Tavis CoburnFor the past few years , bode the central processing unit that Apple would put inside its Macs has been relatively well-fixed . Ever since Apple made the move to Intel ’s x86 mainframe , the Mac road map mirror Intel ’s road map : Intel would release a Modern CPU , and a few months after Apple would publish a new Mac . It was like clockwork , and it removed some of the surprise from Apple ’s otherwise unmanageable - to - betoken product - discharge cadence .
But over the past year , Apple effectively smashed that clock . It all started with the MacBook Pros released in April 2010 .
In that daily round of update , only two members of the MacBook Pro family — the 15 - in ( ) and 17 - inch ( ) models — got Intel ’s then - new Arrandale microprocessors ( more popularly have it away as the Core i5 and Core i7 chips ) . Those CPUs took vantage of some of Intel ’s most up - to - date technologies — admit a 32 - nanometer manufacturing process , Hyper - Threading , and Turbo Boost . The 13 - inch MacBook Pro ( ) , however , amaze with the sometime Core 2 Duo CPU .
Tavis Coburn
The simple determination to stick with the Core 2 yoke indicate two thing : first , that the Apple - Intel human relationship might not be as cozy as it once was ; and , secondly , that Apple really like graphic processing building block ( GPUs ) . Those two tip will drive much of Apple ’s ironware decision - making over the next two years .
Intel inside?
Apple is the best variety of manufacturer a CPU vendor could partner with : Its products almost commercialize themselves . And being associated with the Apple brand is still a very salutary thing . The caller is known as an early adopter of unexampled engineering ( at least those it believe in ) . The retail prices for its products are high enough to allow the company to use the best available computer hardware . Apple owns the hardware and software stack , so it can implement new features on a whim without waiting for ho-hum software program partners to catch up to food market trends .
Though work with Apple can for certain be a pain , those benefits are apparently lucrative enough that Intel relaxed almost all of its usual marketing criterion . Apple chooses where to put Intel ’s logos on its products . You wo n’t always see a mention of specific Intel brands in Apple marketing . ( Apple does include Intel model numbers in its technical school specs . ) For example , Nvidiagets a mention on the boxwood the Mac mini ships in , but Intel does n’t .
As far as I can distinguish , Apple ’s client did n’t heed when it used the Core 2 Duo in the 13 - in MacBook Pro ( and , more recently , in the11- and 13 - in MacBook Airs ) . If those products sell just fine , Apple will believably no longer see the need to employ Intel ’s latest and greatest product .
At the same clock time , Apple has seen the motivation to apply knock-down GPUs in its computers . You ca n’t buy a Mac today that does n’t have a full-bodied GPU of some sort . Even the 15- and 17 - inch MacBook Pros pair their incorporate graphic with an Nvidia GPU , just in case you need it . Thanks to the OpenCL spec , such GPUs can be used for more than just real - time graphics rendering , taking on universal computing tasks as well .
So you have a company that seems no longer to care as much as it once did about Intel ’s CPUs , but that more and more like a lot about GPUs . While I ca n’t imagine Apple dropping Intel altogether , these two factors make me enquire whether Apple will at least believe using CPUs from AMD in the next two years .
The AMD option
AMD ’s CPU - GPU scheme is a slight dissimilar from Intel ’s . AMD has set out introducing its firstFusion classof CPU , which it callsAPUs ( Accelerated Processing Units ) . These APUs combine an AMD x86 CPU with an AMD GPU on a single die . The GPUs that AMD is follow through are not only very herculean compare with Intel ’s GPUs , but they are capable of guide general - purpose apps via OpenCL should a developer opt to write to them .
The first AMD processor that should be of interest to Apple - watchers is love as theE-350 . Its CPU falls between that of an Intel Atom and a Core 2 duette , but offers much better graphics performance . ( For the microprocessor architect among you , it ’s effectively an out - of - order Atom paired with an 80 SP GPU . ) I do n’t really see a position for the E-350 in Apple ’s current lineup , unless Apple wants to push out a MacBook Air that ’s even smaller ( or less expensive ) than the 11 - inch model .
Next up is theLlano . This APU will copulate a CPU that ’s faster than the E-350 ’s with a GPU that ’s much faster . Llano could be an interesting option for Apple ’s small notebooks , but I do n’t see Apple giving up central processor public presentation in the large MacBook Pros for one of these integrated AMD solutions .
Sometime in 2012 , however , AMD will likely publish a newfangled , more hefty central processor effect and partner off that with one of its GPUs . If Apple is run to consider locomote any of its product to AMD , that would be the fourth dimension . Apple and AMD have been discussing Fusion over the past couple of geezerhood . Whether or not it ’s plainly to keep Apple ’s options open is up for debate at this point . I imagine we ’ll find out in 2012 .
Building a Sandy Bridge
Intel wo n’t be standing still all of that time . The 2nd - generation of its Core i - series CPUs ( computer code - namedSandy Bridge ) will come out in January 2011 . Apple would get much better overall execution and hardware - accelerated video recording transcoding from these chip shot ; their adoption in Macs is somewhat much guaranteed .
Sandy Bridge will have on - dice graphics , but that hardware wo n’t support OpenCL . While I believe Sandy Bridge ’s graphics will be quick enough for the majority of OS X user , I do n’t think Apple will want to stop embark OpenCL - adequate to GPUs in its systems . For that reason , we may go forward to see discrete GPUs ship with most Macs sold even in 2011 .
I ’d require to see Sandy Bridge microchip come out in MacBooks , MacBook Pros , and iMacs sometime in the first or 2nd quarter of 2011 ; I ’d expect the Mac Pro to get Sandy Bridge sometime in 2011 ’s third or fourth quarter . give the late dismissal of the new models , I would n’t expect to see the MacBook Air get a serious update until late 2011 at the early .
In tardy 2011 or former 2012 , Intel is carry to release Sandy Bridge ’s successor : Ivy Bridge . That should offer a more capable GPU core than Sandy Bridge ; whether or not it will meet Apple ’s requirements for a compute - ready GPU is still nameless .
[ Anand Lal Shimpi publish forAnandTech . exemplification by Tavis Coburn . ]
