Intel partnership has farther reaching benefits

[Kid Red]

Interesting article talks about a home Media Center being easier to introduce with an intel chip. And additionally, Apple would be able to utilize RS232 control which I don't think was possible without Intel.

So, one has to wonder, was the bigger picture selling faster macs or moving it's media domination forward into the next phase? I just found it strange how more doors seem to be opening all at once. Awesome times ahead.

http://www.avrev.com/news/0605/7.apple.html

Just a sample, more in the article.

Is it possible that with a new chipset, Apple looks to get in the home theater business and or expand its stranglehold on the music server business? Count on it. Microsoft is making some headway with their Home Theater PC software for AV components like HP’s Media Center PC however those products have vast problems including having no satellite or cable HDTV tuner (they have terrestrial only).

 

[MisterMe]

.... And additionally, Apple would be able to utilize RS232 control which I don't think was possible without Intel.

...

Young man, have you any idea how old RS-232 is? It predates the personal computer by decades. Certainly every Mac prior to the iMac used RS-232. FWIW, the Xserve has RS-232. Exactly who do you believe Intel can do for Apple in the area of RS-232 that it cannot do for itself?

 

[cube]

Interesting article talks about a home Media Center being easier to introduce with an intel chip.

This is hype. Why would it be easier with an Intel chip than with one from Freescale?

 

[Sun Baked]

Apple got rid of serial ports a long time ago ... when they went with USB.

Right now a good source for remote login to your machine is ethernet.

Good sources for controlling external devices are USB, FW, and wireless.

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It's not like the chipset has ever been a barrier to keep Apple from adding a serial port back to any machine.

Heck they have I2S, USB, and PCI as prime places to drop a serial port.

And on several machines external USB is now on a PCI-to-USB bridge -- so it's not even part of the basic chipset anymore.

Secondly, you really don't know what is in Apple chipset anyway -- there is a serial port within the G5's K2 IO chip, and there have been many hidden features that we normally don't even know about inside Apple's chips (like a modem inside the UniNorth 2.x chip.)

Stuff that may be there for debugging and prototyping and may get removed when a machine goes into production.