Steve Jobs Apple CEO rejects Cell: "less effective than PowerPC"

[Ruined]

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/8504/Steve-Jobs-Not-Impressed-with-the-Cell-Processor/

"In an editorial titled “What's Really Behind the Apple-Intel Alliance”, the New York Times has revealed that at one time Apple considered the Cell processor as an alternative to the existing PowerPC roadmap.

An executive close to Sony told the newspaper that Steve Jobs met in California with the CEO of Sony at that time, Nobuyuki Idei, and Ken Kutaragi, the so called “father of the PlayStation”.

Mr. Kutaragi tried to interest Mr. Jobs in adopting the Cell chip, which is being developed by I.B.M. for use in the coming PlayStation 3, in exchange for access to certain Sony technologies. Mr. Jobs rejected the idea, telling Mr. Kutaragi that he was disappointed with the Cell design, which he believes will be even less effective than the PowerPC."

Note that XBOX360's Xenon CPU is a custom tri-core Power PC chip.

[|MaguS|]

Yeah and guess what he rejected Power PC also... He went Intel. Shows how smart Jobs is....

[Ruined]

Yeah and guess what he rejected Power PC also... He went Intel. Shows how smart Jobs is....

Pretty smart since Intel & AMD > PowerPC
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2436&p=4

[|MaguS|]

No AMD, Just Intel. As for being greater then PowerPC. Yes as a server but for Multitasking, the G5 is supperior. Why do you think Graphic Artists and Music Composers always went Mac?

Hell he even stated that he went Intel over IBM is because IBMs faster CPUs were generating too much heat. If that was a factor why not go AMD which provide better Performanc, are Cheaper and Cooler then Intel of the same price range?

[ew2x4]

I think the heat referrence was directed to the mobile line of products. Pentium M is a good CPU. That and AMD's small ammont of fabrication were possibly why they went Intel. That or sexual pleasures.

[Riptide]

They had good reasons to go with Intel. They aren't the desktop powerhouse at the moment but they are respectable and they have the foundry capacity, mobile chip, and (possibly) roadmap that Jobs was interested in.

[Vagrant Zero]

And if I bought Mac products I might give Jobs the time of my day but I have yet to buy anything from the shiny white consortium.

[msxyz]

As a general purpose CPU, I'm quite sure Cell sucks. It's an in-order, single issue design. Raw speed partially compensates this but on a "businness" benchmark like Winstone it would get stomped all over by other desktop CPU designs

I don't understand the hype about it. In the end, it's just a bunch of DSP-like processors packed together. D'oh! It may be more flexible (unlike dedicated DSPs) but that's all. It's not a Deus EX Machina as Sony wants us to believe

At any rate, Jobs has sold his ass to Intel. Plain and simple. I f he wanted to make a smart move, he should have gone in the OS market selling a MacOS "x86" version.
Entering an open market with a prorpietary design does not seems a smart move these days. I don't feel like paying a premium price for a nicely packed PC just to get a better OS than windows...

[Riptide]

I don't think Apple is capable right now of supporting the myriad of devices out there on the x86 world. Certainly their support couldn't come close to Microsoft. So even if they let OSX86 go public - most of our devices wouldn't work unless the vendors wrote drivers (ATI/Nvidia/etc.) or if we used Apple certified hardware.

Some people think they are doing this as a transition - they are waiting to possibly pull the trigger and release OSX into the wild sometime down the road when Apple gets past this hurdle and when things just get a little more solidified in general. Perhaps by the driver support will be better for other devices as well.

[newlinuxguy]

lol isnt he the same guy who said mac as twice as fast as intel. lol eat your own crow.

[Riptide]

Yes I agree. There should've been some pie up there for him when he did his presentation last week. He was due a nice, healthy helping of that stuff. :p