more on Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips | CNET News.com

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Newmedia () aol com
Date: June 5, 2005 8:46:52 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: shap () eros-os org, civitan () jeffporten com
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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