Does Apple have a plan to greatly expand its position?
Mashing up
this source amongst other things.
Apple, if it gets ahead of the market in taking advantage of (multiple) processors with multiple cores, they could expand into the server, supercomputer, and also gaming and heavy usage computing fields, whilst bringing the benefits to all consumers. Is Microsoft in such a position?
With the iPhone 3G a few days from release, this platform is stable and just starting to take off. There are hardware and software complaints, and we'll see whether they'll be taken care of (flash for the camera, video, front cam, better Mpixel CMOS camera etc). Can the iPhone and Touch get away with maintenance and evolution, rather than revolution? Quite possibly.
Implication: Apple’s best hardware and software teams may now have time to work on real interesting Mac stuff.
For processors, it's less a MHz race than before, and more about cores & sockets. Beyond the multi-core multi-processor environment, we also have GPUs and custom chips on the scene too.
What's on the horizon?
Raw performance of the upcoming CPUs, the ability to harness it effectively with things like Grand Central, and the potential for either hybrid CPU/GPUs, or GPUs complementing CPUs will bring in a whole lot more processing power. Apple for its part, is wanting to make this tech useful, and easy to use for consumers, easy to implement and access for developers. Snow Leopard is basically blowing the top off the theoretical top end Mac configuration using Leopard. Fully 64-Bit, up to 16TB RAM, and dual socket Nehalem chips to start off with.
Cast
NVIDIA - The graphics chip leader
Intel - The #1 CPU maker
Apple - The #1 OS ;)
AMD - The #2 chip maker
Microsoft - The #>=2 OS provider
Processors - Intel
Remember the Guinness
surfer advert? Same deal. Tick follows tock follows tick follows tock. Like Apple, good things come to those who wait!
2007 - Tick - Shrink/derivative to 45nm (i.e. Penryn (aka Yorkfield))
2008 - Tock - New Intel microarchitecture 45nm (i.e. Nehalem (aka Bloomfield))
2009 - Tick - Shrink/derivative to 32nm (i.e. Westmere (aka ?))
2010 - Tock - Intel microarchitecture 32nm (i.e. Sandy Bridge (aka ?))
Core microarchitecture
(An
Intel CPU core roadmap is at the bottom which may help)
In 2006, the Intel
Core architecture was unveiled. Core chips had Virtualisation Technology (virtualisation support), Intel 64 (Intel's implementation of x86-64) and SSSE3. They were based around an updated version of the Yonah core & and could be considered the latest iteration of the Intel P6 microarchitecture, which traces its history back to the 1995 Pentium Pro).
The Core processor lines - with differing socket use, bus speed, power consumption etc:[list][*] Merom - for mobile computing[*] Conroe - for desktop computing[*] Woodcrest - for servers/workstations
Branding:
Mobile processors - Core 2
Desktop processors - Core 2
Low end Core processors - Pentium Dual Core
Low end Core processors - Celeron
Servers and workstations - Xeon
Just to note - confusingly, Intel processors branded as "Intel Core", e.g. the 65nm Yonah processor and its variants do not use Intel Core microarchitecture despite its name.
Core 2
The
Core 2 brand refers to a range of CPUs based on the Intel Core microarchitecture.
The Core 2 processor lines:
- C2S - Core 2 Solo: single-core CPU
- C2D - Core 2 Duo: dual-core CPU
- C2Q - Core 2 Quad: quad-core CPU
- C2X - Core 2 Extreme: dual/quad-core CPU
Branding - (Lower is newer - e.g. Penryn is successor to Merom):
Laptops
Merom (65nm) - Core 2 Solo/Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Extreme(Dual)
Penryn (45nm) - Core 2 Solo/Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Quad Core 2 Extreme (Dual)/Core 2 Duo Extreme (Quad)
Desktops
Conroe (65nm) - C2D/C2X (Dual)
Allendale (65nm) - C2D
Wolfdale (45nm) - C2D
Kentsfield (65nm) - C2Q/C2X (Quad)
Yorkfield (45nm) - C2Q/C2X(Quad)
Servers and Workstations:
(Intel brands servers & workstation Core 2 CPUs as Xeon processors. Xeon CPUs generally have more cache than their desktop counterparts in addition to multiprocessing capabilities. (afaik - it takes peons eons, to work out Xeons...))
Dual-core Xeons:
5100-series Woodcrest
5200-series Wolfdale (45nm)
7100-series Tulsa (65nm)
7200-series Tigerton
3000-series Conroe
3100-series Wolfdale
Quad-Core Xeons:
3200-series Kentsfield - Relabelled C2Q processor
3300-series Yorkfield - Relabelled C2Q processor
5300-series Clovertown - Consists of 2 Woodcrest chips in one package
5400-series
Harpertown
7300-series
Tigerton - A 4 socket and greater capable
(The fastest Harpertown is the X5482 and is also sold under the name "C2X QX9775" for use in the Intel SkullTrail system).
(The Clovertown X5365 is among the fastest processors, performing up to ~38 gigaflops = 0.038 teraflops )
Future versions:
Whitefield (cancelled)
Aliceton
Dunnington - Last of the Penryn generation - a single die 6 core processor
Gainestown - Based on Nehalem microarchitecture
Beckton - 8 or more core Nehalem processor. Based on Nehalem microarchitecture.
The successor to Penryn is Nehalem, the 32nm shrink of Nehalem is Westmere.
Release schedule: Penryn chips coming out up to ~Q3 08, Nehalem for late 08
Intel seems to be holding some cards to its chest. It has Larrabee (more on other posts) which is an integrated graphics platform that can natively execute CPU x86 code. i.e. when not rendering 3-D graphics, it can donate processing cores for general CPU work.
Intel also has Nehalem coming very soon, then the Sandy Bridge platform in late 2009/early 2010 (which is expected to integrate Larrabee onto a single die with quad core (or more) processors, leading to improved performance).
- Set to be released in 2 flavours - both based on Nehalem CPU Architecture, one being a desktop chip (Havendale), the other a notebook chip (Auburndale).
- Auburndale & Havendale will have 2 Nehalem cores paired with a graphics subsystem. The twin cores will share 4MB of L2 cache and feature an integrated dual-channel memory controller that supports memory configurations up to DDR3-1333 apparently.
- The graphics subsystem will be initially derived from Intel’s G45 integrated graphics. This indicates that neither Auburndale nor Havendale will be for heavy graphics processing, but will be more of an integrated graphics replacement.
- According to Intel roadmaps, the new processors are expected to enter the market in the H1 2009. Which is slap bang when Snow Leopard is pencilled in for release.
Intel's Senior VP Patrick Gelsinger says Xeon MP versions of Nehalem will be up to octocore processors, and will use HT.
Most "Enterprise software vendors charge by the socket and not by the number of CPU cores." - If this was to change, we could see quad sockets be more widely available i'd imagine. Until that time, more cores per socket is desired, due to licencing costs... Apple currently only has a dual socket configuration. Could they go hardcore 4 socket crazy?
How does Apple sell all that power to customers? What are the compelling reasons, the killer apps? It's about getting people to start using apps that use this. Video, 3G, The internet in your pocket, a supercomputer at your desk.
Graphics
The main players of the graphics market are
- NVIDIA's GeForce
- AMD's Radeon
- Intel in 2009.
Interesting for the discrete market, a side step for the integrated market. So what's NVIDIA doing? Is it getting into the CPU business? Trying to buy Via - an x86 license and with a line of CPUs...? nVidia makes an offer to buy AMD? ATi?
Custom chips:
Could Apple use either of a graphics card manufacturer's GPU's for GPGUage? Or will it make it's own chipset including GPU(s) for performance?
Apparently, Nehalem could allow Intel to integrate a graphics core into the processor, if it wanted to. So this may very well be where we see the introduction - Larrabee could fit right into this plan.
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