If you were paying attention, reports from the Intel Developer Forum intrigued you. With talk of future concepts requiring some advanced capability not out yet, Intel could have been foreshadowing potential Mac hardware to come. With such ideas as 3-D movies, advanced intuitive human to machine interaction, Internet based TV and other consumer electronics taking center stage in the keynote, Apple and Intel may have big plans.

Intel is making no secret that it plans to dip its proverbial toes heavily into consumer electronics waters. In order to do so it is trotting out some interesting new technology and concepts that should trickle down to its relationship with Apple as its primary processor chip supplier. This advancement series at Intel will only mean good thing for all things Apple.

Can you say multi-core, multi-threading processor architecture? I knew that you could. That is the direction that Intel is taking its processor family with what the geek set has dubbed Nehalem (also known as Core i7 within Intel). This is a whole new inner chip design that is set to take processing to a whole new level. The Nehalem is supposed to put current favorite Penryn to shame by offering power leakage management right in the chip via a Power Control Unit (PCU), as well as Turbo Mode, on board memory controller, eliminated overclocking protection, DDR-3 DIMM support, support for as much as 24 GB of RAM and much more.

Of greatest interest to Mac lovers in regards to the Nehalem chip concept though is how it may lead to better gaming on the Mac. Did you hear the ‘hallelujah, it’s about time’ chorus just then? I did. Nehalem has the capability to allow for an on-chip graphics controller. Not only that, it could have a toggle switch to allow to switch from the low-output, power saving on-chip controller to a separate, stand alone graphics card, enabling you to chose to save battery life while sacrificing graphic quality, or to have the great gaming experience we all want on our Macs.

Add in functionality for up to 8 cores per chip, macro-op fusion based performance enhancements (64bit), repetitive task processing increases via 28 micro-op loop stream detection and other features and you have the makings of a processor architecture that may put Penryn to shame. Meanwhile, even as Intel is packing this hefty punch into the Nehalem chip concept, they are making it server focused. This means Intel is going after the AMD market share. A win in that market segment would have positive ramifications for both Apple and Intel as far as future market share is concerned.

For those of you who don’t get that excited for the inner workings of a computer chip, how about this Intel innovation that may help your Mac: Solid State Drives. Your Mac currently has an SATA hard drive, most likely. SSDs are quiet, hard working, cooler, use less power, and plug right in to Macs with SATA based drives so you could upgrade your Mac’s hard drive once the new technology becomes available. Intel is planning a line called Mainstream for the average laptop or desktop user and a line called Extreme for the high end server set. According to the Developer Forum, we could see the 80GB Mainstream as soon as Fall 2008.

Intel is also pushing for WiMax as the wireless connection of choice. Heavy development is going into WiMax technology and WiMax infrastructure. With Intel behind the hardware and many companies pushing the infrastructure development, WiMax is scheduled to reach speeds of 300Mbps as soon as 2010. I must admit I don’t know enough about WiMax or LTE right now to say more than 1) it is fast, 2) it is the next wave of wireless, and 3) Intel supports it (the main competition for wireless technology, though still lagging behind WiMax in reported development schedule).

Other future concepts outlined by Intel that may enhance your Mac in the near future include better security. That’s right - Intel and Apple are both concerned about your laptop and what happens to it if it gets stolen, or confiscated by the customs agents on your way out of the United States while traveling, since they seem to be able to do that now at will. The future outlines automatic encryption, automatic iSight photo of the thief, GPS tracking and more. With Intel and Apple coming up with bright ideas for the future of computing like these, I foresee serious gains in market share for Apple as time goes on.

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Entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 10:47 pm under Mac, Rumors.  Print This Post

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