Analysis: Apple eyes the Pentium M
The first Apple systems with Intel inside will use the Pentium M chip,
sources say
News Story by Tom Krazit
JUNE 08, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - A processor alliance between Intel Corp.
and Apple Computer Inc. would have seemed unthinkable five years ago, when
Apple CEO Steve Jobs first began setting up the company's "just in case"
plan for moving to Intel chips if its relationship with IBM and Freescale
Semiconductor Inc. faltered. With IBM and Freescale moving in different
directions from Apple, the backup plan moved front and center this week
(see story).
Jobs ended days of speculation during a speech at the company's Worldwide
Developer 2005 conference in San Francisco on Monday, confirming that Apple
will use Intel processors in its Macintosh computers starting next year.
This will require software developers to port their applications away from
IBM and Freescale's PowerPC architecture to Intel's x86 architecture, a
significant undertaking for some.
The first Apple systems in 2006 will use Intel's Pentium M processor,
according to sources familiar with the companies' plans. The Pentium M uses
the same x86 architecture as the Pentium 4 but consumes far less power. Its
design philosophy is expected to be the model for Intel's future processors.
Apple officials did not return repeated calls for comment, and an Intel
spokesman declined to comment on Apple's product decisions.
Jobs justified the move away from the PowerPC to Intel's x86 architecture
largely on Intel's ability to deliver a high-performance per-watt ratio
compared with IBM's future chips. This would tend to favor the Pentium M,
which is just as powerful as high-end Pentium 4 processors yet uses far
less power, Intel executives have said.
Industry analysts agreed that the Pentium M product Intel plans to launch
in early 2006, the dual-core Yonah processor, could be an industry leader
in performance per watt at that point.
IBM's PowerPC 970FX chip, which Apple called the G5, simply doesn't lend
itself to PC designs that require low power consumption, such as notebooks
and small form-factor desktops, Jobs said. Apple was also frustrated by
IBM's inability to supply it with sufficient processors last year as the
chip maker struggled with yield problems while getting its new
manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, N.Y., up and running.
But Apple accounted for only about 2% of IBM's chip wafer production in
East Fishkill, according to industry sources, and IBM is moving away from
making chips for the PC market in favor of gaming consoles and high-end
servers. An IBM spokesman declined to comment on the nature of his
company's relationship with Apple, but the company released a statement
indicating that it probably won't miss Apple's business.
"IBM is aggressively moving the Power Architecture beyond the PC, as shown
by our recent successes with the next-generation gaming systems announced
by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. ... IBM is focused on the highest value
opportunities in each marketplace, and our direction with the Power
Architecture is consistent with that strategy," the company said.
Console makers like Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Microsoft Corp. and
Nintendo Co. will sell tens of millions of units combined over the next
couple of years, and it's likely that IBM would rather focus its attention
on the deals it has struck with those three companies, as opposed to taking
on the engineering challenge of making a low-power G5 processor to suit
Apple's small market share.
Freescale, Apple's other PowerPC chip supplier, introduced a dual-core
PowerPC chip last year that uses two G4 cores. The G4 processor currently
ships with Apple's Mac mini, PowerBook, iBook and eMac products. This chip
might have been able to compete with Intel's Yonah and would have staved
off the painful software transitions for at least another year, said Nathan
Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64 in Saratoga, California.
But Freescale is primarily concerned with the embedded and mobile phone
markets and is not prepared to make the same investments in future PC chip
design as Intel is guaranteed to do, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst
at Mercury Research Inc. in Cave Creek, Ariz. Therefore, Apple had little
choice but to make the historic move to standard PC chips, he said.
One chip company on the outside looking in is Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Several industry analysts said they felt that if Apple was ever going to
move to x86 chips, it might have found AMD a more suitable partner, given
the underdog status of both companies and the competitiveness of AMD's
Opteron and Athlon 64 processors. Apple and AMD have indeed talked about a
relationship at certain points in their histories and have worked together
as members of the Hypertransport Consortium, said Drew Prairie, an AMD
spokesman.
However, Prairie was not able to comment on any recent talks between AMD
and Apple.
Phil Daley < AutoDesk >
http://www.conknet.com/~p_daley
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