Apple in Talks with AMD: Report

[Paul Daniel Ash]

News that Apple executives and their counterparts from chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices have been spotted together has fed speculation that Apple may be moving future Macs away from the Intel chips they've been using since 2006. AppleInsider quotes "people familiar with the matter" as saying that Apple's already worked out an agreement with AMD to use its chips in their labs, an indication that work is already underway to get AMD's desktop and notebook chips in Mac computers.

According to AppleInsider's report, Apple has been frustrated by limited availability of Intel's newest processors, which they suggest may have been a reason why refreshes of products like the Mac Pro and Mac Book Pro have taken so long to get to market. There's also speculation that AMD might be willing to work with Apple on custom chip designs. In addition, AMD now owns graphics chipmaker ATI, which would give Apple an edge on getting improved GPUs into Macs. Both companies are silent on the matter, but witnesses are reporting that AMD top execs have been seen on the free Commuter Coach buses that Apple runs between San Francisco and company headquarters in Cupertino, and have been spotted on the Apple campus coming out of meeting rooms with Apple upper management.

Interestingly, AMD's ties to Apple seem to have a number of tendrils. The Inquirer reports that it was engineers that Apple hired away from AMD last year who developed Apple's in-house graphic switching technology. Bob Drebin and Raja Koduri were top talent AMD got from its ATI acquisition who came to Apple in 2008. Drebin, who had been Chief Technology Officer at ATI, was also instrumental in the development of the GameCube's graphics hardware when he was with ArtX.

The report does not suggest that Apple would move all its lines en masse to new processors. Rather, Apple would become like most other computer manufacturers, choosing from a mix of vendors for its CPUs and graphics chips. Price per GHz is not significantly better with AMD chips, but Apple may well surmise that introducing competition may cause their partners at Intel to come up with sweeter deals.

[whereswaldo]

where did u get this photo?

[TranceField]

that should bring the price of some apple products down... but not like I care... I only purchase iPods and iPhones from apple...

[Success.Is.Sweet]

that should bring the price of some apple products down... but not like I care... I only purchase iPods and iPhones from apple...

Probably not. Profits would just go up for Apple.

AMD makes some seriously nice processors though, for usually a third to half the price of comparable Intel chips. Ever since I started building machines, I have always used AMD and have been extremely satisfied. I just can't justify the Intel price for the same power I can get out of a cheaper chip.

ATI on the other hand, I tend to stay away from. Games have always run better on nVidia cards in my experience. Even the 5700 and 5800 series cards are having issues with Bad Company 2, and I can't handle that since that's the game I play the most these days.

[paidinfull]

Apple Is The Devil
This Will Be There Next Lineup

Opteron x12 6100 seris processor
ATI 6 Series Graphics
6GB Ram


666

I'll Will Definitely Still Be First In Line To Buy One!!!

[Hiram85]

Apple Is The Devil
This Will Be There Next Lineup

Opteron x12 6100 seris processor
ATI 6 Series Graphics
6GB Ram


666

I'll Will Definitely Still Be First In Line To Buy One!!!

hahahah this is the funniest thing ive heard all day!!!

[MetallicaFan1991]

Wouldn't mind moving away from Intel. ATI seems better I think.

[lolcats1]

there'd better be intel inside, all i'm sayin'

[politicalslug]

Change the headline to read "huge computer company evaluating its options". This isn't news. They've been in talks was ATI, AMD, Nvidia, Intel, and IBM for years.

[bruinsrme]

Why would apple lower its prices?
AMD has always been a better price point hence their large profits (sarcasism).
Intel needs AMD more than Intel needs Apple.

[tknapp2]

@politicalslug- Why do people like you keep posting on these forums saying "this isn't news" "this is rumors". Let me ask you something. When you woke up this morning did you know that Apple executives and executives from AMD have been seen together??? I bet no you didn't. So it would be NEWS TO YOU. Although it may not be confirmed that Apple is going to AMD, it is still news.

[iphone8130hak]

wow

[moon#pie]

are they still x86 processors?

[iphone8130hak]

Proly

[moon#pie]

I hope it is x86. Don't want to deal with having support for intel mac being phased out.

[Cer0]

See how long it took them to phase out PPC. That just happened with 10.6. So they give it some time, even then the old OS still works fine for a few more years.

[riku98523]

Macs wont get any cheaper just the amount that goes into them will be less. Also ATi only wins in benchmarking the amount of bugs and compatibility issues with ATi cards is much higher than Nvidia cards which is why when u go onto the forums for a new game that is released and all these people are having problems it usually ends up being 90% of the people on ATi cards having the problem.

AMD isn't bad especially with the price difference (pretty big) but if the macs stay the same price then to the consumer this is kinda a downgrade.

[Success.Is.Sweet]

I hope it is x86. Don't want to deal with having support for intel mac being phased out.

Yes, they are x86, and a lot are x64 as well.

[rhekt]

well whatever works better right?

[tudtran]

AMD is suck.