, they are hungry for expansion into this kind of business, and they are definitely the kind of tech company that can deliver the kind of high-end product Apple is after: more powerful graphics, lower power, bigger feature set. They've got a lot to offer each other right now. Throw AMD into the mix with very similar tech and the kind of desperation that only some unlucky few will ever know, and now you've got multiple eager candidates.
Beyond nVidia or ATI just making some all-around higher-end chipsets, Intel probably had a hand in creating this situation themselves. When the MacBook Air was announced, I remember Paul Otellini going onstage with Steve Jobs and rather awkwardly (embarrassingly awkward actually) announcing how happy they were to "partner" with Apple to develop the small CPU package for them, making possible the super-thin form factor that basically defines the Air. Fast forward, now Voodoo and who knows who else has got their hands on the same product, and can now go head-to-head with the Air in every way. I bet Jobs was real happy about that.
--
Update July 31 : Looks like several people agree with me, and Ars doesn't. Except Ars is generalizing the issue into all chipsets, when we're talking specifically about mobile here.
--
Update August 1 : Kind of fun that I get to quote an "un-named source" at nVidia that told me : "It's us. The product is already done." Anyway, let me savor this rare moment where I can bask in my correctness.
Labels: CPU-GPU
Subscribe
4 Comments:
"I remember Paul Otellini going onstage with Steve Jobs and rather awkwardly (embarrassingly awkward actually) announcing how happy they were to "partner" with Apple to develop the small CPU package for them, making possible the super-thin form factor that basically defines the Air. Fast forward, now Voodoo and who knows who else has got their hands on the same product, and can now go head-to-head with the Air in every way. I bet Jobs was real happy about that."
What you apparently don't remember is that the SFF packaging idea had long been on the roadmap (for the penryn model) from Intel, going back two IDFs (Fall 07 at least). Anand covered it. So the idea of them developing it "for Apple" is laughable, considering they had already announced it to the world.
So really all Apple asked Intel to do was bring it up in the timeline to the Merom core instead of the Penryn-based cores. The fact that other vendors got access should be no surprise to Steve, it may have even kept the costs down since Intel can scale up production of the SFF packages.
For reference, I actually linked in my post to the exact coverage by Anand that you're talking about, so yes, I'm aware. Regardless of the specifics around whether it's the packaging or Merom IN the packaging, yeah, I think it's generally acceptable to say that they did that for Apple, and then passed it around to whoever else wanted it. What's the point exactly here? Jobs doesn't care? Yeh right.
http://www.geek.com/ruiz-believes-apple-will-use-amd-chips/
http://netkas.org/?p=45
how about RS780 on intel platform...
a much power efficient and powerful( integrated graphics) chipset than intel.
Those articles are way too old, unfortunately, to use as a basis for anything. And the problem is... when's the last time AMD made an Intel chipset...? So, unless Apple started using AMD processors, too...
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home