Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Intel's Napa Platform with Yonah

Yah know what makes the upcoming PowerBooks even more sweeter? Its not the Intelness inside. Its not OS X. Its not dual core goodness. Its not the design. It's the fact that because of my 100$ Microsoft settlement check they will be paying for a portion of a PowerBook. OK a small portion but a portion nontheless. Life is good. :D
 
Going at bit further . . .

Randall said:
Bingo. The gains from Yonah dual core could be so dramatic that it's worth switching over now. This decision should depend heavily on how well Rosetta on a dual core Yonah Powerbook compares to a G4 PPC Powerbook. If the difference is negligable, then there is no reason not to immeadiately switch the Powerbook line to x86.
Click to expand...

I would venture to say that even if performance is flat against the G4 running code through Rosetta that Apple will make the switch sooner rather than later. I think there are three reasons that this would still be advantageous to Apple: the switch to Intel will provide marketing buzz, it will give developers a final MacIntel box to code and test on, and the computers will continue to feel faster as code is updated to native X86 and even as Rosetta continues to be improved.

There are few good reasons to not switch over unless the processors perform noticeably slower, they cost much more, or there are compatibility problems.
 
kainjow said:
I can't wait to see the new PowerBook's design. Should be fantastic.
Click to expand...
I hope that they keep the outside relatively the same. Why mess with perfection? It has got to be the most solid and well built laptop I have ever seen. Apple please don't change the outside. :eek:
 
hvfsl said:
To all those that are saying Apple will introduce Intel iBooks first, well that will mean the ibooks will be faster than the G4 PowerBooks (when using native Intel apps vs native PPC in the PowerBook). So I think the PowerBooks are going to have to be first.
Click to expand...

I don't think Apple is concerned with the relationship of the old PPC line to the new Intel line. They may even eliminate the ibook /PowerBook names to alleviate this comparison.

I think Apple will just release an Intel based portable and let the specs fall where they may. They will probably continue to sell PPC ibooks / PowerBooks even while new intel laptops are released. Eventually they will slowly eliminate the PPC laptops as they slowly introduce new intel designs.

There will be users who still want PPC based laptops even after the new intels are introduced. The reasons might be; Pro software that won't run in rosetta, Classic apps that won't run on x86 OS X, or just because they don't want to be rev. A owners of an all new hardware, all new OS, all new software system.
 
Randall said:
I hope that they keep the outside relatively the same. Why mess with perfection? It has got to be the most solid and well built laptop I have ever seen. Apple please don't change the outside. :eek:
Click to expand...

I just hope they make it a little more scratch resistant. Everyone I’ve talked to who owns one says the PowerBook attracts scratches like a magnet unless you are uber careful with the system. Not expecting the thing to be bullet proof but make it solid enough that an occasional bump or hit isn’t going to dent it or scratch it.
 
Randall said:
I hope that they keep the outside relatively the same. Why mess with perfection? It has got to be the most solid and well built laptop I have ever seen. Apple please don't change the outside. :eek:
Click to expand...

I think the TiBook looks better from the outside, and the AlBook looks better when open. Maybe they can come up with some cool combination.
 
SiliconAddict said:
I just hope they make it a little more scratch resistant. Everyone I’ve talked to who owns one says the PowerBook attracts scratches like a magnet unless you are uber careful with the system. Not expecting the thing to be bullet proof but make it solid enough that an occasional bump or hit isn’t going to dent it or scratch it.
Click to expand...

Mine has no scratches and I wouldn't consider myself to be overly protective of it. 10 months old.
 
ok, that's it, I wanna know who those 6 people who voted negative are.:mad: Anyone wanna fess up? You, over there, did you vote negative for this story?!?
 
SiliconAddict said:
I just hope they make it a little more scratch resistant. Everyone I’ve talked to who owns one says the PowerBook attracts scratches like a magnet unless you are uber careful with the system. Not expecting the thing to be bullet proof but make it solid enough that an occasional bump or hit isn’t going to dent it or scratch it.
Click to expand...

I've had my PowerBook for over 6 months, and I carry it with me to work and the coffee shop almost every day. I can't find a scratch on it. My wife's iBook, now that thing has some scratches on it.

The only aesthetic thing I don't like about the current PowerBook is the shininess of it--I would prefer a more muted brushed-aluminum.


SiliconAddict said:
huh. Then I guess my friends are using their Macs as Frisbees.
Click to expand...

Tell them to send one my way :D
 
Lacero said:
Just the thought of 8+ hours battery life has me salivating. :p


Here's to the Crazy Ones ​
Click to expand...
MMMMMMmmmmmmmmm
Me too!!
Amazing how much i would like better battery life...
 
otter-boy said:
There are few good reasons to not switch over unless the processors perform noticeably slower, they cost much more, or there are compatibility problems.
Click to expand...

Well it is a given that there will be compatibility problems considering that this is x86 vs PPC. Also the processor will definitely cost much, much more. The G4 PPC is a very inexpensive processor, the new Yonah will initially be Intels flagship processor and cost a pretty penny.

Also for those who think Apple will have to bring down their prices in order to compete in the x86 marketplace, don't kid yourself.

The one thing you can count on besides death & taxes is that Apple products will have a high entry cost. Apple has never made an inexpensive anything. The Apple brand is such that they represent the best and you are going to have to pay for it.
 
Voice of reason

Looks like we finally hit "the rumor" for MWSF '06. A Napa in every pot.

I'm guessing:
MacMini: celeron/Pent. M; available Jan.
iBook: Pent. M; available Jan
Powerbook: Yonah/Napa; available Feb/Mar.
Apple will take the sales hit on PB's for a couple months to see how Intel design works on the lower models.
 
digitalbiker said:
Well it is a given that there will be compatibility problems considering that this is x86 vs PPC. Also the processor will definitely cost much, much more. The G4 PPC is a very inexpensive processor, the new Yonah will initially be Intels flagship processor and cost a pretty penny.

Also for those who think Apple will have to bring down their prices in order to compete in the x86 marketplace, don't kid yourself.

The one thing you can count on besides death & taxes is that Apple products will have a high entry cost. Apple has never made an inexpensive anything. The Apple brand is such that they represent the best and you are going to have to pay for it.
Click to expand...
This is a very good point. I agree that I just don't see Apple's prices coming down simply because they are using the x86 architecture. These are highly integrated software and hardware machines we're talking about here, and that is just one of the reasons that Macs are of superior quality.

I also on the other hand do not see a huge jump up in prices for the consumer either though. Apple's margins were incredible for their late model G4 Powerbooks, because as you said, the G4 is quite cheap to manufacture. There will have to be some middle ground where Apple will meet with the consumers. They just can't expect those huge margins on their hardware anymore.
 
danvdr said:
Looks like we finally hit "the rumor" for MWSF '06. A Napa in every pot.

I'm guessing:
MacMini: celeron/Pent. M; available Jan.
iBook: Pent. M; available Jan
Powerbook: Yonah/Napa; available Feb/Mar.
Apple will take the sales hit on PB's for a couple months to see how Intel design works on the lower models.
Click to expand...

OS X x86 requires SSE3... hence there will be no old Dothan pentium M's. These will all be Yonah based pentium M's.
 
Randall said:
OS X x86 requires SSE3... hence there will be no old Dothan pentium M's. These will all be Yonah based intels.
Click to expand...

I stand (happily) corrected.

Can someone give me a idea of what SSE3 is or where to find info about it.

Addendum: Thanks to Randall--see note 2 posts down
 
GregA2 said:
Tom's Hardware has an interesting article about Intel's future CPU roadmap, which mentions not only quad-cores, but EIGHT CORE CPUs on the horizon! :eek:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/04/top_secret_intel_processor_plans_uncovered/
Click to expand...
Well at least they are learning that in the meantime of solving the processing limitations of trying to go smaller then 65nm, that they can use multiple cores to compute in parallel and get the job done faster. Multiple cores with power management will be a great leap forward for computing. :cool:
 
danvdr said:
I stand (happily) corrected.

Can someone give me a idea of what SSE3 is or where to find info about it.
Click to expand...
SSE3 is the third generation of the SSE instruction set for the Intel x86 architecture. SSE stands for Streaming SIMD Extensions, which started with Pentium III. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_SIMD_Extensions and here for SSE3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE3

Another good place to learn about SSE3 is http://www.intel.com/technology/itj/2004/volume08issue01/art01_microarchitecture/p06_sse.htm. I know that it's confusing, but the bottom line is that these are instruction sets that help speed up processing, which is always a good thing.
 
Randall said:
OS X x86 requires SSE3... hence there will be no old Dothan pentium M's. These will all be Yonah based pentium M's.
Click to expand...

You are mistaken here. Aiden Shaw has pointed out many times how Apple instructs developers to code for SSE2. In fact, that was the principle reason most people expected Dothan based macminis or ibooks to be the first intel OS X hardware.
 
digitalbiker said:
You are mistaken here. Aiden Shaw has pointed out many times how Apple instructs developers to code for SSE2. In fact, that was the principle reason most people expected Dothan based macminis or ibooks to be the first intel OS X hardware.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected then. I was wrongly under the impression that OS X x86 requires SSE3 instruction sets. I believe I was told this by somebody else in these forums, and I should have verified it.
 
Don't state opinion as fact

You can't use the developer transistion kit as proof of what the final requirements of OSX86 are. Apple's developer pages are asking developers to target SSE2 only. To me that suggests that Dotham based iBooks / MacMinis are highly likely.

Randall said:
OS X x86 requires SSE3... hence there will be no old Dothan pentium M's. These will all be Yonah based pentium M's.
Click to expand...
 
OSX86 for the DTK does require SSE3.
It also requires a BIOS.
But we don't expect the released version to have these requirements.

Randall said:
I stand corrected then. I was wrongly under the impression that OS X x86 requires SSE3 instruction sets. I believe I was told this by somebody else in these forums, and I should have verified it.
Click to expand...
 
mactim said:
You can't use the developer transistion kit as proof of what the final requirements of OSX86 are. Apple's developer pages are asking developers to target SSE2 only. To me that suggests that Dotham based iBooks / MacMinis are highly likely.
Click to expand...
This would make more sense, as Apple would have had much more time to test these chips, rather then the Yonah chips, which have only been availbe for testing since April as far as I know.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back