| Friday, April 19, 2002 |
17:34 - Apple's CPU Prospects
http://denbeste.nu/ubb-cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000886
|
(top)  |
There's a well-worth-reading and in-depth discussion over at USS Clueless' discussion boards where the members are pondering the possibilities for Apple in a post-Motorola world.
The sad probability, as Cap'n den Beste pointed out a couple of days ago, is that Motorola is heading straight for the toilet. That means Apple will be left high and dry without a CPU maker. What do they do? There are a lot of possibilities, ranging from going Intel (which would destroy them as a differentiated computer maker and eliminate compatibility with any existing applications) to using IBM's current POWER4 (their supercomputer chip) or G3 (effectively the G4 without Altivec). The latter choice sounds like fun, but they would definitely need a middle-ground chip somewhere between the two in functionality and price.
I dunno, though. Pretty much all the viable options are discussed in the thread, very capably too-- and I don't see much sunshine. As the Captain puts it, "every answer leads to disaster."
Maybe someone will pull something heretofore unknown out of his ass. It's happened before. But Apple had better have been working on a contingency plan, and have at least one good one in place right now. The Motorola road is losing lanes and getting more and more full of potholes and tar cracks, and sooner or later it'll turn to gravel and wander off into the desert. And we're running out of intersections where we can turn off.
|
|
