AMD chief says Apple to use AMD chips

[HecubusPro]

I posted this elsewhere, but I thought it would be important to include here.

From Appleinsider...

AMD chief says Apple to use AMD chips

By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 03:00 PM EST

Advanced Micro Devices chief executive Hector Ruiz said Wednesday that Apple Computer will eventually use its microprocessors alongside those from Intel.

Ruiz made the comments during a dinner speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, according to Bloomberg.

"Everybody wants choice,'' he said, adding that rival Intel Corp's practices have stifled the PC industry's growth. "Knowing Apple, why would they want to be held hostage like everyone else has been?"

Adding AMD as a supplier would be simple for Apple because the company has already adapted its Mac OS X system software to work on Intel chips, which use the same instruction set as AMD, Ruiz said.

The Sunnyvale, California-based AMD is the world's second-largest chipmaker, behind only Intel.

The two companies have been intertwined in a fierce battle for market share with AMD recently pushing Intel's share of the market to less than 80 percent for the first time in four years.

Apple has declined to comment on the report.

[WildCowboy]

It's not based on anything real...he just says it's obvious that they will because people want choice. The head of AMD optimistic about prospects for his company in competing against Intel? I would hope so.

[HecubusPro]

It's not based on anything real...he just says it's obvious that they will because people want choice. The head of AMD optimistic about prospects for his company in competing against Intel? I would hope so.

I've just never heard AMD actually come out and say "we want to work with Apple." I could be wrong (and usually am:) )

[Dont Hurt Me]

At the moment Intel is just hammering AMD, 2 yrs ago was a different story but today Intel has squashed Freescale,IBM & AMD. Not any of those guys have anything today that can battle the Duo's.

[Sdashiki]

This could get interesting.

So, there is gonna be AMD and Intel versions of the same configs?

Which will be cheaper?

My guess is this is BS, but hell, I said that when we heard whispers of Intel.

[Bibulous]

More options would be good for Apple, but I can hardly keep Intel's product names straight :o

[PlaceofDis]

perhaps when/if Intel starts sucking then yes. but there is nothing to back up his statement. its just a hypothetical conclusion that he hopes to be true.

[WildCowboy]

I've just never heard AMD actually come out and say "we want to work with Apple." I could be wrong (and usually am:) )

They sort of said (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/04/23/apple_and_amd_working_together/) they were working with Apple three years ago.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple ultimately offers AMD chips if they continue to make headway in the chip wars (although I think they might have too much invested in the Intel partnership to risk it for quite a while), but I think it's easy to read too much into his comments. Sounds like cheerleading and wishful thinking to me.

[Mord]

the K8L will still not compare to the core2duo, amd is pretty much dead in the water seeing as intel has lost their MHz madness.

[Aaon]

I would say there is definitely no claim in that passage that Apple WILL be using them, more of a hope that Apple will. And I disagree. I think Apple is committed to teh Intel product line at the moment. The Core 2 Duo and Xeon processors are simply fantastic, and outdistance AMD's offerings at the present, and for the foreseeable future (which, admittedly, in the semiconductor world is no more than a year or two).

But even putting aside the technical reasons for Apple to stay with Intel, I don't think they would want to complicate the product line by having a processor brand choice. Apple produces a good, solid product with power and speed, and there is no overwhelming reason for them to offer a choice and point of confusion that most consumers frankly don't care about!

[kainjow]

At this point Apple can use any x86 or PPC processor in the future it wants, which is a huge advantage.

[dmw007]

At the moment Intel is just hammering AMD, 2 yrs ago was a different story but today Intel has squashed Freescale,IBM & AMD. Not any of those guys have anything today that can battle the Duo's.


Vivè Intel! :D

[andiwm2003]

At this point Apple can use any x86 or PPC processor in the future it wants, which is a huge advantage.

no they can't. they can of course in theory but they would have to redesign the logic boards, come up with a GPU to replace the intel integrated GPU., BIOS and all that. Maybe change Bootcamp a bit.

in the end they will have to make extra investments for maybe 10% cheaper chips or 10% better performance (if AMD gets their act together). that simply will not be worth the hassle.

[kainjow]

no they can't. they can of course in theory but they would have to redesign the logic boards, come up with a GPU to replace the intel integrated GPU., BIOS and all that. Maybe change Bootcamp a bit.

in the end they will have to make extra investments for maybe 10% cheaper chips or 10% better performance (if AMD gets their act together). that simply will not be worth the hassle.
Yes they can :) I'm not talking about a quick swap of a CPU. I'm just talking in general. From the software end, it's cake since the OS has already been ported to x86 from PPC. And I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about the relatively-far future when/if Intel starts sucking like IBM did...

[hulugu]

At this point Apple can use any x86 or PPC processor in the future it wants, which is a huge advantage.

Yep. UBs could be just awesome. Someone deserves a cookie.

[rockthecasbah]

I don't see it happening, at least not for a few years. AMD still has a long way to go last time i checked (which wasn't that recently or in depthly so don't attack :rolleyes: ) in their chip development, particularly portable which is a big market for Apple.

[~Shard~]

Not likely after the investment Apple has made in transitioning to the Intel platform. A switch to AMD would cuase all sorts of complications and confusion. If it happens, it won't be for a long time, I'm thinking. That being said, it probably wouldn't be as major of a move as going from PowerPC to Intel was...

In the end though, it doesn't matter! We all know that after Intel chips, Steve won't be moving to AMD chips, he'll be moving to Sun chips! :cool:

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/9384/stevechipspp5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[jhu]

no they can't. they can of course in theory but they would have to redesign the logic boards, come up with a GPU to replace the intel integrated GPU., BIOS and all that. Maybe change Bootcamp a bit.

in the end they will have to make extra investments for maybe 10% cheaper chips or 10% better performance (if AMD gets their act together). that simply will not be worth the hassle.

exactly. kind of like there being no way in hell that they'd use chips from intel.

[4God]

We all know that after Intel chips, Steve won't be moving to AMD chips, he'll be moving to Sun chips! :cool:

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/9384/stevechipspp5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


WOO-Hooo......58144

[SpaceMagic]

Apple like to keep things simple, I can't imagine them using both intel and amd - it would just be so confusing!! I personally really like Intel's lineup and can see it taking Apple for quite some years.

[WildPalms]

I want the drugs that Hector Ruiz is on! Then I'll believe in rainbows and unicorns and magic rabbits and .......Apple using AMD chips...
.....sorry, went a bit too far with that last one.

[Warbrain]

Not likely after the investment Apple has made in transitioning to the Intel platform. A switch to AMD would cuase all sorts of complications and confusion. If it happens, it won't be for a long time, I'm thinking. That being said, it probably wouldn't be as major of a move as going from PowerPC to Intel was...

In the end though, it doesn't matter! We all know that after Intel chips, Steve won't be moving to AMD chips, he'll be moving to Sun chips! :cool:

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/9384/stevechipspp5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Only if they're Harvest Cheddar.

[yellow]

Choice? Since when is Apple about giveing choices?
That dude is smoking crack.

[Silencio]

This is the same Hector Ruiz who was running Motorola's semiconductor division when Steve Jobs returns to Apple, pulled the plug on Macintosh clones, and left Motorola with no choice but to write off millions of dollars in StarMax inventory.

I wouldn't think he would be in any great hurry to do business with Steve Jobs again, but I think it's just a case of "wishful thinking out loud" on his part. If something really is in the works, then you think Ruiz would have learned something from that video chip manufacturer that AMD just bought about what happens when you pre-announce something Apple's going to do. :D

[hagjohn]

As said above, there's really no reason why they can't use AMD or even VIA chips.

If Intel can't give them enough chips to keep up with demand they just might look to others to supplement.

Don't count out AMD because it was just a couple of months ago where people were counting out Intel. Things change in the chip industry very quickly.

[FF_productions]

At the moment Intel is just hammering AMD, 2 yrs ago was a different story but today Intel has squashed Freescale,IBM & AMD. Not any of those guys have anything today that can battle the Duo's.

I thought AMD was pretty fast? What chip do they have that competes with woodcrest? I forgot about AMD...

[RichP]

sounds to me like AMD is trying to boost their stockprice. Intels stock has been doing better since the Apple switch. Face it, intel is in a renaissance phase.

[jhu]

sounds to me like AMD is trying to boost their stockprice. Intels stock has been doing better since the Apple switch. Face it, intel is in a renaissance phase.

hardly. the switch was announced 2005.06.05. closing price for intc was $27.17 back then. today's (2006.09.21) closing price is $19.19. if my math is right 19 < 27.

[bigandy]

...even VIA chips...
yah, because everyone needs a 700mhz Mac :rolleyes:

[emotion]

Jobs has a history of pitting manufacturers against each other (even inside the same AIM consortium, IBM vs. Motorola), maybe some of Ruiz's thoughts are based on that?

[Silencio]

hardly. the switch was announced 2005.06.05. closing price for intc was $27.17 back then. today's (2006.09.21) closing price is $19.19. if my math is right 19 < 27.

True, that. Intel is drastically scaling back their workforce and restructuring internally, as well. They, like Dell, are getting burned by the price wars they themselves started.

The Vista delays certainly don't help. Even though Intel's current product line has brought back their position of industry leadership, they're not quite revolutionary enough to spur a lot of upgrades. I feel like the entire computing industry is in the doldrums right now. Apple can't do it alone. ;)

[Evangelion]

the K8L will still not compare to the core2duo

What makes you think that? Do you have the inside-scoop on how K8L will perform? No? That's what I thought

amd is pretty much dead in the water seeing as intel has lost their MHz madness.

People said the same thing back before K7 was released. Then AMD released K7, and became the manufacturer of fastext x86-CPU's for next several years.

People should pay attention to AMD. I know that Intel is the current darling of the industry. and the Core-series is a very good CPU indeed. But AMD is not standing still. They are coming up with HyperTransport 3.0, which should make their platform even more flexible than it is today, while increasing performance. K8L has substantial improvements, and they are competetive even today in many areas. And what more important is their Torrenza-scheme. In Torrenza computer would have a spare HyperTransport-slot that could be used for co-processors that hook directly to the rest of the system. Now that they bought Ati, they could put an Ati-GPU in such a slot. And those GPU's have metric assload of floating-point performance. And Ati has hinted that they are working on tech that would let people use the GPU for generic floating-point calculations. So, in essence, such system would give HUGE benefits for floating-point stuff.

If that scheme succeeds, we might have a system that has a CPU(s), that are connected to a co-processor(s) that handle (for example) physics, graphics and also helps with floating-point calculations.

[hagjohn]

I think may be AMD (and possibly Apple) is floating a rumor out there to see how much support is there for an AMD-Apple computer.

I know I'm competely happy with my AMD desktop. It was cheaper to build and runs better, IMO, than Intel for games. I have to say that as a gamer, I'm really interested in what Torrenza could do.

[emotion]

A super-cheap mac-mini (to go with iTV) with AMD would be quite nice. If a little unlikely.

[ReanimationLP]

All I know is that the new AMD Athlon 64 chips that are being worked on, the K8L, is gonna stomp on the Core 2s.

[~Shard~]

All I know is that the new AMD Athlon 64 chips that are being worked on, the K8L, is gonna stomp on the Core 2s.

... And then the next chips that Intel is working on will stomp the K8Ls, then the next AMD chips will stomp those, then... :rolleyes:

Thanks, but we understand how the rapidly progressive world of technology works... :p :cool:

[Project]

Looks like a plea more than anything else.

[Sam0r]

It won't happen, but I can't help but think that the AMD/ATI merger, and that new technology (The graphics core on the actual CPU) they're working on might end up in some sort of set top box like the iTV, or whatever its called now.