Yonah May Draw More Power Than Expected, OS X on 4 Dual-core Intel CPUs, x86 a Bad Decision, and More

Charles Moore - 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 iPod News Review.

• Dual-core Yonah to Consume More Power
• OS X Reported Running on Four Dual-core Intel CPUs
• The Future of the Mac
• Dizzying Intel Chip Choices
• Murphy Sees x86 as a Bad Choice
• Mixing Apples and PCs: VARs Find They Must Do Windows

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.

• Link: Yonah to Suck Up More 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.

• Link: MacIntel: Examples of Future Models

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...."

• Link: Dizzying Intel Chip Choices

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."

• Link: Apple, Insecurity, and x86

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."

• Link: Mixing Apples and PCs: VARs Find They Must Do Windows

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 iPod News Review.