| Monday, September 26, 2005 |
13:50 - Small and smallerer
http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1282
|
(top)  |
Something that's going to take some getting used to is paying attention to the developments in the Intel chip world, not just the PPC world. Here's an article on Intel's new super-low-power laptop chipset, which I suppose we've got to look at as the stem cells for the next generation of PowerBooks:
This new ultra-low power 65 nm process will be the company's second process based on 65 nm process technology. It will provide Intel chip designers additional options in delivering the circuit density, performance and power consumption required by battery-operated devices, the company said this week.
To achieve these advancements, Intel made several modifications to the design of the transistor. Lost electricity leaking from these microscopic transistors, even when they are in their "off" state, is a problem that is a challenge for the entire industry.
According to the company, the modifications will result in significant reductions in the three major sources of transistor leakage: sub-threshold leakage, junction leakage and gate oxide leakage, which translates into lower power requirements and increased battery life.
This comes not too long after IBM's quiet and hesitant rollout of the long-anticipated low-power and dual-core PPC970 variants—too little, too late, apparently. As hopeful as IBM's offerings seem to be, and as reassuring as it is that IBM isn't punishing Apple for its defection with some kind of mean-spirited price entrapment, it does sound like Intel has its ducks in a neater row for future development along these lines than IBM does.
Chris M., who forwarded the Intel article, says:
Remember when the Dear Leader announced that Apple was switching to Intel? You and I exchanged notes about something an IBM engineer told me a couple of years ago: that leakage current from quantum tunneling was becoming such a problem (due to small feature size) that 70 % of the power dissipated by the G5 chip was due to this (!!!).
Intel has to make do with the same physical world as IBM, so why switch? I speculated that perhaps this problem could be overcome, but only by a company that really, really needed to do it. Intel does, IBM doesn't. We both thought that such a solution might be what Steve saw coming over the horizon with Intel.
I should hate myself for feeling so smug, but I don't. I don't!
When the Steve's on-stage smile radiates the same smugness as ever, even when he's breaking the news of a historic and seemingly crazy platform shift, you've just got to assume he knows more than we do. We can forgive ourselves a little residual smugness wafting down from the stage and onto our own faces.
UPDATE: On the other hand, Motorola seems to be having a hard time seeing Apple preparing to exit the stage they've shared for so long, and is hurling some incoherent words at Steve's departing back:
"Screw the nano," said [Motorola CEO Ed] Zander. "What the hell does the nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs? People are going to want devices that do more than just play music, something that can be seen in many other countries with more advanced mobile phone networks and savvy users," he said.
. . .
Unlike the positive iPod nano reviews and outlook for the device, reviews of the Motorola [ROKR] phone have been mixed at best.
Needless to say. The defect is with the buying public, eh, Ed?
Via evariste.
UPDATE: It was all a joke! That's it, a joke!
UPDATE: Peter G. mails to note that the figure of 70% leakage due to quantum tunneling couldn't have been accurate; the worst it's gotten is around 20%. Which is still pretty significant. And IBM is still in the game of figuring out solutions, every bit as much as Intel is, if not considerably more.
|
|
Brian Tiemann
