“Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said Tuesday his company will bring out its fastest new chips ahead of schedule, in November, in order to deliver the more realistic images and quicker action that gamers demand,” Tom Abate reports for The San Francisco Chronicle.
Abate reports, “Built around four processing cores rather than the dual core versions that are Intel’s current top-of-the-line offering, these new quad-core chips were previously expected in 2007.”
“Philip Schiller, senior vice president for marketing at Apple Computer, joined Otellini to tout the successful transition of the Macintosh to Intel chips,” Abate reports.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Quad-core Xeon details unveiled – September 25, 2006
AnandTech upgrades and tests Octo-Core ‘Clovertown’ Apple Mac Pro – September 13, 2006
Intel quad-core ‘Kentsfield’ coming in time for holiday season – August 18, 2006
Apple shows off new Xserve with Quad 64-bit Intel Xeon processors at LinuxWorld – August 17, 2006
Apple Mac Pro Quad Xeon 3.0GHz benchmarks – August 16, 2006
Ars Technica reviews Apple Mac Pro Quad Xeon 64-bit workstation – August 11, 2006
Apple introduces Xserve with Quad 64-bit Intel Xeon Processors – August 07, 2006
Apple unveils new ‘Mac Pro’ featuring quad 64-bit Intel Xeon processors – August 07, 2006
What’s after Merom for portables?
Jeeze and I’m still waiting for the core 2 Macbook Pros … sigh .. maybe they’ll just jump to the Macbook Pro Quad. Mmmmm….
MW: Work as in I won’t be doing much work with 4 processors.
This still is stunning…a chipmaker delivering their chips in advance of the expected date. After the years of Moto/IBM stalling, I get a little giddy when I read these kinds of headlines. I’m finally sold on the transition to Intel, now that my emotional side has caught up to the reasonable arguments in favor.
Where are you now?
Come out, come out, wherever you are!
Chipzilla is wide awake and on the loose.
O, to reminisce about IBM and the slothful way it used to be….
You might believe that Apple has breathed new life into Intel…
You might believe that Apple has breathed new life into Intel…
Yeah right, that is why Apple still doesn’t have a Core 2 Duo in a laptop yet. Apple needs to catch up, yay they joined the rest of the world and went Intel x86, now keep up! And for goodness sake speed up your damn OS!
“Where are you now?
Come out, come out, wherever you are!
Chipzilla is wide awake and on the loose.”
The AMD Opteron still beats the Xeon processor in most benchmarks. Unless you’re talking the Core 2 Extreme, which I don’t believe Apple is putting into anything yet, they’re damn pricie. Same with the Quad Cores. It’s going to be a while until you see any of these in an Apple, except maybe a top of the line Mac Pro. Not something your average Joe is going to buy without a second mortgage. But it’s all good, makes the competition work harder, makes everybody work harder. Of course you weenies with your heads up Steve’s ass can’t understand anything until Steve proclaims it from the stage. Oh yes, one more thing,
PTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTH!!!!!!!!
Can we expect 8-core Mac Pros at Macworld? (or earlier?) Not that they’ll be in any way affordable but it’s the thought that counts, right?
Ampar,
I think you’ll find it’s called Penryn, which is then supposed to be followed by Silverthorne.
It’s also actually worth remembering that the Merom we’re about to get is what was actually originally roadmapped as Gilo. Merom was originally intended to be 90nm geometry and Gilo was the 65nm shrink, so we seem to have missed a generation somewhere along the line, as opposed to the old PowerPC paradigm which was the very embodiment of glacial product evolution.
Every benchmark i’ve seen has even the mid level Core 2 Duo smoking the super high end AMD. See the reviews on Tomshardware and the others… no even close really.
I’d love to see apple use that sweet little 2.66 conroe in the Imac, that thing just smokes for the price, and is overclockable bigtime.
Question for the techs amongst us, is it possible to overclock these new CPU’s under Tiger or is it at least possible? tia
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_knocks_out_athlon_64/page13.html
look at those PS scores, and there are newer, faster chips already from Intel, i dont see AMD looking very strong in this review at least.
In the article Intel says that they are hoping to give wireless access everywhere, and connect the TV to the computer. Could that be in line with Apple’s iTV? Maybe the iTV will really be a wireless router/access point, and it can steam content from computer to TV and stero system. This could be powered by a low power Intel processer. I’m getting more excited about the possibility of the iTV and what all it could really bring. $300 seems high for something that just streams movies and music to the TV. So adding a wireless router and other things, who knows what it could be. Apple could easily add a DVD player and a hard drive and keep the price close to $300. Maybe Intel and Apple are closer than people realize. Why wouldn’t the company that a lot of people thought the end was here because of AMD and the company that everyone loves not want to buddy up real close? Intel get’s Apple’s positive press for their computers and Apple gets mentioned a lot during Intel announcements.
Macaday,
If you’ve been Apple only all your life you might think Apple has breathed life into Intel.
And I guess when you’re used to underwhelming upgrades every 18-24 months or so this seems amazing.
But PC hardware nuts have always had new stuff every six months. Too bad they were stuck with Windows. That’s why Apple wasn’t a real choice for them…until now!
Spot on Jerry T, spot on.
The new new quad cores?
As opposed to the old new quad cores?
Intel has extreme stock pressure on them right now, they not only need to perform, they need to execute perfectly, there’s no room for integer errors in the chips or anything wrong.
If they get it right, reestablish themselves as the best and fastest, then Intel will remain the industry heavy-weight. Intel needs to get the new product into the market place in big quantities fast.
Apple is finally along for the ride and what perfect timing. Both companies can benefit tremendously from the others strengths. Intel has used their engineering resources to help Apple make the switch ahead of schedule and so far, it looks like the best decision Apple ever made.
Just one point. You can not sell products if the parts are not available in the volumes needed. That is why the Mac notebooks have not yet made the Merom transition.
The MacBook Pro will be first to go Merom — very soon, IMHO — and then the MacBook.
Intel has had spectacular success in its transition to the new chip architecture, but such transitions always have ramp up times caused by having to tune the production lines and get the quality process up to snuff.
But PC hardware nuts have always had new stuff every six months. Too bad they were stuck with Windows.
Kinda crazy when you think about it.
New hardware every six months.
New OSes whenever MS grunts them out. The last was XP, an eternity in PC time (assuming XP qualified as “new”).
Intel’s new new quad-core chips ahead of schedule
For anyone still doubting the Intel switch (and still waiting for their 3ghz G5), THIS is what it’s all about.
The Merom is not that big an upgrade from Yonah. It’s slightly faster, mainly due to higher clocks and 64bit. Apple needs to sell all it’s Core Duo (yonah) stock before it can move to Core 2 Duo (meroms)
And all you Intel doubters couldn’t possibly have understood what motivated Jobs to go Intel. Motorola makes cell phones. IBM has absolutely no motivation for upgrading CPUs it’s putting in a game console that will have exactly the same CPU spec 5 YEARS from now. Screw the PowerPC. It was a neat idea. Didn’t pan out.
Now if I could just build a Core 2 Duo 6400 and overclock it to 3.4 Ghz and install OS X on it, that would be heaven.
me,
You’re right; IBM was so enthused with the desktop PC market that they got rid of their own PC division.
Yeah, that’s who I want to build my PC chip.
This news bit is basically just to shut up AMD fanboys. Quad core is cool for 3D rendering and video work, but no big deal for the rest of us.
“And I guess when you’re used to underwhelming upgrades every 18-24 months or so this seems amazing.”
What’s amazing is that with everyone else shipping core 2 laptops, Apple hasn’t got one out the door yet.
It’s Supply? sure. That’s not stopping anyone else. The problem is Apple enginners who can’t keep up with the pace in a world where new processors come out this quickly.
“Can we expect 8-core Mac Pros at Macworld?”
You can expect them 1-6 months after Dell starts shipping them.
Reverse Thrust:
Open your mind. Your criticism of Apple not to install AMD chips is more hot air than cold fact. Don’t forget that computer manufacturers sign contracts that require them to patronize one chip manufacturer versus another. Obviously, these legal agreements will restrict Apple from making purchases from companies other than Intel. You have provided no objective evidence that AMD can or will retain or maintain its lead in chip design and manufacture. For all we know your argument will be a moot point in 2007.
maczealot:
“You have provided no objective evidence that AMD can or will retain or maintain its lead in chip design and manufacture.”
This was generous of you, since AMD has no lead in chip design and no lead in manufacturing. AMD has some serious catching up to do at this point. Maybe they’ll catch up in 2008, if Intel stops R+D.
Core2WhereforeArtThou,
There is a supply issue. The supply issue is that Apple has a supply of Core Duos to sell before they can introduce a Core 2.
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