It doesn't matter because tick/tock is dead for two reasons. One is that AMD is lacking in terms of performance and competition. Two is that I think the process of bringing online new fabs is going to slow down a little - from 24 months to something closer to 30.
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CES 2010: Intel Officially Announces Core i7, i5, and i3 Chips Suitable for Apple Notebooks
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It doesn't matter because tick/tock is dead for two reasons. One is that AMD is lacking in terms of performance and competition. Two is that I think the process of bringing online new fabs is going to slow down a little - from 24 months to something closer to 30.
i think it's the tock. arrandale at least, is based on westmere, which is the tick after the nehalem tock.
Um, no. First off, "special IGP for Apple and/or no IGP" = "ain't gonna happen". The *memory controller* and PCIe interface are on that die, so don't expect to see it go away. And there's absolutely no reason that Intel would design a faster IGP and then only sell it to one customer.
Secondly, how exactly is it "just as awful"? The handful of benchmarks I can find (example: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1169/12/ ) show the new IGP getting an Entry 3DMark score of 3804, which compares quite well with the score of the recent Mini refresh with the 9400m (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2342488,00.asp) at 3215.
I am on a PB G4 from 05 so I am eagerly awaiting this update as well. Almost got a refurbed 15" MBP last night but I need to wait. Maybe I'll just go into hiding until the end of January. The suspense is driving me crazy.
Tick/Tock really has nothing to do with AMD.
"Tick" is a new microarchitecture. "Tock" is a new (usually smaller) process.
Tick and tock are both difficult to design, verify and debug. Trying to do both at once is very, very difficult.
Tick lets Intel build a new microarchitecture on a stable, known process.
Tock lets Intel move a stable, known microarchitecture to a new process.
Tick/Tock doesn't require a fixed time scale, it's open to variation with each cycle.
You must like scrolling or don't do any real work on your laptop, 16:9 is awful for anything besides watching videos.
quad core vs core 2 duo
i still don't get it.why is a quad core better then a core 2 duo processos?
correct me if i'm wrong.a quad core just consists of 1 processor with 4 cores.
a core 2 duo consists of 2 procesors with each 2 cores.so they both the quad and core 2 duo processors have 4 cores.the only difference it makes is when your programs are written for one processor or two.so if a game is written for core solo,it wil be faster on the quad core.but if it's written for the core 2 duo.
you will have a big advantage?so,the next question is.tey will make core 2 quads who wil then be faster then core 2 duo's?
and finaly,what are you gaining from having a quad core or core 2 duo if you (let's say) a game only supports 2 cores,and if both processors are both as high clocked.
thx.
i still don't get it.why is a quad core better then a core 2 duo processos?
correct me if i'm wrong.a quad core just consists of 1 processor with 4 cores.
a core 2 duo consists of 2 procesors with each 2 cores.so they both the quad and core 2 duo processors have 4 cores.the only difference it makes is when your programs are written for one processor or two.so if a game is written for core solo,it wil be faster on the quad core.but if it's written for the core 2 duo.
you will have a big advantage?so,the next question is.tey will make core 2 quads who wil then be faster then core 2 duo's?
and finaly,what are you gaining from having a quad core or core 2 duo if you (let's say) a game only supports 2 cores,and if both processors are both as high clocked.
thx.
A Core 2 Duo is a single processor with two cores. Duo = # of cores. 2 = 2nd iteration of the Core architecture.
Awesome. So since it's so clear, when can I expect a MacBook/Pro update announcement so I can place an order for my mom? This week? Next? Jan. 27th?
Date please.
I am hoping for this as well, no doubt I will be disappointed too haha. Either way as a owner of a first generation Macbook Pro I am eargerly awaiting this refresh. It is past upgrade time for me!
I, for one, have pretty much lost interest in the CPU technology over the last 6-10 years. The processors (all of them for desktops and notebooks) are fast enough for 90% of the consumer population doing 90% of the work. The only thing faster and faster chips help are the rare/limited use of extreme graphics rendering or possibly dvd/movie authoring.
That being said, I've been waiting patiently for a long time for the computer hardware industry to enhance the true bottleneck: hard drive/storage performance.
Drive performance (for consumers), in my view, has been the same for the past 10 years and realistically at least 15 years with minor improvements. No, I'm not counting the people who have deep pockets that will buy super expensive (and super low storage capacity) 10,000RPM or 15,000RPM drives and then RAID them. Nor am I talking about high end drives/units designed solely for business data centers (vendors like NetApp or technologies like Fibre).
The updated CPUs over the past 10 years, to me, has been nothing more than the introduction multi-core technology (which practically no software vendor utilizes correctly or to its max) combined with lower power requirements (really only necessary for a laptop and when on battery power of course) and a few instructions here and there that Flash may use.
Sure, I'll take a faster CPU any day...but rarely is the CPU performance increases actually equating to real world differences for real world users. If you really think about most of your apps, they're not crunching numbers or sorting 1 billion records in a database...they are waiting for disk i/o or even network traffic. Again, sure, there are Photoshop diehards and movie rendering apps out there that will appreciate faster chips....but very likely, still, those apps are waiting for disk i/o and the CPU is idle quite often.
-Eric
That being said, I've been waiting patiently for a long time for the computer hardware industry to enhance the true bottleneck: hard drive/storage performance.
Drive performance (for consumers), in my view, has been the same for the past 10 years and realistically at least 15 years with minor improvements. No, I'm not counting the people who have deep pockets that will buy super expensive (and super low storage capacity) 10,000RPM or 15,000RPM drives and then RAID them. Nor am I talking about high end drives/units designed solely for business data centers (vendors like NetApp or technologies like Fibre).
The updated CPUs over the past 10 years, to me, has been nothing more than the introduction multi-core technology (which practically no software vendor utilizes correctly or to its max) combined with lower power requirements (really only necessary for a laptop and when on battery power of course) and a few instructions here and there that Flash may use.
Sure, I'll take a faster CPU any day...but rarely is the CPU performance increases actually equating to real world differences for real world users. If you really think about most of your apps, they're not crunching numbers or sorting 1 billion records in a database...they are waiting for disk i/o or even network traffic. Again, sure, there are Photoshop diehards and movie rendering apps out there that will appreciate faster chips....but very likely, still, those apps are waiting for disk i/o and the CPU is idle quite often.
-Eric
What went wrong since the Intel switch?
Considering what Apple charges for their laptops, I'm always surprised by the number of people considering upgrading their less-than-three-years-old laptop whenever a refresh comes around. In the PowerBook days, people ran their Mac laptops for 5 to 8 years pretty much as standard, and many still are doing so.
Presuming you're not all video producers, what's the rush? What can't your current laptop do that these new ones can?
(Anyone on a pre-Intel laptop is excused from this, obviously.)
That said, if new MBP's come with ESATA and quad-core chips, I'll consider trading in my Quad G5. If not, I can wait till it's fifth anniversary in March 2011. Plenty of steam left in the beast yet.
Considering what Apple charges for their laptops, I'm always surprised by the number of people considering upgrading their less-than-three-years-old laptop whenever a refresh comes around. In the PowerBook days, people ran their Mac laptops for 5 to 8 years pretty much as standard, and many still are doing so.
Presuming you're not all video producers, what's the rush? What can't your current laptop do that these new ones can?
(Anyone on a pre-Intel laptop is excused from this, obviously.)
That said, if new MBP's come with ESATA and quad-core chips, I'll consider trading in my Quad G5. If not, I can wait till it's fifth anniversary in March 2011. Plenty of steam left in the beast yet.
Agreed. I need to see a real bump in order to consider upgrading. My MBP from 2006 still runs with the big boys, albeit a bit slower these days (in comparison). Nothing yet makes me want to go out and buy a new MBP.
Or the massively overlooked, and massive, music & sound recording/mixing areas. These advances make native processing in Logic/Pro Tools/etc an ever-more exciting thing. If the i5 comes up with the goods, I may be able to leave tower computing behind for laptops.
There's a lot of people who must have the latest new toy as soon as it comes out, whether they need it or not. It's their money so let them spend it on new toys if it make them happy. At least it means there are more nearly new second hand machines available for those who like to grab a bargain.
I'm really not bothered about Bluray. As I work using my machines, a DVD drive is still more than fine.
If a lack of Bluray means there's a 17" MBP with a quad Core i7 and a decent ATI 5000 series chip, HD 5850 would be very nice, it might be the first time I trade up with just a years gap in between.
If a lack of Bluray means there's a 17" MBP with a quad Core i7 and a decent ATI 5000 series chip, HD 5850 would be very nice, it might be the first time I trade up with just a years gap in between.