[IP] more on Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips | CNET News.com
Begin forwarded message:
From: Newmedia@xxxxxxx
Date: June 5, 2005 8:46:52 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: shap@xxxxxxxxxxx, civitan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips |
CNET News.com
Dave, etal:
Just a few details that seem to have been missed in this discussion
so far --
1) Sun is certainly not abandoning SPARC. The 90nm US IV+ will be in
the market later this year and "Niagra" shows up in early 2006 to be
followed by new Fujitsu designs, etc. There is still a significant
market for SPARC-based machines -- most of Sun's $12B annual revenues
are still SPARC-derived. The addition of AMD64 is an attempt to grow
the company by expanding Sun's available market. This is possible
since Solaris 10 has a common code-base for x86 and SPARC.
2) Apple has a problem with laptops. Intel is way ahead of IBM on
power-managed micros and is now sampling its "Napa" notebook multi-
chip platform. This includes the dual-core 32-bit 65nm "Yonah"
microprocesser for which IBM has no effective answer. While it makes
no sense for Apple to wholesale swtich to Intel, it makes good sense
for them to do so for specific products. If they do this, Transitive
will probably provide the emulation software.
3) The fundamental issue is that IBM and Intel approach the
semiconductor business differently. Apple builds unique hardware.
IBM helps them to do this since they are basically an ASIC fab-
house. Intel builds standard parts -- not ASICs. Intel "designs"
customers for its chips (both Compaq and Dell were "invented" by
Intel) while IBM lets its customers design their own chips. That's
why Intel (and Nvidia) turned down Microsoft on the Xbox 360. The
triple-CPU Xenon processor (and the ATI GPU) is a "structured" ASIC.
So is Sony's Cell. So Apple will stay with IBM.
Best,
Mark Stahlman
New York City
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