Apple Laptop Chips

M

MallyMal

Registered
I'm sure this an obvious statement but I really think Apple needs a dedicated mobile chip. Everyone seems to be lusting for a PB G5 but wouldn't it be better if Apple could somehow get a mobile chip like the Pentium M? Think about it, if Apple is already having trouble getting a G5 chip into a notebook how long will it be before they hit the ceiling again once they figure out a way to get the G5 in a laptop in the first place?

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anyone out there that is building dedicated mobile PPC chips. So, where does this leave Apple for the future of their laptops? The G5 will be good for the desktops but what about the laptops?

Apple can't just lag behind in mobile hardware and hope that everyone is going to switch because of the look of the hardware and the OS. They have to be better in both software AND hardware. And as it stands, the G4 is slower than the Pentium M and gets worse battery life.

So, what do you folks think?
 
Its common knowledge that IBM is working hard to make lower power versions ofthe G5 to fit in Apples laptops..IBM works very hard to please its customers...When the G4 first came out it was a heat monster...Motorola's fabbing technologies eventually got better to where the chip could fit in a powerbook 2 years later...this can be expected with IBM as well especially how we all know how microprocessors double speed every 18 months..
 
And not to forget: The PowerPC has been aimed at embedded systems from the very beginning - and up until the most recent G3 and G4 chips from IBM and Motorola. The current G4 chips _are_ basically chips aimed at Apple's notebooks. If you look at their power and power consumption numbers, you'll see they're not so different from intel's Pentium-M chip family (or rather families).

The G5 chip, however, was IBM and Apple's answer to the problem that there was no dedicated DESKTOP PowerPC processor. Now, of course, the solution has turned into a problem. The G5 was designed for high-end desktop machines and low-end servers.

I think IBM and Apple are both working heavily on creating a 64bit solution for notebook computers. Whether the resulting chip will be a G3+64bit+AltiVec more than a scaled down G5 won't matter much, they'll probably call it a G5 Mobile or something.

Until then, Motorola (FreeScale) are bringing MPC 7447A and MPC 7448 chips Apple's way.

And when the G5 Mobile is ready, we'll probably see the iBooks using future G4 based processors (like the mentioned 7448) by Motorola. But this'll happen in 2005. Not in 2004.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top