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Little is known about the new MacBook Pro except the case, shown here, which will feature a removable hard-drive battery compartment cover. Could Apple have secret plans up its sleeve?  (Source: Apple.pro)
Apple could be on the verge of shaking up its all-Intel CPU/chipset arrangement

Mention Apple in the tech community and one is sure to invoke a firestorm of criticism and debate.  Indeed few topics excite tech readers quite like the moves of Apple which tends to draw inordinately passionate praise and criticism.  However, one of the few moves that both critics and supporters alike seemed to agree was good news was "Mactel" -- Apple moving to adopt Intel processors and chipsets, starting in 2006.

Now it appears that the Mactel romance, which helped propel Apple to a modest marketshare and a third place spot in PC sales may be on the rocks, if new reports are to be believed.  While Apple will continue using the microprocessor giant's CPUs, a report from AppleInsider cites an inside source as saying that Apple will ditch Intel's chipsets in the new Apple computers that are scheduled to be announced in coming weeks.

Currently Apple uses the same Santa Rosa mobile platform that competitors Dell and HP use, just slightly tweaked for an OS X world.  However, according to the report, Apple believes that by moving away from Intel chipsets, it can set itself above the competition.  According to the reports the upcoming trio of Macbooks to be announced in several weeks will not feature the Montevina chipset, the chipset component of Intel's Centrino 2 platform.

What remains unspecific is what Apple plans to replace Intel's chipsets with.  One thing seems certain; whoever is making the new chipset is going to need an Intel licensing agreement, which could lead to an awkward situation for Apple.  One line of thinking is that Apple may revert to developing its own proprietary chipset as it did in the PowerPC days.  These thinkers point to Apple's acquisition of chipset company P.A. Semi.  However, Apple has previously insisted that this acquisition is purely to drive iPhone and iPod Touch chipset efforts.

Others believe that the new systems will feature NVIDIA or VIA chipsets, which would solve the licensing problems and could likely prove more full-featured than Intel's designs.  Many are hopeful that Apple will adopt this approach. 

It appears that a couple factors may be driving Apple's possible departure from Intel chipsets.  One is power consumption.  Intel's integrated graphics and chipset offerings are overly power hungry according to some analysts.  Another factor is unique capability -- Apple may be looking for unique features that Intel cannot provide it.

The reports could have something to do with Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer's comments during a conference call in which he stated boldly that Apple will be unveiling new technologies that will hurt its profit margins but send competitors reeling.  Said Mr. Oppenheimer, "We have some investments in front of us that I can’t discuss with you today where we’re going to be delivering state of the art new products that our competitors just aren’t going to be able to match and as a result, I would see gross margins being about 30 percent and that’s – that’s all I can tell you at this point." 

The comments echo allusions made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently that Apple will soon be revealing game-changing new products.  Both executives’ comments are out of character for Apple which has built a reputation for secrecy.

The official word from Apple and whatever it has up its sleeve is expected to coincide with the announcement of the new MacBooks which is coming in 6 to 8 weeks.  The new MacBooks are expected to release in time for the back-to-school shopping rush.

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It is hard to see the logic of such a move
By nizanh on 7/30/2008 9:29:07 AM , Rating: 5
Apple business focus isn't on chip design. Apple don't have chip manufacturing facilities. Intel has to update it chipsets once or twice a year. It is hard to see how Apple with its tiny market share can justify investment in chipset development .




RE: It is hard to see the logic of such a move
By omnicronx on 7/30/2008 9:44:23 AM , Rating: 5
I totally agree, I don't see how Apple is going to get anything better from the likes of Nvidia, AMD, or VIA. Maybe Apple is just getting a little scared that people are going to realize that when you buy a Mac, you are paying for the shiny casing and the OS, as everything else is essentially a PC. What better way than proprietary hardware to keep clones and the naysayers away.

Do I think its a good idea? Hell NO! Apple should stay where they belong, and that's not in actual development of hardware.


RE: It is hard to see the logic of such a move
By othercents on 7/30/2008 11:48:47 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
Apple should stay where they belong, and that's not in actual development of hardware.

Then were do they belong? Apple has always been a hardware company since the beginning when they designed the first apple computer. Where they have lacked until recently was the software side. Now with the advances in the iPhone and OSX they are doing well on the software front, but why give up on the hardware side?

If they want to get licensing and build a chipset they should do it. Granted if they don't use the Intel chipset I believe that they will buy their chipset from someone else. Maybe even from Nvidia or AMD to get an integrated solution with higher end graphic capability.

Other


By Oregonian2 on 7/31/2008 3:38:32 PM , Rating: 4
Their hardware (meaning "electrical"), per se, has never been outstanding. Their strengths have been in industrial design (looks, packaging, "mechanical excellence"), marketing, and in software. Their hardware (starting from the Apple I which I recall seeing back at the first computer show in Atlantic City long long ago) has been fairly run-of-the-mill. That said, a lot of their strength in software came from their making of their own hardware, not necessarily because it was super-good hardware, but that it was "captive" and a known entity unlike uSoft whose software had only vague outlines of what hardware it was to run on. Now, silicon design would be an entirely new business to get into. Generating custom lower-performance but niche-advantageous silicon seems likely. Anything that takes a fab-power contest is something they'd probably have trouble competing with, Intel #1 in the world doing that.


By StevoLincolnite on 7/30/2008 12:03:17 PM , Rating: 5
I actually hope they do go with Via, Via used to have rather bad Chipsets in the Socket 7 days (Remember the AGP issues?)
But since Intel tried to force Rambus down our throats Via has seemed like the Dude in Shiny Armor to me.

Plus This will give Via some more funds and be more competitive in the chipset Arena, and hopefully make some nice High-End AMD/Intel boards that will grab peoples attention and in the end, create more competition which leads to lower prices.


By theapparition on 7/30/2008 12:13:35 PM , Rating: 2
Ack! Via on Socket7........thought I had completely purged those nightmares, but you mentioning made me re-live some of those bad memories.


RE: It is hard to see the logic of such a move
By erikejw on 7/31/2008 2:29:44 AM , Rating: 2
The only candidates are AMD/ATI and Nvidia since they are the only one with better integrated graphics which seems to be the main issue.

AMD have no Intel chipsets but Nvidia have.
To me it seems as it will be Nvidia who brings home the contract.

Even though their chipsets are very powerhungry and have other problems I can't see AMD design a chipset for the small Apple market, it would not make sense.


By kelmon on 7/31/2008 3:25:48 AM , Rating: 2
Indeed, the prediction appears to be nVidia:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/07/30/coul...

Apparently nVidia have been developing their own mobile platform to work with the Core 2 Duo processor family that would provide substantially better graphics performance (not exactly shocking news) and equivalent features to the Intel chipsets. The silence from the company on this product is also taken as being a sign that they are working with Apple since "silence" might as well be the company motto.


RE: It is hard to see the logic of such a move
By jonmcc33 on 7/30/2008 12:54:08 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
But since Intel tried to force Rambus down our throats Via has seemed like the Dude in Shiny Armor to me.


Where have you been the past few years? Intel gave up on Rambus years ago. They switched to DDR and were the first to switch to DDR2 and DDR3.

Via has gone downhill and only makes extreme budget chipsets. Most of their money comes from thin client systems now.

quote:
Plus This will give Via some more funds and be more competitive in the chipset Arena, and hopefully make some nice High-End AMD/Intel boards that will grab peoples attention and in the end, create more competition which leads to lower prices.


Via fell to nVIDIA and AMD/ATi for AMD chipsets. They never made a successful Intel chipset and can never compete in price/performance. I'd give up on these dreams of yours...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIA_Technologies


RE: It is hard to see the logic of such a move
By Sulphademus on 7/30/2008 1:23:55 PM , Rating: 4
Maybe Apple needs a unique chipset so prevent any new Psystar's from popping up.

VIA may be down but I wouldnt count em out. They could come back with a decent chipset and it wouldnt surprize me.


By jonmcc33 on 7/30/2008 6:41:34 PM , Rating: 2
I wouldn't count on that...ever. Read the link.


By StevoLincolnite on 7/30/2008 3:27:07 PM , Rating: 2
I think *everyone* knows that Intel gave up on Rambus, I was reminiscing the past.

Basically VIA was the only decent choice at that time for the Intel Pentium 4 Platform.

quote:
Via fell to nVIDIA and AMD/ATi for AMD chipsets. They never made a successful Intel chipset and can never compete in price/performance. I'd give up on these dreams of yours...


I dunno, the VIA K8T800, VIA K8T800 PRO Boards was pretty rock solid, I had a K8T800 in my last AMD Build and it has been humming along perfectly fine for awhile.

There are other things than "Price/Performance" hows about Power Consumption/Features? or Form Factor/Availability?
Or Perhaps, I wanted one of there boards that I could drop a Pentium M into?

Perhaps you should give up on those dreams that everyone desires the same things as yourself.


By oab on 7/30/2008 6:17:53 PM , Rating: 2
Oh yes, teh K8T800, first Athlon 64 board I owned. That thing was solid as a rock.

Too bad for Via the nForce 4 came out and utterly beat them.


RE: It is hard to see the logic of such a move
By jonmcc33 on 7/30/2008 8:33:47 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
I think *everyone* knows that Intel gave up on Rambus, I was reminiscing the past.

Basically VIA was the only decent choice at that time for the Intel Pentium 4 Platform.


Intel was going strong even during the Rambus days.

Not sure what you mean about VIA being the only decent choice. You're missing the Intel 815 chipset, which offered Pentium 4 with SDRAM. The 845 chipset moved to DDR with the 850 being the performance Rambus chipset. Then the 865PE and 875P were the last of the Socket 478 age and performance was amazing with those chipsets. You even had the SiS 655TX chipset.

VIA was never a strong Intel chipset manufacturer.

quote:
I dunno, the VIA K8T800, VIA K8T800 PRO Boards was pretty rock solid, I had a K8T800 in my last AMD Build and it has been humming along perfectly fine for awhile.


Failed behind a dominating nVIDIA reign for Socket 939 and even ATi's Crossfire chipsets.

quote:
Or Perhaps, I wanted one of there boards that I could drop a Pentium M into?

Perhaps you should give up on those dreams that everyone desires the same things as yourself.


Only done on Intel chipsets (Intel 915GM). Asus had the CT-479 adapter but that only worked on Asus motherboards with Intel chipsets (865PE, 875P and 915P).

I'm not the one dreaming here. Just being realistic.


RE: It is hard to see the logic of such a move
By MonkeyPaw on 7/30/2008 9:53:34 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Not sure what you mean about VIA being the only decent choice. You're missing the Intel 815 chipset, which offered Pentium 4 with SDRAM.


I wouldn't say that anyone is missing that chipset, Bob. The P4 on SDRAM was the worst possible combo you could buy at the time. Performance was utterly terrible.

quote:
The 845 chipset moved to DDR with the 850 being the performance Rambus chipset.


The 845 showed up well after SiS proved that DDR could perform well on a P4 platform (look up the 645). Before that, everyone thought that Rambus was required to get the most from a P4 (especially since the 815 sucked so terribly). Via showed that DDR was the way to go for the Athlon. Intel reluctantly followed suit when Rambus fell into trouble.


By jonmcc33 on 7/30/2008 11:40:43 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Via showed that DDR was the way to go for the Athlon.


Actually, the first DDR chipsets for AMD showed no difference in performance over SDRAM. It wasn't until the KT266A that DDR showed some of it's shine. Then nVIDIA came out with the nForce chipset and introduced dual channel technology.

When Intel finally dumped Rambus they took that dual channel technology ahead by leaps and bounds (865PE, 875P) over anything AMD had.

Of course Intel is going to integrate the memory controller in the Nehalem core so I'm not sure where Apple thinks they are going to go.