Compiled by Charles Moore
and edited by Dan Knight
- 2005.08.25
This Week's Mac-on-Intel News
Low End
Mac has standardized on Macintel as our official informal label
for the forthcoming OS X on Intel Macintosh computers, although
you'll probably find just as many people calling them "Mactels".
Whatever we call them, Apple's decision to switch to Intel CPUs
means we live in very interesting times.
PowerBook, iBook, and other portable computing news is covered
in The 'Book Review. General
Apple and Mac desktop news is covered in The Mac News Review. iPod news is covered
in The iNews Review.
Intel Developer Forum
News, Analysis, and Opinion
Intel Developer Forum
Intel Plans Low-power Chips
CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos reports:
"At Intel, watt is the word.
"The chip giant showed off road maps for its server, notebook
and desktop chips for 2006 and 2007 at its Intel Developer Forum
here Tuesday, and the dominant theme revolves around reducing power
consumption, a concept the company has espoused since the beginning
of the decade.
"Some of the future chips also reverse key technological
decisions and design ideas behind the Pentium 4. Hyperthreading,
one of the touted features of the Pentium 4, will not be part of a
new round of chips coming in the second half of 2006, although
later chips will likely include some form of threading....
"Merom, a notebook chip coming in the second half of 2006, will
consume a maximum of 5 watts of power, while an ultra-low-voltage
version of the chip coming at the end of that year will consume 0.5
watt. Current Pentium M chips for notebooks consume a maximum of
about 22 watts, while ultra-low-voltage Pentium Ms on the market
today consume 5.5 watts.
"Conroe, a desktop relative of Merom coming out at the same
time, will consume a maximum of 65 watts. Current Pentium 4s
consume close to 95 watts. In servers, Woodcrest will consume a
maximum of 80 watts, far less than the 110-watt maximum of today's
Xeon processors."
Intel Looks to Low-power, High-performance Chip
Future
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
"Intel will this week detail how its multicore strategy to
square the circle of reducing processor power consumption without
limiting performance.
"Performance will be limited, of course, at the core level, but
by including more cores, the overall, chip performance will rise,
Intel Senior Fellow and Digital Enterprise Group CTO Steve
Pawlowski said today.
"Virtualisation will allow Intel to drive the number of cores
without being hindered by a paucity of multithreaded applications
or the ability of the host operating system to cope with future
processors containing dozens and even hundreds of cores, Pawlowski
suggested."
Intel Swaps Clock Speed for Power
Efficiency
eWeek's John G. Spooner reports:
"Intel, which next week is expected to announce plans to move to
a new processor architecture, is switching to a new yardstick to
measure processor performance: performance per watt.
"Intel Corp. is expected to detail next week at its IDF (Intel
Developer Forum) a plan to begin building multicore chips with the
architecture, a modified version of the circuitry behind its
Pentium M notebook processor, during 2006....
"Its first dual-core Pentium M, a chip dubbed Yonah, will become
part of Intel's forthcoming Napa notebook platform, due in early
2006. But it will also be used in brand-name desktops, possibly
including the Apple's Mac Mini, said sources familiar with Intel's
plans.
"Merom, a dual-core notebook processor that will succeed Yonah
in late 2006, will be one of the first new architecture chips.
"Expected to arrive in notebooks in early 2007, it will deliver
the expected bump in speed and 64-bit addressing, the sources
said."
Intel Takes Cool to the Core
InfoWorld's Tom Krazit reports:
"Speed and heat are out at the world's largest chipmaker; power
management and cool are in. This week Intel will reveal details
about a new chip architecture that will allow the company to put a
lid on the runaway power consumption of its Pentium 4 and Xeon
chips and to create chips with more than one processing core.
"Intel has not yet publicly disclosed specifics about its
next-generation architecture, other than to announce that it would
be discussed at this week's Intel Developer Forum. Analysts and
other sources familiar with Intel's plans, however, expect CEO Paul
Otellini to say that Intel's processors for the second half of 2006
will use an architecture inspired by the Pentium M notebook
processor."
Intel to Standardize Small-size PC Platform in
2006
DigiTimes' Charles Chou and Jessie Shen report:
"Intel informed its customers that in the first quarter of 2006
its next-generation architecture for small-profile PCs will feature
similar CPUs as its next-generation notebook-use processors, the
dual-core Yonah, according to sources at motherboard makers. Intel
intends to push its "Mobile in Desktop Platform" concept for
small-profile PCs including small form factor (SFF) systems, which
lack space for heat-dissipation, the sources indicated."
News, Analysis, and Opinion
Apple Demands French Website Remove OS X on
Intel Videos
eWeek reports:
"It has confirmed by eWeek that Apple sent a letter to the
French Web site MacBidouille asking the site's owners to remove
posted videos and torrent files for the videos.
"These videos showed a version of Mac OS X for Intel running on
generic PCs, rather than on the Intel-based developer kits Apple
made available to developers for a fee.
"'I can confirm officially that we've received a
cease-and-desist letter from Apple's lawyers at the firm O'Melveny
and Myers LLP,' wrote François Rejeté, one of
MacBidouille's cofounders."
Apple Developers Taking to Intel with
Aplomb
Red Nova reports:
"There is one certainty for Mac developers: Change comes often
to the Apple world. In the early 1990s, developers had to move
their code from the 68000 series of Motorola processors to the
PowerPC architecture. In the early aughts, they had to move it
again, this time from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. And now, just
as the dust has finally settled, the cadre in Cupertino has changed
horses once again.
"It's been two months since Steve Jobs announced that Apple
Computer was going with Intel processors, and in that time, Apple's
transition toolkit has made its way into the hands of the Macintosh
cognoscenti. And in that time, it's become clear that this
transition will likely be the easiest of all those yet experienced
by Apple developers."
Can Apple Build Intel's Dream?
IT Week's Kelvyn Taylor says:
"Apple's move to Intel-based Macs will spark innovation in the
PC industry
"Forget the squeals and protests of the die-hard Mac lovers -
the recent news of Apple's move to the Intel platform marks a
turning point in the personal computer industry. If my theory is
correct, it's exactly what's needed to breathe new life into an
area of technology that is currently starved of innovation.
"And what's more, I reckon Apple is absolutely right to state
from the outset that Mac OS X will only run on Apple hardware
- in fact that's one of the key factors.
"As I see it, Apple's specific choice of Intel (rather than just
x86) is significant, and anyone who was at the Intel Developer
Forum (IDF) in San Francisco earlier this year or has read any of
the coverage of that event should be able to see why. Note that I'm
not talking about the economics of the decision to use a different
type of processor."
Apple's Power-User Grab
InfoWorld's Tom Yager says:
"Apple pushed IBM and Freescale to advance PowerPC technology
further and faster than the majority of their customers expected or
required. I hope Apple makes itself another pain in Intel's ass.
Then all users of commercial client hardware can demand more than
Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and IBM can deliver.
"When Apple made its announcement about the Mac's steady march
to Intel, I flashed on the Great Wall of Client Conformity at last
year's Intel Developer Conference. Intel displayed its reference
desktop motherboards ringed by third-party 'alternatives' or
knockoffs. The message I took from it was: An Intel PC is an Intel
PC wherever you go....
"However, one small, well-heeled segment of the market forces PC
innovation: the power users. On the noncommercial side, these are
serious gamers, developers and the enthusiasts who obsess over
keeping their systems state of the art - and who compete with one
another to stuff boxes with the most firepower money can buy."
What They Stopped Talking About
Gene Steinberg, the Mac Night Owl, writes:
"It's tempting. We live in a world of instant analysis, so when
something happens, expected or otherwise, you can bet there will be
a thousand and one interpretations of the meaning of the event
within the first five minutes. You aren't supposed to just sit back
and sort through the maze of facts and fiction for yourself, not
when others are ready and waiting to tell you what to think."
Iscentia Launches Podcast for Macintosh
Enterprise Managers
Iscentia Ltd., providers of Macintosh Enterprise Services,
announces today that the second edition of its popular Iscentia
Enterprise Report publication is available in both a print edition
and a new complimentary podcast edition.
The Iscentia Enterprise Report is a regular electronic executive
publication designed to inform senior business, technical, IT and
creative managers on the latest issues, trends, and opportunities
associated with the improvement, integration, and management of
Macintosh based enterprises and networks.
The Summer 2005 edition contains 4 in-depth articles, based on
Iscentia's extensive project experience and cover the following
Macintosh industry topics:
- Apple transitioning to Intel: What we know, what we don't know
right now, and how the Mac enterprise can start to plan for the
introduction of Intel based Macs.
- Enterprise Integration: How to ensure that Macs are no longer
an island within the corporate enterprise.
- Advanced backup architectures: The wide range of enterprise
class backup strategies and solutions available for the Mac.
- Virtual private networks: They are now widely available and
highly useful for even the smallest Mac enterprise.
The podcast edition has the same content as the print edition
presented in a creative spoken word format. It is styled similar to
an audio book, as opposed to a radio show.
"With the successful launch of the Iscentia Enterprise Report in
the Spring, and the rapid adoption of podcasts it was a natural
evolution for us to provide our publication in both formats,"
explained Stuart Wilkes, Iscentia Technical Director.
The first edition of the Iscentia Enterprise Report, published
in the Spring, received many hundreds of subscribers from a cross
section of Macintosh enterprise users in a diverse range of
industries, corporations, creative organisations, educational
establishments and even Apple themselves!
Both the print edition and the podcast edition of the Iscentia
Enterprise Report are available for free (registration required)
from Iscentia's website.
More Mac News
PowerBook, iBook, and other portable computing news is covered
in The 'Book Review. General
Apple and Mac desktop news is covered in The Mac News Review. iPod news is covered
in The iNews Review.
