Intel On Track To Deliver Penryn, Nehalem

[AidenShaw]

yes, you did refer to a trend

No need to be confrontational. My point is that is has happened, which it has, and recently. I never used the word trend.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/historically

historically

adverb
1. throughout history; "historically they have never coexisted peacefully"
2. with respect to history; "this is historically interesting"​

Sorry that you took my reply as confrontational - but the word "historically" does exactly refer to a trend. In a sentence, you can replace the word "historically" with the phrase "throughout history" without changing the meaning.

In the case of Apple and early access to Intel chips, clearly "throughout history" is not accurate.

I was replying to what you said, but perhaps not what you meant to say.

Ooops, another long-winded rebuttal

 

[Chef Medeski]

I wish that people would stop saying that ACDs haven't been updated since 2004. They get quiet updates whenever LCDs improve. As for the iSight and IR-sensors, while I can appreciate that many would like these, I think that this is a choice by Apple as they don't see Pro machines as needing webcams and Front Row.

Actually, I think that Front Row has become a stale paradigm, and personally I find iTunes running AirTunes and AppleTV running music and video to be much more compelling that taking up my screen with an interface that I never found to be that great in the first place. Of course, I do appreciate that others have a different and valid opinion there.

/rant

Front Row 2 is supposed to mimic more closely Apple TV due out with Leopard. I do agree Front Row ia bit limiting but for a first release item thats fairly innovative, I do find it enjoyable. It really helps use my MBP as more central digital enternatiment since I can play songs from across the room with all the info being clearly seen. But an update will be happy and its coming. Personally I think the remote is too limiting. Theres so many options ofr this thing but you have to think you only have 6 controls. If only they had clickwheels and could have a lot more....

 

[ksz]

No need to be confrontational. My point is that is has happened, which it has, and recently. I never used the word trend. And if you look at the context, I was pointing out that they weren't necessarily going to be delayed all the way until MWSF in January. I guess I didn't realize one word was cause for a lengthy rebuttal.

If memory serves (it doesn't always), the following processors first appeared in an Apple product ahead of general release or ahead of someone else's products:

1. 3GHz Quad Core Xeon as a CTO option for MacPro.
2. 2.8GHz Mobile Core 2 Duo as a CTO option for the latest iMac.

Two is not necessarily a trend, but it does indicate the possibility of early delivery of Penryn to Apple.

 

[ksz]

1 step closer to 1nm

Conventional wisdom is that classical scaling will end with the 11nm technology node for several reasons including (a) quantum interference as gate oxide thickness is reduced [the thickness is about 5 atomic widths today], (b) the expense and complexity of lithography even with advances in high numerical aperture lenses and immersion lithography, (c) greatly increased power density, etc.

Conventional wisdom has been overturned in the past with unconventional thinking and it may yet be possible to extend classical scaling further with the development of new exotic materials. But the real future, however, may be in nano technology fabricated with something other than silicon. That is, the use of silicon-based transistors may be nearing an end.

 

[Multimedia]

Spring '08 Refreshes

You'll be waiting quite some time. We are hoping to get Penryn into Mac Pros by November. The laptop chips won't be ready for awhile.

Perhaps Quad MBP a year from now.

Is this the sort of thing we can expect in the next iMac update, or more of a Mac Pro thing? I'm gonna get an iMac in the next revision, so I'm wondering what major updates are on the horizon.

Guessing Spring '08 iMacs & MBPs.

Won't be ready for MacWorld 08 either. Maybe 3rd quarter 08? Multimedia will step in and answer this and the iMac question soon.

Not sure which question I'm stepping in on. I figure Spring '08 for the above and Quad MBPs a year from now.

Maybe sooner for MacWorld. But no telling what supplies will be like by January. Can only guess - not predict.

 

[commander.data]

If memory serves (it doesn't always), the following processors first appeared in an Apple product ahead of general release or ahead of someone else's products:

1. 3GHz Quad Core Xeon as a CTO option for MacPro.
2. 2.8GHz Mobile Core 2 Duo as a CTO option for the latest iMac.

Two is not necessarily a trend, but it does indicate the possibility of early delivery of Penryn to Apple.

It's not like it's a hardship for Intel to give Apple some CPUs first anyways. With Dell no longer being Intel-exclusive, Intel no doubt wants Apple to be their new poster-child, if only to flaunt it in Dell's face. I doubt supplying Apple with chips will make a huge dent in their inventory anyways, even if they are supply constrained at launch. If Intel was nice, possibly an oxymoron, and Jobs wanted to launch Leopard and a Mac Pro refresh simultaneously in late October, Intel may decide to throw him a bone given the timing. (Brings up the question too, when Intel said Nehalem booted on OS X, did they mean Tiger or Leopard?)

EDIT: Again the only quad mobile chip currently on Intel's roadmaps is a quad core Penryn due H2 2008 with a 35W TDP. Given it's looks to be an Extreme Edition part it won't likely be in the MBP. Probably only an iMac option, if the iMacs haven't switched to desktop Penryns by then.

 

[AidenShaw]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

If memory serves (it doesn't always), the following processors first appeared in an Apple product ahead of general release or ahead of someone else's products:

1. 3GHz Quad Core Xeon as a CTO option for MacPro.
2. 2.8GHz Mobile Core 2 Duo as a CTO option for the latest iMac.

Two is not necessarily a trend, but it does indicate the possibility of early delivery of Penryn to Apple.

It's not like it's a hardship for Intel to give Apple some CPUs first anyways. With Dell no longer being Intel-exclusive, Intel no doubt wants Apple to be their new poster-child, if only to flaunt it in Dell's face. I doubt supplying Apple with chips will make a huge dent in their inventory anyways, even if they are supply constrained at launch. If Intel was nice, possibly an oxymoron, and Jobs wanted to launch Leopard and a Mac Pro refresh simultaneously in late October, Intel may decide to throw him a bone given the timing. (Brings up the question too, when Intel said Nehalem booted on OS X, did they mean Tiger or Leopard?)

EDIT: Again the only quad mobile chip currently on Intel's roadmaps is a quad core Penryn due H2 2008 with a 35W TDP. Given it's looks to be an Extreme Edition part it won't likely be in the MBP. Probably only an iMac option, if the iMacs haven't switched to desktop Penryns by then.

Flaunting something in a customer's face is not a good busines model...

 

[i, Podius]

Front Row on Mac Pro

I was lamenting the fact that, disappointed by the latest iMac refresh, my decision to buy a Mac Pro instead meant that I wouldn't be getting Front Row, until I found this. Sure, I'd rather not have to pay $32 to get functionality that's available on every other (lower end) Mac on the market, but it's certainly better than nothing. Now all I have to do is wait for the new Pros.

 

[jeremyrader]

Someone already jumped on this, but you are most definetly wrong here. Penryn is a 45nm shrink of the Core 2 Duo. It will come in the flavors of Server/Workstation, Desktop and notebook.

Xeon is the first to get this new treatment, along with faster bus and more cache. New chipsets too

A quad Macbook pro is a long way off my friend. At least 6 months.

Now, an all octo Mac Pro line. Coming to an Apple Store near you very soon. It is you who are backwards.

Wikipedia and Google are your friend

There are absolutely no plans for a quad notebook processor from Intel within the next year. The new Penryn processor will be packaged with the current Crestline chipset for the "Santa Rosa Refresh" platform in the 1st half of 2008. When the Cantiga chipset becomes available later in the year, the new platform will be "Montevina". Expect the Penryn mobile processors to move to a 6MB L2 cache around the same time.

There are also no plans for an octo-core chip from Intel over the next year. The closest thing would be a 6-core MP server processor (Dunnington), which a shrink of the current 2/4-core MP server processor (Tigerton). On the DP server side - the dual core Woodcrest gets shrunk to Wolfdale, and the quad core Clovertown gets shrunk to Harpertown.

As for products based on the Nehalem architecture, Intel is being very tight-lipped, even within the company.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Seriously?

Is ANYONE besides me getting really tired of this friggin question every time intel farts?

If you want a Macbook / Pro get one. If not, get off the pot! Something tells me you just wanted something to say and arent even in the market for a new machine anyways.
Rant over.

I get more sick of people ranting about other people asking questions. THAT is a TRUE waste of my time. Your rant just says, "I'm a fanboy! Buy Apple now already and then buy some more! Support the fund to make Steve Jobs richer than Billy Gates!"

I'll buy a new Mac when I'm good and ready (i.e. happy with the total feature line-up), not before. Mac Mini and Macbook BADLY need better graphics (Santa Fe would be at lest a REASONABLE offering. Intel GMA 950 is an INSULT in 2007 (almost 2008), IMO). iMac took a step BACKWARDS with this new release (I'd rather have the old 24" with the NVidia card). So instead of winning me over to buying an iMac, they've ensured I will never own one. MacPro, ironically can upgrade to better graphics cards, but none are available and due to Apple's STUPID decision to not offer standard bios on their new machines on the MacOSX side, you CANNOT just go buy a PC card off the shelf as it will only work on the PC side (assuming you're running Windows on it as well via Bootcamp).

I can honestly say that leaves the Macbook Pro as the ONLY machine Apple is currently making that I'm not totally unhappy with some aspect thereof. I would prefer a MacPro + Updated Macbook. I'm hoping they will update both before November. Otherwise, I'm waiting until some time next year when they DO update them. Screw Apple for all I care. I only buy what I want, not what Apple wants me to buy. I could still get a PC instead even, although my hatred of Windows Vista makes that unlikely (Linux is ok, but still lacks commercial software). My plan was to run XP with Fusion and BootCamp when I need it and start moving over to the Mac in a big way (I own a PC and a Mac right now, but the latter is an outdated dual G4 I use mostly for Internet access and disc burning). My Mac software is very limited compared to PC so a PC isn't exactly out of the question as there I CAN get the mid-range mini-tower that many of us would like to see from Apple. Steve needs to learn that by limiting his desktop models to novelty items (yes, the iMac is just a novelty item; a laptop in a monitor, basically... why not just buy a laptop and have true mobility??? Some of us want TRUE desktop parts/speed and we don't think we should have to buy a MacPro just to get it... but that's another issue beyond the limitations of the current models themselves).

 

[diamond.g]

I wonder how the QuickPath Interconnect will effect motherboard compatibility.

Should be the same as AMD.

Anandtech
Intel "Harpertown" Xeon vs. AMD "Barcelona" Opteron

Intel Developer Forum 2007 - Day 1: Nehalem, Intel's GPUs, 32nm and More

"Nehalem" Taped-out and Running Windows

Inquirer.net
Intel Skulltrail supports SLI, Quad SLI

Skulltrail doesn't FASN8, it does obliterate

Harpertown benchmarks show a monster in the making

Intel shows off two big platforms

Behardware.com
Socket B & Bloomfield in 2008

Interesting, Skulltrail looks to be the only mobo Intel will offer with SLI. This seems to be due to Nvidia not having a dual processor chipset. Now if Apple does use Skulltrail, then expect Apple to push Nvidia cards as the high end option on the Mac Pros.

I would hold off on getting a new Mac anything if possible till we hear more about these new specs Intel is going to be introducing. PCper has an article talking about USB 3.0 (10x the bandwidth of USB 2.0 ).

 

[netdog]

I would hold off on getting a new Mac anything if possible till we hear more about these new specs Intel is going to be introducing. PCper has an article talking about USB 3.0 (10x the bandwidth of USB 2.0 ).

Great, if you want to wait until 2009 or 2010 for USB 3.0 (see article).

 

[jellomizer]

Centrino is nothing more than a marketing scheme. It just means intel stuff inside a laptop.

Not to mention that it can be easily confused with celerons. These are the chips with bad cache (sometimes other problems as well) works well enough to run a PC but with with so much broken they normally run poorly and put them in budget PCs. Where people go Well I could get a Mac with a Core 2 Duo at 2.33ghz or I could get a Budget Brand with a Duel Core Celeron with at 2.33ghz and save $300.00, Besides I remember reading about how good these new Intel C somethings are so I think I will save the $300 bucks...

1-2 year down the line the person is buying a new computer because it performs so poorly with modern software and websites, while the person who got the Mac will use it for 2 or 3 more years, because while it may not be as fast with the new stuff it still handles it quite well and it is usable.

 

[diamond.g]

Great, if you want to wait until 2009 or 2010 for USB 3.0 (see article).

Hmm, the slide said 1H'08. Well some here have been waiting for almost a year, whats another year? EDIT: The slide with that date ('09 '10) is for PCIe 3.0.

 

[jellomizer]

Great, if you want to wait until 2009 or 2010 for USB 3.0 (see article).

It is good not to pine over the rumor sites for making a long term buying decision. If you know a new Mac or processor is coming out shortly and it is the difference between getting a new computer now or in 3 months is one thing. But if you need a new computer Now and you are waiting for the next technology that has just been developed you will be waiting a year to years. You are probably better off if you get a computer when you need it, know quite well you system will begin to obsolete within the first year. and will Obsolete exponentially after that.

 

[netdog]

Hmm, the slide said 1H'08. Well some here have been waiting for almost a year, whats another year? EDIT: The slide with that date ('09 '10) is for PCIe 3.0.

Oops! Different article. The one I read (linked to by some forumite last night) indicated that the standard will be ratified early next year, but we shouldn't expect products to market until 2009 or 2010.

They also pointed that even the fastest flash drives today only run at a top rate of some 800Mb/sec, not that this won't change.

 

[Triplenickle]

So will Penryn find it way to the iMac this year?

 

[netdog]

So will Penryn find it way to the iMac this year?

No, but it probably will next year.

 

[Thomas2006]

this is what i want to know?
im in the market for a mbp next month... but should i wait? and for how long?

I say no later than MWSF2008, but more likely, early December. We might even see Apple's first quad-core notebook.

 

[mashny]

So does that mean we'll see a mac pro update before 2008? The Mac Pro hasn't been seriously updated nor a price adjustment since its introduction in AUGUST of 2006. The video cards alone are ~20 months old.

Oh but it doesn't need to be upgraded yet... (for the flame war on that, check the MP/PM forum)

My guess is that if Apple does release an update to the MacPro in the near term, it won't be until Macworld '08. I have an eight-year old G4 400, so I'm very much hoping the new Mac Pros are announced at MWSF.

 

[flopticalcube]

I say no later than MWSF2008, but more likely, early December. We might even see Apple's first quad-core notebook.

No we won't. No mobile quad-cores from Intel until mid-2008.

 

[Eidorian]

Quad Core Laptop

Mobile Quad Core

http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20070919PD211.htm

 

[MikeTheC]

And to think I'm still waiting on a G5 laptop. Oh well, there's always next week.

Seriously, though, I want things to settle down here a bit on the processor roadmap -- as well as the motherboard roadmap -- front before I go plunking down hard cash for anything else. But it all does sound very, very impressive. I'm really looking forward to the future of technology, at least in this respect.

 

[netdog]

And to think I'm still waiting on a G5 laptop. Oh well, there's always next week.

Seriously, though, I want things to settle down here a bit on the processor roadmap -- as well as the motherboard roadmap -- front before I go plunking down hard cash for anything else. But it all does sound very, very impressive. I'm really looking forward to the future of technology, at least in this respect.

Those settled days departed with the Gx Power PC architecture. Intel's spec never settles down. They move at a blazing pace, as you are seeing. There will come a point, however, where all the things that we use (video, graphics, sounds, words) are processed so quickly that advances won't make much difference in the home or general (read non-engineering) office. Voice recognition, sight recognition and little tricks like that will burn some CPU cycles, but once USB 3 is in place and chips go far beyond what we mortals can utilize, things might settle down a bit.

Then again, I guess that totally interactive 3-D holographic movie projections will probably take some power. God bless the gamers.

 

[3282872]

I was lamenting the fact that, disappointed by the latest iMac refresh, my decision to buy a Mac Pro instead meant that I wouldn't be getting Front Row, until I found this. Sure, I'd rather not have to pay $32 to get functionality that's available on every other (lower end) Mac on the market, but it's certainly better than nothing. Now all I have to do is wait for the new Pros.

Thanks for the link. I remember reading about that product last year and thought it might be worth getting. I tried to use the IR sensor that came with an iPod dock in the iPod Apple Universal Dock product, but to no avail. It is similar to the product you listed, so I'm surprised Apple hasn't allowed the IR sensor in the dock to enable/utilize Front Row on Mac's that don't have it built in (such as the Mac Pro).

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=F04326F1&nplm=MB125G/A