Why is amd pushing for low wattage cpu's?

[a12ctic]

I think i finaly have it figured out, to get into mac.

today i read this article http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/09/15/intelvsamd/index.php

Might Apple turn to AMD for future processor needs, post-transition to the x86 architecture? An AMD low-power chip line would be required for Apple to consider a switch, Brookwood says.

AMD would need to develop a chip core especially suited to low-power, as Intel did with the Pentium M, a costly undertaking. Plus, the overall sales opportunity for such chips isn’t huge yet, says Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst for Insight 64.

The whole am2 series atm seems to be holding back, and this may be the reason.

it seems like amd may be setting itself up to get a deal with apple, or could they, maby, already have a deal with apple?

[Sazar]

Intel has some extremely low wattage procs due to come out.

AMD does not have those kind of procs anywhere on the horizon although they are definitely looking to reduce over-all TDP a fair bit with future procs.

[nutball]

I dunno, I think Apple-on-AMD rumours are a combination of Apple fans oh-God-no-not-Intel-anybody-but-Intel attitude, and chagrin from AMD fan-boys at Intel getting the deal whilst not having a competitive chip (made public at the time the announcement was made -- things look different now, eh?).

AMD have numerous reasons for wanting low-power chips. Mobile is one of course (but why sell to Apple when they can sell to Dell?). Blades are the other -- compute density (compute power per cubic metre) is an important metric in some markets. When you're trying to fit 400-500 CPUs into a standard 19" rack then power consumption becomes very important too.

[DrMorelos]

"Micro-," "Mini-" and "Nano-" sized configurations are becoming extraordinarily popular. A huge market which is going to grow by an order of magnitude in the next 5-10 years is education. No school wants to cover every student's desk with a $3000 full-tower PC and CRT monitor when they can bolt a 9" x 9" x 2" module to the bottom and attach a flip-up TFT to a hinge at the back of the desk for $599.

It's not all just the mainstream desktop geek they're designing for.

[Riptide]

lol Is this a joke?

Apple represents such a small portion of the overall market share I'm pretty sure AMD has better things to do than bust their asses solely to get a deal with them.

[a12ctic]

maby its not the entire reason, but it could be a beniffit of it

[Sazar]

Of what? Apple wanting them to have low power cpu's?

Come on.

You think the fact that Intel has a whole slew of low TDP procs in the pipeline is not the reason for AMD seeking to get it's own proc's consumption and thermal output lower?

[a12ctic]

i duno :p

[Son Goku]

There is more then Intel having lower wattage CPUs for Apple to have considered going with Intel. There's also the respective manufacturing capacities. As long as AMD has 2 fabs, vs. Intel's manufacturing capability, there is reason for an OEM to consider either going with Intel exclusively or going with AMD and Intel, but not having AMD be their sole supplier.

AMD would have a bit of work to do on their end, if they wanted to become the sole provider of CPUs for any sized manufacturer. And in the meantime, I agree with some others here, AMD probably has other things to think about, rather then trying to win the Apple contract. For starters, AMD would probably rather see an increased presence in Dell machines (considering their respective shares in the end user PC systems against Apple's share)...

[a12ctic]

There is more then Intel having lower wattage CPUs for Apple to have considered going with Intel. There's also the respective manufacturing capacities. As long as AMD has 2 fabs, vs. Intel's manufacturing capability, there is reason for an OEM to consider either going with Intel exclusively or going with AMD and Intel, but not having AMD be their sole supplier.

AMD would have a bit of work to do on their end, if they wanted to become the sole provider of CPUs for any sized manufacturer. And in the meantime, I agree with some others here, AMD probably has other things to think about, rather then trying to win the Apple contract. For starters, AMD would probably rather see an increased presence in Dell machines (considering their respective shares in the end user PC systems against Apple's share)...
isnt dell trying to make the swich to amd right now?

[nutball]

isnt dell trying to make the swich to amd right now?

No, Dell isn't trying to switch to AMD. It is offering AMD CPUs in one specific market (2S and 4S servers) where their Xeon offerings have been having their butts handed to them by Opteron for two years now.

People who buy servers generally know what they want, and they've been wanting Opteron. So by not having Opteron Dell have been losing out to Sun, IBM, etc. big-time. People who buy desktops (from Dell) generally don't have a clue, so they're quite happy with Intel, and there's no reason for Dell to push AMD in this market.

I'd be very surprised if AMD makes up more than a few percent (by volume) of Dell's shipments within the next year or two. IMO Dell will still push Intel as their front-line, and only pull out an Opteron server offering if they think they're going to lose a sale. When Intel's server offering become more competitive over the next 18 months, AMD will be quietly dropped from Dell's line-up.

[retsam]

I think i finaly have it figured out, to get into mac.

today i read this article http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/09/15/intelvsamd/index.php





The whole am2 series atm seems to be holding back, and this may be the reason.

it seems like amd may be setting itself up to get a deal with apple, or could they, maby, already have a deal with apple?i think your close but off by one mark, i think the reason amd is going low wattage is to get furthur into the datacenters. if you think about it, the reason alot of datacenters have been holding back expansion is power usage and cost of powering the centers. amd has made some crazy strides into enterprise systems over the last few years and they want to keep going on that track. besides the markup of opterons over athlons is incredible. also if they make a deal with apple it will further stress there fab capacity which is running at a 100% at it is. also the markup of amd procs with apple would be very minimal compared to pushing further into the datacenters.