Does anyone believe that Intel iBooks won't come out in MWSF in January and instead just an update (PPC)?
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Any chance on these iBooks?
- Thread starter rye9
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ITASOR said:
Why do you doubt this? Instead of Intel, Apple could use 7448 processors instead of the older 7447A's.
I remember the update before last there were hopes for the 7448, in 2004-- no dice. In typical moto/freescale fashion, nobody is sure, to this day, if the 7448 is actually available yet. Every once in a while someone will find a site with a really obscure embedded processor product that says maybe there will be a 7448 available some day.... So I don't think they'll bother with any more powerPC updates.
rosalindavenue said:
The 7448 was supposed to be widely available October of this year. So far, I have seen no sign of it. I didn't buy the current 12" iBook in July, partially because I thought that if there was any chance at the 7448 making it into the Apple laptops, it would have to come this year. Reason: had the 7448 been put into the IBs and PBs, the pressure would be off of Apple, and the new chips would have comfortably carried them until the Mactels, even if the Mactels were to only appear in June 06... whereas hanging on to the current chips until June 06 would have made the already marginal PBs a totally obsolete joke. However everything changed, 'cause seeing as that Apple decided to speed up the intro of Mactels to January, why introduce a new chip for only a couple of months (Oct - Jan/Feb)??? Putting a new chip in is always a bigger operation than just bumping the speed up a bit on hte current one, so why do all that engineering and R&D, when the new chip line would only last 3-4 months or so? Doesn't make sense... plus you then have to support that new chip machine for the next 3 years at least because of all the folks who'd buy Apple Care. No economic sense in that at all.
From this I conclude that there is zero chance of a 7448 in any Apple laptop, period. And yes, Freescale/Motorola are up to their old tricks again... slooooow, slooooow, sloooow development while Apple is dying on the vine waiting for them to get their act together... which is why Apple finally moved to IBM, only IBM pulled exactly the same trick... in the final analysis the reason Apple went with Intel is not because right now Intel's chips are particularly great compared to AMD, but rather because chips are Intel's main business - and that has not been true of IBM (whose chip business is a small percentage of their overall business). So, Apple wanted someone big enough, that they'd have the resources for the LONG TERM (which is why AMD and of course Freescale were nixed - much as I sympathize and cheer on AMD, I'm under no illusion that if you had to place a bet as to who'd be around in another 15 years, you could be sure of Intel, but not AMD), and Apple wanted someone whose primary focus would be chips (IBM is big enough and long term enough - unlike AMD - but their primary focus is NOT chips).
Anyhow, I don't know how I derailed myself, but all I wanted to say is: zero chance of 7448 in any Apple laptop, ever. IMHO, of course
OldCorpse
quietly rotting
While we are on this topic, I heard through the grapevine that the next 'Books from Apple are gonna be sporting some cool AMD Turion 64 Processors: the most advanced family of chips for 32- and 64-bit mobile computing...ITASOR said:
It will most likely be updated to Intel in January but won't ship until the end of the month....
Shadow
Shadow
A 7448 is pin compatable with 7447. What does this mean? That it'll work with the exact same logic boards that apple is currently using, so 7448 is very cheap on R&D to use, there must be antoher reason for why apple hasn't used it. Like say supply issues, or they don't think it's worth the effort with powerbook being out in january (hopefully). Even though the effort would be minimal, just rewriting the firmware to support it.