Compiled by Charles Moore
and edited by Dan Knight
- 2005.10.13
This Week's Macintel News
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.
Dual-core Yonah to Consume More Power
CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos and Kai Schmerer report:
"Yonah, a new notebook chip coming from Intel early next year,
will run slightly faster than expected, but may also consume more
power than its contemporaries.
"Intel road maps seen by CNET News.com indicate the
next-generation Pentium M will debut at speeds up to 2.16 GHz and
possibly 2.33 GHz - slightly faster than the 2 GHz or less
anticipated by sources in August. Yonah will also come with a
667-MHz bus, which is a channel for ferrying data between the
processor and memory; today's Pentium Ms feature a 533-MHz bus. The
price will also be the same.
"Yonah chips, though, will carry higher
maximum-power-consumption ratings than current Pentium Ms. Most
likely, that's because most Yonahs will sport two processing cores,
rather than the single core found in today's notebook chips."
The article goes on to note that there will be single-core Yonah
CPUs, which will draw less power.
OS X Reported Running on Four Dual-core Intel
CPUs
HardMac's Lionel reports:
"We are often hearing about what could be potentially lost with
MacIntels transitions, without serious information regarding what
could be gained with such CPU migration.
"That's the reason why we have decided to release 2 screenshots
sent to us by an anonymous source.
"We do not think that this info will hurt Apple, since it simply
demonstrates the huge potential offered to Mac users by the future
MacIntels."
The screen shots show Mac OS X for Intel running on a computer
with four dual-core CPUs.
The Future of the Mac
oreillynet.com's Tom Bridge has posted a discussion forum among
himself, Rik the editor of MacAddict Magazine, Tom Negrino a book
author and longtime contributor to Macworld, and Dori Smith a book
author and longtime contributor to Macworld.
The questions discussed include:
- Why did Apple really switch to Intel, and should I hold off on
purchasing?
- If you could have two new features in the next OS, what would
they be and why?
- Apple has two iPods that are USB only. What does this mean for
Apple Hardware? Is FireWire dead?
- Do you see any significant changes in software development for
the Mac as opposed to the PC?
- If I'm a windows user considering a switch, what are the pros
and cons?
- We now have Tiger and Intel OS update. What's the next paradigm
shift for the next cat?
- Do you see a shift toward more laptops as they're more
mobile.
- There's a lot of talk about convergence. Where are we
heading?
- What happens with printing? Will we see more LaserJets?
inkjets?
- Why did Apple give up on PDA?
- Link: The
Future of Mac: A Discussion
Dizzying Intel Chip Choices
CNET News.com's Michael Singer and Kai Schmerer report:
"Figuring out which computer to buy will be a lot more
challenging next year with the substantial expansion of Intel's
processor line.
"A confidential Intel road map seen by CNET News.com reveals
that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker will market a dizzying
hodgepodge of chips in 2006. Some will have two cores, or computer
brains, on a single piece of silicon, while others will have one
core.
"Performance-enhancing features such as hyperthreading, 64-bit
functionality, execute/disable and virtualization will appear
together, separately, in varying combinations or not at all,
depending on the chip and the type of computer in which it will be
used. Of course, chips will vary by speed, cache size and bus
speed....
"Ultimately, Intel's future Pentium 4 line can be broken into
two families: Presler chips, which are due in the first part of
2006 and Conroe desktop processors, which are due in the second
half of 2006. Both dual-core processors will be based around an 800
MHz front-side bus, which helps speed the chip's complex
computations...."
Murphy Sees x86 as a Bad Choice
blogs.zdnet.com's Paul Murphy says:
"Okey, before we get to the security issue let me just unload
about this faster chip nonsense. The 3.6 GHz P4 isn't remotely
performance competitive with the 2.7 GHz G5. What happens is that
applications written for x86 run better on x86 - and so the less
effort the application developer put into working with the G5 Mac,
the better the applications look when ported to the x86 Mac.
Conversely, my understanding is that Microsoft is having a very
difficult time with Windows/XP on the X360 Xenon (a triple core,
3.2 GHz, 6 thread PowerG5 [sic] successor) because it limps along
steadily enough, but more slowly than dead armadillo
"Apple didn't go Intel because it's faster and they certainly
didn't go Intel because it offers a quicker route to lower power
requirements for laptops - a laughable suggestion recently revived
by someone at Computerworld: Apple went Intel because they had to
get away from IBM and hadn't rethought Plan B for four years."
Mixing Apples and PCs: VARs Find They Must Do
Windows
Channel Insider's Pedro Pereira writes:
"With Apple Computer Inc.'s market share expected to get a
healthy boost this year, the casual observer might be tempted to
think the increase carries a windfall for Apple's channel
partners.
"The casual observer would be wrong.
"Even though sales of some Macintosh computers are up, much of
Apple's growth comes from sales of the iPod MP3 player."
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.
