On Intel: Xeon price cuts, lead-free chips, and new flash deal
Apple's exclusive CPU supplier has been busy prepping quad-core processor cost cuts, clearing lead from its next-generation architecture, and establishing a new flash partnership that could help future iPhones, iPods, and Macs.
Xeon price drops inbound
Intel is about to launch an aggressive round of price-slashing for its Xeon workstation processors, sources inside the semiconductor industry claim. A late July price drop is said to be scheduled that would both match shipment targets and fight back against AMD's first quad-core Opteron chips, dubbed "Barcelona."
The move would primarily bring the quad-core Xeon 5300 processor line, nicknamed Clovertown by Intel, much closer in price to the dual-core processors on sale today. Prices will reportedly range from as little as $209 for a 1.6GHz Xeon E5310 to $744 for the official top-end processor, the 2.66GHz Xeon X5355.
The claimed move may help Apple's component prices, which currently uses only the special-run 3GHz Xeon X5365 out of the entire Clovertown lineup as a build-to-order selection for its Mac Pro tower.
Lead excised from future Intel tech
In addition to providing better performance for future generations of Macs, Intel's 45-nanometer Penryn CPUs will help Apple meet its goal of purging lead from its systems.
Starting with the new chips, Intel plans to replace the lead in chip "packages" -- the soldered balls, bumps, or pins that join the actual processor to its socket on the mainboard -- to an alloy that mixes copper, silver, and tin to achieve the same effect. The change will eliminate the last five percent of lead that used to exist in Intel's processors, or about 0.02 grams for every finished processor.
While Penryn will lead the charge in the second half of 2007, processors based on today's 65-nanometer technology will also go lead-free in 2008.
Intel forms new flash supplier
Intel will also be responsible for creating a new alternative to Samsung, Toshiba, and other heavyweights in the production of flash memory.
The company on Tuesday announced a deal with Europe's STMicroelectronics to form a new, independently-run flash manufacturer operating out of the Netherlands and Switzerland. A private equity group, Francisco Partners, would also inject the new business with $150 million in exchange for a stake in the project.
Still unnamed, the new firm will target its NAND and NOR flash chips at consumer electronics from other companies. This would include "cellular phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, computers and other high-tech equipment," Intel says. Intel's Turbo Memory technology for notebooks, previously known as Robson, depends on flash to speed up loading times.
Apple is heavily dependent on flash for some of its current devices, including the iPod nano and shuffle. The iPhone will also implement onboard flash.
Xeon price drops inbound
Intel is about to launch an aggressive round of price-slashing for its Xeon workstation processors, sources inside the semiconductor industry claim. A late July price drop is said to be scheduled that would both match shipment targets and fight back against AMD's first quad-core Opteron chips, dubbed "Barcelona."
The move would primarily bring the quad-core Xeon 5300 processor line, nicknamed Clovertown by Intel, much closer in price to the dual-core processors on sale today. Prices will reportedly range from as little as $209 for a 1.6GHz Xeon E5310 to $744 for the official top-end processor, the 2.66GHz Xeon X5355.
The claimed move may help Apple's component prices, which currently uses only the special-run 3GHz Xeon X5365 out of the entire Clovertown lineup as a build-to-order selection for its Mac Pro tower.
Lead excised from future Intel tech
In addition to providing better performance for future generations of Macs, Intel's 45-nanometer Penryn CPUs will help Apple meet its goal of purging lead from its systems.
Starting with the new chips, Intel plans to replace the lead in chip "packages" -- the soldered balls, bumps, or pins that join the actual processor to its socket on the mainboard -- to an alloy that mixes copper, silver, and tin to achieve the same effect. The change will eliminate the last five percent of lead that used to exist in Intel's processors, or about 0.02 grams for every finished processor.
While Penryn will lead the charge in the second half of 2007, processors based on today's 65-nanometer technology will also go lead-free in 2008.
Intel forms new flash supplier
Intel will also be responsible for creating a new alternative to Samsung, Toshiba, and other heavyweights in the production of flash memory.
The company on Tuesday announced a deal with Europe's STMicroelectronics to form a new, independently-run flash manufacturer operating out of the Netherlands and Switzerland. A private equity group, Francisco Partners, would also inject the new business with $150 million in exchange for a stake in the project.
Still unnamed, the new firm will target its NAND and NOR flash chips at consumer electronics from other companies. This would include "cellular phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, computers and other high-tech equipment," Intel says. Intel's Turbo Memory technology for notebooks, previously known as Robson, depends on flash to speed up loading times.
Apple is heavily dependent on flash for some of its current devices, including the iPod nano and shuffle. The iPhone will also implement onboard flash.
Comments
And yes, all good news.....especially the bit about penryn
so poor AMD, i even bought some shares even though they are losing a lot
and 6th, Intel Price cuts are now like pay check bi-weekly news!
so poor AMD, i even bought some shares even though they are losing a lot
It's a shame we don't see more price cuts from Apple. It seems Intel price cuts equals more profit not more savings for consumers. I don't know if that's to maintain consistent pricing but I still think some savings ought to be passed on.
It's a shame we don't see more price cuts from Apple. It seems Intel price cuts equals more profit not more savings for consumers. I don't know if that's to maintain consistent pricing but I still think some savings ought to be passed on.
Don't worry. Apple's prices will never budge until they move to a new processor.
Don't worry. Apple's prices will never budge until they move to a new processor.
In which case they will go up.
I've mentioned in another thread that Apple Australia is offering A$500 discount on any ACD purchased as a bundle. This offer expires on the eve of WWDC. I had thought that perhaps a LED replacement might be announced but I'm yet to read of any display manufacturer receiving orders from Apple for any thing other than 15" LED's, presumably for MacBookPro's.
So rather than new screens, perhaps the $500 *carrot* is to placate any purchases of MacPros just before a price drop or upgrade at WWDC?
Oh the agony
Does anyone care to speculate how this announcement may effect my decision to purchase a 2.66 Mac Pro and 30" this week..?
My organization is in the same boat, but we went ahead and ordered one 2.66 Mac Pro last week. We're editing video on an iMac G5, and it's slow going. The jump to universal versions of Final Cut and After Effects will be well worth the price of admission—for us at least.
Even if modest CPU changes occur in Apple's desktop line in July, I think that real world gains probably will be minimal and price improvements the same. Even so, if you are a hardcore After Effects user, you might want to wait until July to pull the trigger simply because it appears that After Effects CS3 has been delayed until mid-July. Otherwise, not until Penryn in the (late?) fall are we likely to see a major step forward in terms of significantly increased power at the same price point. Act now if you need the muscle of the 2.66 Mac Pro. Friends of mine who own machines from the current lineup couldn't be more pleased.
The 30" display question is another matter entirely. No one is certain about when HDMI will appear in the cinema display line, or what WWDC will bring. I defer to others on that score.
Oh the agony
I'd wait. It's only 19 days.
If you buy now and they release something better in 19 days you'll be pissed.
Does anyone care to speculate how this announcement may effect my decision to purchase a 2.66 Mac Pro and 30" this week..?
I've mentioned in another thread that Apple Australia is offering A$500 discount on any ACD purchased as a bundle. This offer expires on the eve of WWDC. I had thought that perhaps a LED replacement might be announced but I'm yet to read of any display manufacturer receiving orders from Apple for any thing other than 15" LED's, presumably for MacBookPro's.
So rather than new screens, perhaps the $500 *carrot* is to placate any purchases of MacPros just before a price drop or upgrade at WWDC?
Oh the agony
I think LEDs in the Cinema Display line are highly unlikely at this time. However, I could see Apple announcing new LCD-based ACDs with iSight cameras built-in.
But I'm sticking with my hunch that WWDC is going to be a Leopard show, not a hardware show. There may be announcements of new hardware, but I think all the new stuff comes when Leopard ships and thereafter, not before.
Maybe they dropped the "intel inside" logo so no one would notice their vast conspiracy...
But they're smart, so they probably just want to focus on the technologies that are growing.
hahaha...
NAND flash will be in the laptops and subnotebooks too. It really sounds like Intel is taking over the inside of the entire PC.
Maybe they dropped the "intel inside" logo so no one would notice their vast conspiracy...
But they're smart, so they probably just want to focus on the technologies that are growing.
hahaha...
Eh?
They always have been. Intel is more than just a CPU. They've long developed all the gubbins that runs your PC. Arguably, its the motherboard chipset that controls the show and is the daddy of the processing power in a computer. Likewise AMD and their chipsets families. All of which takes over the inside of the PC.