[geeks] this is where the mac should be

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Thu, 12 Oct 2006, James Fogg wrote:

> Remember that one of Apples big concerns was the need for a low power
> consumption chip for laptops. IBM still hasn't addressed that issue.

Apple's concerns were:
   1) No low-power laptop part, which IBM had out within the year, in
      a dual core variant, no less.
   2) No 3.0GHz G5, which IBM had out within a month of the "transition"
      announcement.
   3) Better MIPS/watts on the Intel side than in PPC's future.  It looks
      like POWER6 is going to blow a big smoking hole in that argument,
      too.

I suspect the real reasons Apple switched platforms was something like
this:
   1) Intel's core logic has DRM (TPM), which makes Hollywood happy.
   2) It gave Apple the opportunity to outsource their hardware design to
      other companies, so that Apple could save its desig engineers' time
      for more profitable ventures (such as overpriced lossy portable
      music players).
   3) Apple wanted to keep tiny inventories (ie: like Dell) with niche
      processors, ASICs, and boards, and got tired of IBM and Freescale
      telling them exactly where to stick that argument.

So, now Apple doesn't design any of their hardware, uses commodity parts
so that they can play Dell's product-chain game, and have the DRM switch
ready to throw whenever Hollywood buys the right politician.

Yes, the new Macs are fast.  Conroe / Woodcrest is an awesome platform
(aside from that FB-DIMM crap) in terms of performance.  However, I
suspect that the performance had more to do with the timing of Apple's
transition than the transition itself.  There's no way that Apple
couldn't have known IBM was going to ship low-power G5s and faster
high-end G5s.  However, back when it was doubtful that IBM was going to
squeeze those parts out, Intel only had NetBurst to offer....

-- 
Jonathan Patschke   "The ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes,
Elgin, TX            the powerful dictate what they desire--they all con-
USA                  spire together. The best of them is like a brier, the
                      most upright worse than a thorn hedge." --Micah 7:3-4