Possible AMD-Apple Alliance?

[sammah19]

Apple, AMD, and the Mac Attack

This was a letter sent in to The Inquirer from what appears to be an Apple fanatic (not that there's anything wrong with them ) that talks about the possible benefits of an Apple-AMD allliance. Though I don't think this is based on any real behind the scenes talks or anything, it is an interesting possibility. Certainly AMD could use the exposure and additional markets this would provide, and I believe the AMD chips would provide a bit more kick than the current Motorola chips, at a better price as well. Also it may speed their migration to DDR ram, as the Macs are currently still using SDRAM.

Just looking for insight on the likelihood of this, and if anyone has seen anything else that hints at this possibility.

 

[rickn]

I doubt it. Apple starts using x86 in their machines and the Mac faithful will revolt and burn their HQ to the ground. Those people are scary

 

[Ryan]

Yea, if they start using PC procesors - that would open up the market for other people to make Macs - which means Apple will loose profit.

 

[Adul]

I would love to run OS X on my pc.

 

[BeauJangles]

Sorry, I doubt we will see the fall of wintel any time soon.

 

[MGMorden]

You guys do know that it's completely within AMD's power to design a non-x86 architecture don't you? They're not going to do it right now because there's no point but you can bet that if they had a contract to supply Apple with cpu's then their little R&D lights would be on day and night.

 

[AGodspeed]

<< You guys do know that it's completely within AMD's power to design a non-x86 architecture don't you? They're not going to do it right now because there's no point but you can bet that if they had a contract to supply Apple with cpu's then their little R&D lights would be on day and night. >>



I doubt it would be that easy for AMD to switch from CISC R&D development to RISC PowerPC-like processor development. But who knows.

 

[astroview]

And in addition we can likely kiss goodbye to silent PCs if there are AMD chips in apples.

 

[Nefrodite]

yes that new imac would have to have an external heatsink don't touch it kids! you'll burn your hand hehehe

 

[Diable]

Astroview, PowerMac above 500mhz are far from silent. The case fan on those models is loud as hell.

AGodspeed, AMD wouldn't have to design a new chip they could just graft a AltiVec unit(or two)on to a XP(like Motorola does now with the G4's)and call it a new chip.

 

[astroview]

How loud are the fans on the chips themselves Diable? Are you referring to a power supply fan thats being loud, because if you are that can be easily fixed by just replacing the fan or PS.

 

[gogeeta13]

DocSmarts, is that you??!?!?!?

 

[AGodspeed]

<< How loud are the fans on the chips themselves Diable? Are you referring to a power supply fan thats being loud, because if you are that can be easily fixed by just replacing the fan or PS. >>



If you've ever had any experience with a Mac before, you know that they aren't all that silent. And besides, if AMD were ever to make processors for Apple, hasn't it crossed your mind yet that they would likely be using .13u process technology? Cmon now.

 

[vash]

Apple going to the x86 route is only going to benefit them in the long run. They'll have the ability to buy chips from Intel or AMD, let alone VIA or whomever comes up with another x86 clone. With their PowerPC route, there is Motorola and IBM -- both of which are behind the times in terms of speed. Sure, Mac fans are a rabid bunch, but I don't think they'll too much if their box is powered by an x86 or a PowerPC processor.

OS/X is build of mach64 -- that has already been ported fo x86. Apple's Cocoa GUI hasn't been ported, but I'm sure it could. The major obstable in seeing Apple going x86 is Steve Jobs -- he won't do it.

vash

 

[Idontcare]

<< I doubt it would be that easy for AMD to switch from CISC R&D development to RISC PowerPC-like processor development. But who knows. >>



I'm pretty sure (but am frequently wrong ) that the only CISC R&D development done these days is for the decoder stages in any x86 compatible CPU. Remember that the x86 instructions are decoded and turned into microps (the RI in RISC) which are then processed by the core of the CPU. The Athlon core is very much like any 32bit RISC based processor in that it processes via RISC, the fact that it is x86 compatible just means it has a CISC decoder (three of them in fact if I remember correctly). BTW, Intel's P5, P6, and P7 cores are this way too. I've noticed it is commonly assumed that x86 is equal to CISC (which is true) but incorrectly interpreted to mean that the current crop of x86 compatible CPUs are equal to CISC (which is not true). However your statement is not that far off insofar that attempting to design any new CPU is tantamount to a 2 year nightmare for which the stakes and the potential payout are unknown...

Try this:

"I doubt it would be that easy for AMD to switch from their current R&D development to any PowerPC-like processor development. But who knows."

 

[imgod2u]

The Hammer line on an Apple machine would be interesting. AMD certainly needs some way of convincing the market to move to x86-64. They don't have the dedicated developers like Apple does and developers certainly aren't going to develope for a small niche market. Unless the mass of the market get x86-64 compatible processors, I doubt there really will be any support for it. That is where Apple could come in. The guy who wrote the article is obviously a fanatic and a really loud-mouthed one at that. It's a good thing he's only doing editorials instead of actual reviews.

Of course, there is the fact of pride. Apple has been going on for so long "we're better than PC's, RISC is better, twice as fast, yada yada yada", I wonder if Jobs could manage to suck it up and admit "ok, we were lying out of our asses, these chips are great performers and we'll be using them".

 

[Diable]

<< How loud are the fans on the chips themselves Diable? Are you referring to a power supply fan thats being loud, because if you are that can be easily fixed by just replacing the fan or PS. >>



Apple doesn't put fans on top of the processors just a big ass heatsink. The case fan they do install is very loud and the p/s fan is also loud. More then likely if you replaced the fans with quiter ones the cpu found probably overheat.

 

[Spyro]

I'd love to run OS X on my box, but I don't think that will be happening anytime soon.