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Intel Looking to Cut Power Consumption on Future Ivy Bridge Chips

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Apr 12, 2001
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CNET reports that Intel is hard at work on reducing the power consumption of its Ivy Bridge chips, opening the door to use of the chips in mainstream tablets and reducing battery needs on small notebooks such as the MacBook Air.
Intel will cut power consumption "significantly" for future versions of the chip, an industry source familiar with the chipmaker's plans told CNET.

Intel's most power efficient Ivy Bridge chips today -- used widely in Windows ultrabooks and Apple's MacBook Air -- are rated at 17 watts.

A future version of Ivy Bridge would be rated well below this, the source said.
Click to expand...
Intel has already previewed its next-generation Haswell chips that will push power consumption to as low as 10 watts initially, but it seems that Intel is moving to reduce power needs for its chips even before Haswell hits the market.

With future Ivy Bridge and Haswell chips becoming feasible for tablets with their reduced power consumption, there have been rumors that Apple could consider Intel chips for at least the iPad, although Apple seems dedicated to its own ARM-based chip designs for its mobile devices. But with Apple said to be looking to shift away from Samsung for production of its A-series chips, the company is said to be looking at TSMC and Intel as future chip foundry options.

In a research note issued last week, RBC analyst Doug Freedman claimed that Apple is already in talks with Intel on a deal that could see Intel producing A-series chips for the iPhone while Apple shifts to Intel's x86 platform for the iPad.

Article Link: Intel Looking to Cut Power Consumption on Future Ivy Bridge Chips
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/12/03/intel-looking-to-cut-power-consumption-on-future-ivy-bridge-chips/
Macman45

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
An ipad5 with an IB CPU? Sounds good on paper, but do we really need that much power in an iPad? The 4 has proved to be just about the perfect balance of battery life and performance. Be interesting to see if Apple do produce an iPad with the new lower wattage IB on board though.
 
R

rusty2192

macrumors 6502a
Oct 15, 2008
997
81
Kentucky
This means a lot more for the Surface Pro than the iPad. It certainly seems more likely that macs will be shifting towards Arm, not iPads towards X86.
 
adamryan1983

adamryan1983

macrumors member
Feb 28, 2011
76
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I think the processors being used in the iPads now give ample power for what they do. This is just Intel trying to keep their feet in the door.
 
longofest

longofest

Editor emeritus
Jul 10, 2003
2,924
1,682
Falls Church, VA
You've GOT to be kidding me.

First we see rumors of ARM on Mac. Now we're seeing rumors of x86 on iPad?

People are getting a little bit too crazy with their imaginations IMO. Without hard proof that Apple is working on this, I'd say its much more realistic that Apple is targeting these lower power chips for the MacBook Air line, which only further diminishes the chance that ARM has in competing in the Mac lineup.
 
F

flavr

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2011
363
40
Ahhh, feeling the pressure from ARM are we INTEL? So glad I bought this one in the $20s. I think we will see both ARM and INTEL chips inside future macs so the OS can utilize both depending on its needs, at least until the complete transition to ARM based Apple chips is complete.

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:ARMH
 
H

hamean

macrumors member
Dec 16, 2010
66
0
how many watts does the current A6 use?

I can't find the specs for the current A6 or A6x wattage... It has to be much lower than 10watts....
 
M

Macist

macrumors 6502a
Mar 13, 2009
784
462
ARM tech dumps on Intel. If ARM had a customer for desktop/laptop/workstation designs they would deliver. DELL are already testing powerful ARM-based prototype servers.

Can't see Apple siding with 'Microsoft of CPUs' Intel instead of slick ARM designs.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,026
7,868
Interesting. I thought the whole point of Haswell was to reduce power. If Intel pulls it off with Ivy Bridge, what's the point of Haswell, unless they would simply lower power output by reducing clock speed or disabling features?
 
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S

sparkso

macrumors regular
Dec 3, 2009
142
49
what's the point? the main power wasting part is the display, the processor takes up like just 10% of the whole device's power usage anyway.
 
T

TC03

macrumors 65816
Aug 17, 2008
1,272
356
I would be surprised if Intel weren't trying to do this. Intel has missed a huge market now tablets are in an upswing while their 'home market' is in a downswing. The only way to keep up is by reducing power consumption drastically.
 
V

Val-kyrie

macrumors 68020
Feb 13, 2005
2,107
1,419
Interesting if true. I initially thought Apple might move completely to ARM but perhaps the ongoing legal battles with Samsung have pushed Apple further into the arms of Intel. Two possibilities: either Apple is looking toward ARM for its entire lineup and wants Intel to dab for them (I suspect Intel's fear of ARM and desire to enter that space may lead them to try to team up with Apple--license Apple's technology?) or Apple is dissatisfied with current progress of ARM chips and is planning to go Intel across the board (in which case Intel would be willing to meet Apple's demands for lower power consumption and better integrated graphics to fend off advances in ARM technology). Either way, this seems to be Apple's response to Microsoft's Surface Pro.
 
perealb

perealb

macrumors 6502
Oct 30, 2009
256
10
Apple should work with Intel to produce all its chips but keeping a great control over the design. They should also start moving some of the automated manufacturing to US. As a start...
 
T

TC03

macrumors 65816
Aug 17, 2008
1,272
356
Val-kyrie said:
Interesting if true. I initially thought Apple might move completely to ARM but perhaps the ongoing legal battles with Samsung have pushed Apple further into the arms of Intel. Two possibilities: either Apple is looking toward ARM for its entire lineup and wants Intel to dab for them (I suspect Intel's fear of ARM and desire to enter that space may lead them to try to team up with Apple--license Apple's technology?) or Apple is dissatisfied with current progress of ARM chips and is planning to go Intel across the board (in which case Intel would be willing to meet Apple's demands for lower power consumption and better integrated graphics to fend off advances in ARM technology). Either way, this seems to be Apple's response to Microsoft's Surface Pro.
Click to expand...
I don't think Apple is dissatisfied with ARM. The A6 is very solid and gives Apple a competitive edge.
 
iMacFarlane

iMacFarlane

macrumors 65816
Apr 5, 2012
1,123
30
Adrift in a sea of possibilities
Intel architecture in an iPad . . . hmmmmmm . . .

Bootcamp option? Windows 8 on the iPad?

You show me an iPad with the ability to run iOS apps and Windows 8 apps, and I'll show you the end of every other tablet currently in production.
 
Renzatic

Renzatic

Suspended
Aug 3, 2011
9,561
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Gramps, what the hell am I paying you for?
KPOM said:
Interesting. I thought the whole point of Haswell was to reduce power. If Intel pulls it off with Ivy Bridge, what's the point of Haswell, unless they would simply lower power output by reducing clock speed or disabling features?
Click to expand...

It's the way Haswell reduces power that makes it so interesting. Intel might be able to take some of the things they've learned while making Haswell and apply it to Ivy Bridge, but it'll never be quite as efficient because it's not built from the bottom up to be.
 
bb426

bb426

macrumors 6502
Jun 7, 2011
421
131
California
sparkso said:
what's the point? the main power wasting part is the display, the processor takes up like just 10% of the whole device's power usage anyway.
Click to expand...

Although optimizing CPU can be a huge benefit for many reasons besides the obvious, you have a good point. Other hardware components could (and should) be worked on to slash power usage (the display, the prominent battery drainer).

The only problem is that display optimizations rarely ever make the front page compared to the oh-so-important and oh-so-miniscule processor improvements, and Intel seems the only one taking all the credit here.
 
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