[geeks] this is where the mac should be

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 @ 19:42 -0500, Jonathan C. Patschke said:

> On Thu, 12 Oct 2006, James Fogg wrote:
> 
> > Remember that one of Apples big concerns was the need for a low power
> > consumption chip for laptops. IBM still hasn't addressed that issue.
> 
> Apple's concerns were:
>    1) No low-power laptop part, which IBM had out within the year, in
>       a dual core variant, no less.

It is worth noting that AMD responded pretty quickly with better CPUs as
well, including much better mobile CPUs.

Apple could have used AMD if they wanted to, without much trouble.

>    2) No 3.0GHz G5, which IBM had out within a month of the "transition"
>       announcement.

Would IBM have had it out if Apple had not made the announcement?

>    3) Better MIPS/watts on the Intel side than in PPC's future.  It looks
>       like POWER6 is going to blow a big smoking hole in that argument,
>       too.

Maybe, we'll see.

> I suspect the real reasons Apple switched platforms was something like
> this:
>    1) Intel's core logic has DRM (TPM), which makes Hollywood happy.

Does it have enough to be an unbreakable thing?

The full Palladium and other ideas would, because it would essentially
take control away from the hardware owner.

That's the only way to create an unbreakable system: cripple the
hardware.

Is Apple going to go that far?

>    2) It gave Apple the opportunity to outsource their hardware design to
>       other companies, so that Apple could save its desig engineers' time
>       for more profitable ventures (such as overpriced lossy portable
>       music players).

Did Apple really do that though?  See below.

>    3) Apple wanted to keep tiny inventories (ie: like Dell) with niche
>       processors, ASICs, and boards, and got tired of IBM and Freescale
>       telling them exactly where to stick that argument.

Might be, never really thought about it since a lot of ASICs can be made
in ad-hoc fabs without much trouble.

> So, now Apple doesn't design any of their hardware, uses commodity parts
> so that they can play Dell's product-chain game, 

Are you sure about that?

Where did the new Pro system motherboard come from?  I was under the
impression that Apple designed that, as well as the mini motherboard.

I can see them not doing the laptops.

> and have the DRM switch ready to throw whenever Hollywood buys the
> right politician.

A lot of people are waiting to do that.

-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The object of war is not to die for your
country but to make the other bastard die for his." -- General George S.
Patton]