The Future is AMD

zozo
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Wow... call it a freak incident and make of it what you will, but here is the lowdown.



I have info that indicates Jobs met with AMD ceo at the recent NAB exhibition in April. Sure, tech ceos meet all the time.. but this seems a bit fishy.



While I dont have info as to what went on during the discussions, what I can conclude is that AMD will be making the PowerPC (or some new variant of it with a hybrid AMD/AIM technology).



IBM is basically all but out of the AIM alliance, Moto hasn't seemed all that forthcoming about PowerPC in recent times...



It would make perfect sense.



In any case, the fact remains that Steve boy and the CEO of AMD (according to my source that was there and witnessed this) met there.



Make of it what you will.



Its about time the computer industry got a 'revolutionary' new processor. Heck maybe even just an announcement that a new processor will be coming out in a year or so.



Plus, EVER notice that in ALL benchmark baching, Intel is the only one that gets whacked? Never any mention of AMD and Athlons or whatnot.



So, we wouldnt be actually using X86 hardware (giving Apple the same 'hardware monopoly' as its always had) and have an incredibly powerful chip company behind it.

Like a PowerPC gen 2.



Also, from what I can recall, AMD and Apple seem to be in many of the same various consortiums...



the thick plottens.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    synsyn Posts: 329member
    i've read rumors of the Opteron coming our way from some reliable sources... But this is still quite a big change, right after the OSX migration...
  • Reply 2 of 11
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    That meeting means nothing at all.



    Furthermore, if Jobs wanted to meet with AMD's CEO to discuss plans for AMD to make PPC chips, he would schedule a meeting with him specifically for that purpose. He wouldn't just meet with the guy because they happened to be at the same trade show.



    It may very well happen that AMD fabs some future PPC chip for Apple, but this meeting at NAB doesn't prove or even suggest anything at all.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    g-newsg-news Posts: 1,107member
    W3rd
  • Reply 4 of 11
    koffedrnkrkoffedrnkr Posts: 170member
    i have nothing but respect for AMD and their accomplishments, but i wonder if such an alliance were forged, what could they really bring to the table besides the physical ability to fab the chip? RISC and CISC architectures are so very different that i doubt they have the knowledge to make any practical contributions to the powerPC.



    the only way they could truly contribute would be if OSX could run on CISC and i would think that would entail either a total rewrite or some kind of abstraction layer to translate RISC commands into CISC calls. this sounds both inefficient and problematical to me. what happens to all the altivec functions at the heart of iDVD and final cut pro??
  • Reply 5 of 11
    the g5the g5 Posts: 42member
    as cool as it sounds to use AMD, you're full of crap.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    How come everyone says the AIM alliance is over? IBM went the bigger, faster, more powerful route, and Motorola went the smaller, cheaper, more efficent route. Right now we have IBM's POWER4 and Moto's G4 lines (Not that there are exceptions to this rule). I want to know what the original and current terms/goals of the AIM alliance are. Apple made a choice with the G4 and they paid dearly in the form of the Mhz gap, but they got Altivec.



    Apple history tidbit: The original team that was created to bring RISC into Apple machines was codenamed Jaguar. Hmm...
  • Reply 7 of 11
    jrcjrc Posts: 817member
    Offloading aqua to another chip, as has been indicated, would allow apple to run on x86 but not a plain vanilla box.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    g-newsg-news Posts: 1,107member
    hm yeah sure, an x86 for the BSD core, a PPC for Aqua, a Power4 for the FPU calculations.

    DDR-RAM for 3D apps, RDRAM for Streaming stuff and SDRAM to feed the Zip drive.

    Get over it, there's never going to be a system with multiple chips from different philosophies and platforms. That's like running a car with a different motor for every wheel, with the wheels varying randomly in diameter...BS



    G-News
  • Reply 9 of 11
    mrbilldatamrbilldata Posts: 489member
    Excuse Me !!!



    Multi-platform boards are already being designed.



    Multi-platform machines are quite commonplace in some industries. Have you ever heard of CORBA?

    The next generation systems will apply this to the local hardware on the motherboard.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    [quote]RISC and CISC architectures are so very different that i doubt they have the knowledge to make any practical contributions to the powerPC<hr></blockquote>



    x86 chips have had RISC cores for a while now (since ~1996?). IA32 "CISC" instructions are translated by decoder units into the appropriate sequence of RISC op.s/micro-ops. In theory a PPC decoder could be bolted on. However it is unlikely, due to the extra work required (as CPUs are more than cores).
  • Reply 11 of 11
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    [quote]Originally posted by Junkyard Dawg:

    <strong>That meeting means nothing at all.



    Furthermore, if Jobs wanted to meet with AMD's CEO to discuss plans for AMD to make PPC chips, he would schedule a meeting with him specifically for that purpose. He wouldn't just meet with the guy because they happened to be at the same trade show.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Then you've never been to trade shows for business. In my previous job trade shows is where we discussed and signed and contracted multi-million dollar deals.



    Trade shows are great because you have many top people that go there and can therefore finally organize meetings with everyone in place... Trade shows are crucial.
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