Intel Experiencing Shortages of Notebook Chips?

[MorphingDragon]

Apple just needs to buy AMD and be done with it. Then they'll at least become re-interested in their Mac line.

Thats not a good idea for Apple and AMD.

Apple gets stuck with the responisbility of developing new technologies and the 'new' AMD branch would be neglected. Intel would also lose its only credible competitor as I doubt Apple will be bothered competing.

 

[deconstruct60]

I'm sure that those clever folks at Apple could fit both in.

Sony's 13" Z-series has up to a quad i7 and discreet Nvidia
GeForce GT330M graphics with 1 GiB of VRAM - in a 3 lb 1" to 1.3"
thick case.

The Z also gets 3 hrs less in battery life. If Apple shrank the battery or tossed something else ( as another reply noted, toss the optical drive ) . Throwing something overboard from the previous model you can always get some internal space budget back.

Longer than average battery life is a feature I doubt Apple wants to drop. Similarly, dropping the optical from the 13" would only further degrade the differentiation between it and the MBA . Although, with the second if split the space recovery with battery expansion could add even more battery time as well as boost the graphics.


Top end graphics performance has not been a top 3 design point for Apple in any of their products for a very long time. Not sure why folks are mutating Apple design constraint satisfaction based on graphics. Not particularly likely to happen.

 

[BVeritas]

I'm sure that those clever folks at Apple could fit both in.

Aiden, Aiden, Aiden, why be so sarcastic? Can't you just complement Apple? Is your mindset so askew that you cannot dispense an honest statement?

__________________
-as
Zero Population Growth - Have you thanked your gay friends, your gay colleagues and your gay relatives? Why not?

 

[AidenShaw]

Aiden, Aiden, Aiden, why be so sarcastic? Can't you just complement Apple? Is your mindset so askew that you cannot dispense an honest statement?

It was an honest compliment - I'm sure that Apple's board layout
engineers are clever enough to fit the chips onto the board. I'd
put more faith in them, than the opinion of someone looking at a
photo of the board that was found on the internet.

__________________
-as
Zero Population Growth - Have you thanked your gay friends, your gay colleagues and your gay relatives? Why not?

Speaking of "mindset so askew" ... 😉 What is this even
supposed to mean?

 

[Humber]

Only one more day and we've beaten the previously MBP release record 😀

 

[Eric S.]

It was an honest compliment - I'm sure that Apple's board layout engineers are clever enough to fit the chips onto the board. I'd put more faith in them, than the opinion of someone looking at a photo of the board that was found on the internet.

Actually I hope you're right. But if even if Apple is capable of fitting a discrete GPU on the 13" board, I still expect that they'll want to use the lack of one as a differentiator between the 13" low end and the 15" and 17" high end.

 

[lilo777]

Actually I hope you're right. But if even if Apple is capable of fitting a discrete GPU on the 13" board, I still expect that they'll want to use the lack of one as a differentiator between the 13" low end and the 15" and 17" high end.

What about those who wants a high-end 13" MBP? Will they have to switch to Sony VAIO Z? Is the screen (and laptop) size not a differentiator?

 

[AidenShaw]

But if even if Apple is capable of fitting a discrete GPU on the 13" board, I still expect that they'll want to use the lack of one as a differentiator between the 13" low end and the 15" and 17" high end.

Apple may have painted themselves into a corner on the MBP, due to
the ads focusing on the graphics performance. It will be very hard
for them to backpedal on this, especially when you add the hype on
OpenCL.

I could see lower end discrete GPUs (e.g. GeForce G1xxM) with maybe
64 MiB VRAM (+ shared) on the MacBook (if it ever gets a Core i*
CPU). 13" MBP gets a bit more (e.g. GeForce G2xxM + 256 MiB + shared).
The 15"/17" systems could go up to GTX 285M w/ 1 GiB + shared, or
even an option for a Quadro.

(The low end GPU memory configs would help with the board real
estate and power budget issues.)

There's plenty of room for differentiating without the big chasm
between integrated-only and discrete. Add change-GPU-on-the-fly
for a power-optimized mode as well - so even the top-of-the-line
can run on integrated-only if the user chooses to go for longest
battery life.

 

[iMacmatician]

What about those who wants a high-end 13" MBP? Will they have to switch to Sony VAIO Z? Is the screen (and laptop) size not a differentiator?

Not for Apple it doesn't seem. I would think they could use the GPU to differentiate between the MacBook and the 13" MacBook Pro, but maybe not?

 

[Eric S.]

Apple may have painted themselves into a corner on the MBP, due to the ads focusing on the graphics performance. It will be very hard for them to backpedal on this, especially when you add the hype on OpenCL.

Did Apple say anything specific about the 13" MBP? Steve will just make one of his typically lame excuses like "people who want real graphics performance use larger screens anyway." He is never at a loss when explaining why Macs don't fulfill their potential, but he'll never admit to the real reason. Which is that Mac specs are determined more by marketing goals than by technical capabilities.

There's plenty of room for differentiating without the big chasm between integrated-only and discrete.

Yes, but graphics is a very obvious differentiator, one that will tend to force a lot of customers into buying the higher-margin larger screen models.

 

[AidenShaw]

Did Apple say anything specific about the 13" MBP?

Yep.

Incredibly fast graphics processing.

MacBook Pro delivers both powerful graphics performance and long battery life. Every MacBook Pro features the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor, which provides an outstanding everyday graphics experience with up to a 5x performance boost.1

Power your way through the latest 3D games — including Call of Duty and Quake — and enjoy improved graphics performance with iWork, iLife, and everything you do in Mac OS X. The power-saving NVIDIA integrated graphics processor also keeps you up and running throughout the day, with up to 7 hours of battery life on the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro and up to 8 hours on the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/graphics.html#overlay-integrated

 

[Eric S.]

Yep.

Fine, that's for the current model. But they wouldn't have any problem backpedaling, as you say, on that. They'd just make up new blurbs for the new models, with different smoke and mirror promises designed to make you forget the old ones.

 

[AidenShaw]

Fine, that's for the current model. But they wouldn't have any problem backpedaling, as you say, on that. They'd just make up new blurbs for the new models, with different smoke and mirror promises designed to make you forget the old ones.

... and people accuse me of being cynical about Apple 😀 !

 

[penter]

You know, if all you MB-Pro people had all just bought one back when you needed it months ago you could have been enjoying a laptop for the last 5 or 6 months. Instead, you've been sitting around, laptopless, wondering what to do.

This is getting kind of funny now...I'm assuming you're all just posting from iPhones, getting madder and madder every day?

Way to over-simplify everything. I'm a "MB-Pro person" and my case is far from that.
Updates are overdue. period

 

[fingernagel]

need to update

I'm stucked with my powerbook G4 from late 2005. These are almost 4 and a half years and I had this baby turned on 24 hours the day, 365 days the year. Never had problems, but meanwhile my laptop didn't evolution I did and what I do nowadays needs more power and more graphic-intelligence. I really have to update, because my lovely one will just survive a few weeks more. It is slow (can't even watch video-files that are bigger than 1GB) and editing or animating is a pain in the ass.

Come on Apple, NOW I have some money on my bank account. In a few weeks I will have spend it in my rent or food to survive. Let me buy your new product to keep working, to earn money and to reinvest in more gears and to survive.

I really don't want to do the same mistake I did in 2005, when I bought a Powerbook just one and a half month before the first Intel MBP came out. Now I don't even can install all the new software that sees the light of the day. With Arrendale that could be the same...

Do it Apple. NOW!

 

[AidenShaw]

Do it Apple. NOW!

Hold on a few more months, Apple will move to Arrandale soon - even
if only because Intel stops making last-generation C2D CPUs! 😉

 

[evarian]

Hold on a few more months, Apple will move to Arrandale soon - even
if only because Intel stops making last-generation C2D CPUs! 😉

wow, thats possibly the most depressing thing i've ever heard!

 

[MorphingDragon]

wow, thats possibly the most depressing thing i've ever heard!

Whats even more depressing is that hes right! Apple only moved off Core Duo/Solo because Intel Stopped making them.

 

[mr meshuggah]

Hey guys, first time poster. Just thought that I'd mention that after waiting an eternity for the new Mac Book Pro range I ended up opting for a Dell with a core i7 chip.

I shall be receiving it tomorrow with a total wait time of 7 weeks. Seems there's some major delays in Intel world alright!

 

[KPATT18]

Only one more day and we've beaten the previously MBP release record 😀

...and meanwhile Intel is airing commercials for the i3, i5 & i7 chips while Apple still runs their MBP page with "The new Macbook Pro family". Just sad really.

 

[heisetax]

Apple could do it, but why???

ROFL, building and optimizing and ARM chip is very different than an x86 chip. Even if we ignore the fact that Intel holds nearly every patent involved with efficiently building and optimizing an x86 chip I still don't think Apple could build something to the level of the Core architecture. One of the biggest challenges of building a chip is mass producing them at high yields. Intel is a master at that part of the equation.

Apple could do it if they were willing to be behind AMD as well as Intel. Then they would have to stop their software & other hardware. What would they gain. Cpus under Intel are coming in with IBM/Motorola PPC timing as of late.

For the most part Apple designs hardware & now has someone else make it. They need to stay they can do their best. Making cpus is not likely to be that place. We just need to wait like we did under the IBM/Motorola days.

 

[ScottishDuck]

Apple could do it if they were willing to be behind AMD as well as Intel. Then they would have to stop their software & other hardware. What would they gain. Cpus under Intel are coming in with IBM/Motorola PPC timing as of late.

For the most part Apple designs hardware & now has someone else make it. They need to stay they can do their best. Making cpus is not likely to be that place. We just need to wait like we did under the IBM/Motorola days.

AMD is not a company, it's just a puppet to hold up in front if monopoly commissions and say "were being competitive." If Apple made a move on AMD, all that cash they have amassed would quickly dissipate.

Furthermore, people claiming Apple could move into the CPU business are laughable. You do realize that Apple's "A4" is nothing more than Cortex A8 that's been rebranded right?

 

[cezza181]

I wish i had just bought a new MBP two months ago when i decided to wait.

so sick of waiting!!!

 

[NMBPPLS]

so sick of waiting!!!

Me too!!!

I hope that there will be:
1) some good and interesting rumors today to shorten the waiting time...
2) the new MBP coming out tomorrow!

 

[D-a-a-n]

Me too!!!

I hope that there will be:
1) some good and interesting rumors today to shorten the waiting time...
2) the new MBP coming out tomorrow!

And then you woke up...😀
Hm, I'm really considering buying a Sony Vaio Z if apple doesn't come up with something quick..Does anyone have experience with these machines? How is the build quality compared with a MBP?