IBM having major problems making 90 nm G5 PPC 970FX CPUs

[Eug]

Apple quarterly conference call

"IBM is working very very hard" to bring supply demand in balance for (Xserve) G5 chips, expects to catch up with demand this quarter. IBM is the only supplier that's delaying the shipment.

By the way, last quarter Apple sold 807000 iPods. That's more iPods than Macs. 😛

 

[arsbanned]

This seems to be the story of Apple's life, trying to get their suppliers to provide chips. First moto shat the bed trying to get past 500 Mhz, now IBM is having problems.
Haven't they heard of Moore's Law? " 😀

 

[InlineFive]

Well if they are the only supplier why doesn't Apple choose some other fab for redundancy? However this may cause problems with AMD's 90nm processors though, which isn't so good. 🙁

-Por

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
Well if they are the only supplier why doesn't Apple choose some other fab for redundancy? However this may cause problems with AMD's 90nm processors though, which isn't so good. 🙁

-Por

Yeah, They could just ask Intel...LOL

 

[Random Variable]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
Well if they are the only supplier why doesn't Apple choose some other fab for redundancy? However this may cause problems with AMD's 90nm processors though, which isn't so good. 🙁

-Por

How could Apple get another supplier to fabricate a chip designed by IBM? That doesn't make any sense. 😕

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: Eug
Apple quarterly conference call

"IBM is working very very hard" to bring supply demand in balance for (Xserve) G5 chips, expects to catch up with demand this quarter. IBM is the only supplier that's delaying the shipment.

By the way, last quarter Apple sold 807000 iPods. That's more iPods than Macs. 😛

Couldn't you be reading a little much into that?

Could mean that they are just selling more then they thought they did...
Oh what, this is apple. Nevermind. 😛

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: drag

Originally posted by: Eug
Apple quarterly conference call

"IBM is working very very hard" to bring supply demand in balance for (Xserve) G5 chips, expects to catch up with demand this quarter. IBM is the only supplier that's delaying the shipment.

By the way, last quarter Apple sold 807000 iPods. That's more iPods than Macs. 😛

Couldn't you be reading a little much into that?

Could mean that they are just selling more then they thought they did...
Oh what, this is apple. Nevermind. 😛

Very well could be..They are a pretty fantastic machine despite the high entry fee(cost). Plus, Look at the cluster that have been being made, That probably wasn't planned by Apple, Thus more machines needed.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8

Originally posted by: PorBleemo
Well if they are the only supplier why doesn't Apple choose some other fab for redundancy? However this may cause problems with AMD's 90nm processors though, which isn't so good. 🙁

Yeah, They could just ask Intel...LOL

Yeah, it's not as if anyone else could actually make them, considering that it's 90 nm, and it's based on processes that IBM invented. Any other companies would be depending on IBM for the technology transfer anyway. And even if Intel agreed to make them (which they wouldn't), they're having major problems at 90 nm too.

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8
Very well could be..They are a pretty fantastic machine despite the high entry fee(cost). Plus, Look at the cluster that have been being made, That probably wasn't planned by Apple, Thus more machines needed.

Except that by Power Mac standards Xserves are low volume sales per quarter, numbering in the thousands of units. The Power Mac sells hundreds of thousands of units per quarter. If IBM can't keep up production of the 970FX for the Xserve, that certainly doesn't bode well for the Power Macs.

BTW, it's pretty clear that VT and Apple planned to use the G5 Xserves right from the start. The main problem with the G5 Power Macs is that they have no server-type monitoring (for obvious reasons), and don't have ECC either. VT had gone on record as to saying that they'd switch to ECC machines even before the Xserve G5 was announced. They just didn't say it would be the Xserve, until the Xserve was announced in Jan. 2004.