Apple to Adopt Alternative Chipsets for Next Laptops?

[zdaniels26]

Back to School...

Apple will have effectively screwed themselves with this one... If they don't come out with something new before September (like something ACTUALLY new), they will be losing millions on the Back-To-School crowd. Hopefully this doesn't effect the redesign and push it back to Nethalem or thousands of us college kids are going to be pissed...

 

[doctoree]

To me, this makes sense.
Apple needs to become more independent from Intel.
Independence kills competition, worsens products and increases end pricing.

Doc

 

[SilentCrs]

umm..re-read the original post.

I did.

The article says they're thinking of either doing their own custom chipsets or going with a non-Intel brand. They are not yet considering non-Intel CPUs, but that's just a hop, skip and a jump away in my opinion.

For those who say "chipset doesn't affect the consumer", what are you smoking? You know all those complaints about integrated video? Part of the chipset. You know what determines the speed of the memory you buy? Chipset. If Apple goes a non-Intel route, you'll see chipsets that are less compatible with things like Windows, more expensive to upgrade and arguably inferior (if Apple's history is any indication, they don't care jack **** about video, for example).

Not to mention, I don't care how well they oil up their production machine -- it'll in no way compete with Intel's. When was the last time you read about a production *shortage* for Intel chipsets? Take your time finding one.

Potentially boneheaded move, Apple. Boneheaded.

 

[TylerD.]

Apple does not seem like the company that would make a hasty decision and change chipset manufactures without considering the pros and cons before hand. If this new chipset is going to benifit the over all performance of the laptop then it sounds great to me. On top of that they would be crazy to bring out their newly redesigned laptop with some piece of junk chipset in it.

 

[iOrlando]

October Mac annoucement.

College kids --> Buy the mac now. Get the ipod touch. Dont over think it.

 

[Spock]

If this is true then it really is aweful news. Apple would be saying goodbye to the kind of special treatment they've had from Intel in the past - don't expect anything like the effort Intel went through for the MacBook Air.

If it IS true then it could very well be a ridiculous last ditch effort by AMD to sell ATI chipsets to Apple at a loss making price so as to get the good publicity.

It could also be bad news for OS X since it would involve a lot more chipset drivers etc to be included. More support for different hardware platforms = more risk for driver bugs etc. You can expect Apple's stock to drop significantly if such a deal is announced.

Special treatment? If I recall the exact same board is starting to trickle down into other ultra portable computers, I think this would be a good move it would keep intel from selling Apple specific boards to the competition. Apple has spent tons of money getting Mac OS X running on x86 and companies are all universal now, no worry about anything changing when it comes to compatibility and I doubt Apple will stop BootCamp users.

 

[twoodcc]

wow, this is surprising to me. but maybe Apple can make them better?

 

[andiwm2003]

Absolutely hilarious that the one claiming to be right (you BRLawyer) is totally wrong himself. Chip sets are NOT CPU's, period end of story.

did you even read his mail?

 

[decimortis]

I know that I personally will not buy a Mac if they leave Intel

Wow. I remember a day when the exact same thing was said about moving away from PPC.

 

[ladbroke]

Well, they bought PA Semi for a reason, right? Is it possible that the Power PC based fabrications that were so efficient could be used on an Intel platform, and hence give Apple an battery life advantage over competitors?

 

[50548]

Absolutely hilarious that the one claiming to be right (you BRLawyer) is totally wrong himself. Chip sets are NOT CPU's, period end of story.

Yes, and you just repeated what I've said...read my post again before spending your time to write a bad reply. I said chipsets coming from the SAME maker as the CPU...nothing else.

 

[iMacmatician]

So this is why margins are decreasing.

I've had this position in the glass trackpad thread, but I don't think Apple would do this unless they had a very good reason to use a non-Intel-standard (Montevina) chipset.

And why does this speculation stop there and does not consider Apple doing the whole design and just going to someone like TSMC for fabbing?

Intel will fab the chipsets?

I dunno...

Sounds very unlikely to me. But, if Apple really go that way, I think they´re risking the good relationship they have with Intel... and, I think it is not of Apple best interests to hurt Intel´s feelings...

If this is true then it really is aweful news. Apple would be saying goodbye to the kind of special treatment they've had from Intel in the past - don't expect anything like the effort Intel went through for the MacBook Air.

Apple would need a license from Intel to do this. Intel most likely thinks this is a good idea.

Since they bought that chip manufacturer (PA Semi) a little while back, this seems plausible.

I was wondering how PA Semi ties into this (if they do) too.

 

[Santa Rosa]

Apple will have effectively screwed themselves with this one... If they don't come out with something new before September (like something ACTUALLY new), they will be losing millions on the Back-To-School crowd. Hopefully this doesn't effect the redesign and push it back to Nethalem or thousands of us college kids are going to be pissed...

Only a handful of your so called thousands will probably even know about this.

I honestly dont know what to make of this rumor. Stumped completely

 

[iMacmatician]

I honestly dont know what to make of this rumor. Stumped completely

Same here.

First the "product transition" and reduced margins.

Then the Mac OS X-based tablet Mac (goodbye mini-tablet?).

Then the glass trackpad on the new MacBook touch existing MacBook and MacBook Pro (albeit redesigned).

Now Apple using alternative chipsets?

 

[salbenacci]

Apple might be screwing college students who want to get their hands on a laptop before the semester starts. I am actually one of those people. But we all know that most, if not all people who will go along and get the promotion with the free ipod touch will get sucked into the new system and begin auctioning off their recently purchased, soon to be older version macbooks. At least thats what I might do if I buy one now.

 

[bankshot]

Apple must believe there is some competitive advantage in pursuing alternative chipsets, such as improved power consumption.

Or improved lockdown of OS X on non-Apple hardware.

For those who say "chipset doesn't affect the consumer", what are you smoking? You know all those complaints about integrated video? Part of the chipset. You know what determines the speed of the memory you buy? Chipset.

Remember, this is an enthusiast site. Consumers don't generally know the difference between memory (RAM) and memory (hard drive), let alone chipset. Consumers look at specs they don't really understand and just buy the computer with the highest numbers that they can afford. They are happy with integrated graphics, slow memory (and often too little) and small cache size because they don't know any better. They have absolutely no clue about the significant tradeoffs they may be making, in contrast to enthusiasts here who consider every last detail. Who's better off? If the ignorant consumer is happy with an inferior machine, maybe that's all that matters.

No, I don't think a change like this will affect Apple's bottom line one bit, with true consumers being the vast, vast majority of their customers. But I could be wrong.

If Apple goes a non-Intel route, you'll see chipsets that are less compatible with things like Windows, more expensive to upgrade and arguably inferior (if Apple's history is any indication, they don't care jack **** about video, for example).

The Windows compatibility question is clearly the biggest question here. It's a pretty major selling point now, so they'd be wise to make sure that continues to work as well as it does now. But then, since Windows has to support such a huge variety of crappy hardware anyway, what's one more chipset with a few Apple-provided drivers? Probably a non-issue in the end. If this rumor even remotely becomes true.

 

[Eidorian]

Intel pretty much dominates the realm of Intel mobile chipsets.

 

[Insulin Junkie]

I honestly dont know what to make of this rumor. Stumped completely

Same here.
I hope it's not true.

 

[digitalbiker]

This rumor has got to be a load of BS. Intel and Apple are just starting to gel together and both loved collaborating on the MBA.

The more Apple deviates from non-standard intel chipsets the more chance that exists for incompatibilities with virtual windows type applications. Not only that, the odds are that Apple users will once again get the short end of the stick with hardware.

Montevina is out now. Everyone else is updating and coming out with innovative new laptop designs at lower prices.

So if Apple farts around trying another transition away from intel chipsets they probably won't be releasing new designs until well in the future. You just don't design and fabricate new chipsets overnight.

Why would Apple want to do this? It makes no real sense.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

<snip>

I know that I personally will not buy a Mac if they leave Intel. I bought one *specifically* because they moved to Intel. I recommend them now *specifically* because they're Intel. If they do their own chipset, I'm heading back to the HP/Dells/etc. of the world. I won't like it, but I'm not going to get tied into a platform only one OS uses.

Huh?

*holds breath for some seconds to stop from hyperventilating*

Great news. Maybe we will see the return of the coprocessor.

What's a coprocessor?

<snip>

The article says they're thinking of either doing their own custom chipsets or going with a non-Intel brand. They are not yet considering non-Intel CPUs, but that's just a hop, skip and a jump away in my opinion.

You do realize that there are AMD, Nvidia, VIA, and Intel chipsets for Intel processors, right? If AMD can make a more power-efficient chipset, why wouldn't you want them to use it? What you don't get is that there's not a single major company that I can think of that uses Intel chipsets exclusively.

This is some of the most exciting news that I've heard in a while in the computing world, and I really hope that Apple puts PA Semi to good use, and makes their own low-power boards that blow all of the competition out of the water. In other words, it's about time that Apple started using parts that aren't off-the-shelf for their overpriced machines.

 

[Fabio_gsilva]

I think it is better for Apple to use non standards chips for the iPod/iPhone, to really set they apart from the competitors... with exclusive chips in this devices they would be probably harder to copy, and would offer better battery performance where this is more sensible...

So, if Apples stick some PA Semi in it´s lines of iPods and iPhone it would put some greater gap between them and the competition.

 

[SilentCrs]

Wow. I remember a day when the exact same thing was said about moving away from PPC.

I didn't own a Mac when they were on PPC. I'd venture to say a good number of people didn't.

Apple owes some of their resurgence (if not all of it) to going to a more accepted, widespread platform. They didn't get it through the iPod effect -- the iPod has been around for years. They didn't get OS X -- it's pretty much the same as always. Their marketshare is up because "they do Windows".

And for those wondering how a change like this can negatively affect you:

1.) Different bus speeds that normal chipsets? Can't use standard memory -- more expensive.
2.) Apple can put as good (or as poor) integrated video as they want in the new boxes. Knowing Apple's history, which will they choose.
3.) Drivers will have to be specifically released by Apple for other OSes. Want to run Linux on your 2009 Macbook (with a non-conforming, non-Intel chipset)? Too bad.
4.) Likewise, VMware and Parallels won't be able to tweak out the same performance.
5.) Apple comes out with a "great", new way to connect to monitors/peripherals/etc. on their brand new chipset. Guess we can't use budget Dell monitors and MS $20 keyboards anymore.

And like I said -- it's just a hop, skip and a jump away from going non-Intel on the CPUs. Not cool.

 

[mac-mania]

The one thing that makes me a bit excited is the idea that the current MacBook could be the last with Intels IGP. We could very well see an AMD chipset with an improved ATi IGP or even a low-end discrete option.

SCORE!

 

[mbene12]

What is the absolute most that Apple could see from chipset theoretically designed by PA Semi (they focused on low power chips). I think maaaaaybe a 15% power reduction coupled with a 10% performance increase? Anyway that is the best I have ever seen (on Tom's Hardware and that kind of site) by comparing non-Intel chipsets to standard Intel chipsets when using the same processor.

This would however explain the borked margins that they predicted as PA Semi was a fabless company and the actual chipsets would have to be made by someone like TI or IBM. Also Intel might jack the rate on their processors a little if Apple dumps using their chipset.

As far as some new functionality (co-processor or Altivec like stuff) that require massive OS level rewriting and that cant happen till at least next years developer conference. Its a nonstarter.

 

[olliebraves20]

I'll be honest I'm not sure if this is good or bad...that remains to be seen....nobody knows for sure.....the thing that I keep thinking about though is how many "experts" thought it was the demise of Apple when they were switching from the PPC. Look how that turned out....pretty damn good if you ask me....so if Apple thinks something is better then why not trust them?? In the Steve Jobs era how many huge missteps have they had?? Exactly.....so lets wait and see what happens....