Gizmodo – Apple Considering Switch to AMD Processors?
April 16th, 2010
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Apple Considering Switch to AMD Processors?
Hmmm, I’m not sure that the conclusions that they have drawn are necessarily complete.
Yes, Apple could be using it as a great leverage tool with Intel. But if that were the case, why wouldn’t they just rely on their own (new) chip manufactoring capacities?
My thoughts turn to the future: AMD have the x86_64 architecture that Intel have no comparison to.There are several draws there for Apple for at least examining the chip.
- Apple make their systems perform like no other. Seriously, look at the base specs of the Macbook Pro. Whilst other manufacturers are churning out middle of the road, low-end shite, Apple make their systems powerful by default. Seeing as a lot of video processing and graphics work get done on Macs; and that processing requires large numerical calculations; having 64-bit integers by default makes life easier, and a seriously selling point for their high-end workstations.
- Even if the advantages of the 64-bit system are used immediately, it still supports x86_32 (or IA32 or whatever you want to call it!) – something that Intel’s chips don’t do.
- They already have the Mach Universal binary format, and there is already compilation for 64-bit systems available in Xcode (although not necessarily x86_64) – adding a new one would be quite simple.
Apple always appear (to me at least) to be a company that are experimenting in the background, even if they don’t go the 64-bit route, at least they can say that they’ve tried!
