Nanotech - The Circuits Blog

A report claiming that Nvidia has been ousted from Apple laptop designs has gained prominence quickly because the graphics chip supplier is still dogged by past problems.

"The word is that Nvidia is out of Apple designs," according to a June 26 report from technology Web site SemiAccurate. The report has been cited widely with varying degrees of credence given to it.

"When I say out, I mean on the Nehalem-based Macs," Charlie Demerjian, the author of the report, said in a phone interview Monday, referring to future laptops from Apple that will be based on Intel's new Nehalem Core i series of chips.

Nvidia, not surprisingly, doesn't see it that way. "These rumors are baseless," an Nvidia spokesman said Monday. Apple had no comment.

Nvidia graphics processors are currently used widely in Apple MacBooks. And Apple has been touting a new technology in its upcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system called OpenCL, which takes "the power of graphics processors" and makes it available to Snow Leopard for everyday computing tasks.

However, lurking below this push to tap into the compute power of the graphics processor lie past issues with Nvidia chips. A May 29 Apple knowledge-base article (Article: TS2377) couches frustration with Nvidia in diplomatic language, according to Demerjian. The article updates a similar notice Apple published in October of last year.

"Nvidia assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected," according to the Apple May 29 statement. "However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor may be affected."

"The 8600M referred to in the Apple support page...had a particular material set," Nvidia said Monday, repeating a statement it has made several times in the past. "That particular combination of material set is no longer being used by Nvidia."

In a May 20 disclosure as part of a Form 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nvidia said that some notebooks still have problems associated with its graphics chips.

And past statements from not only Apple but the world's largest PC makers lend weight to the tenor of SemiAccurate's assertions about Nvidia's chip problems, if not necessarily to the accuracy of the report's claims about Nvidia's future at Apple. Hewlett-Packard said last year that it had been grappling with Nvidia chip issues since November 2007. And Dell made a similar statement last year.

Writing about the SemiAccurate report, Broadpoint AmTech analyst Doug Freedman said Monday: "If the reports are indeed true...Although negative at the margins, this shortfall could be offset by new product ramps." Freedman cited upcoming products--that will offset any negative impact--such as Nvidia's Tegra chip for smartphones and its Ion chipsets for laptops and Netbooks.

On Monday, the Apple MacBook Air reached a new price low as a wave of sub-$1,000 ultrathin laptops get set to break onto the market.

MacBook Air prices as updated Monday on Apple's Web site

(Credit: Apple)

The ultrathin, trend-setting 13-inch notebook made a steep descent from its rarefied, luxury-laptop pricing altitudes. The top-of-the-line Air with a 128GB solid-state drive fell $700 in price to $1,799 from $2,499 and gained a slightly faster 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo processor. The new prices are now posted on Apple's Web site.

The lower-end version with a 120GB hard disk drive fell to $1,499--the lowest price to date for a new (not refurbished) MacBook Air.

The price cut is happening just as PC makers, including Lenovo, Acer, Asus, and MSI, are debuting new ultrathin laptops at price points decidedly lower than the executive-jewelry genre of ultraportables that dominated the market for years.

Lenovo's 3.5-pound 13.3-inch IdeaPad U350, for example, will start at $649. At the other end of the pricing spectrum, the top-of-the-line, ultrasleek Dell Adamo is still listed at $2,699. The clock may be ticking on these lofty price levels, though.

On Monday, Apple also upgraded its comparably sized 13-inch MacBook to MacBook Pro status. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro has the same unibody design but now includes a seven-hour battery, a FireWire 800 port, an SD card slot, a backlit keyboard, and an improved LED-backlit display with a greater color range.

With Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics, a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, and a 160GB hard disk drive, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is priced at $1,199. A model with a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB of memory, and a 250GB hard disk drive is priced at $1,499.

Updated at 6:45 p.m. PDT with additional discussion about OS X local search.

I once was a God-fearing Windows user. But when an Apple shrine, uh, store opened in my area, I began to ask myself the age-old question that has confounded even the greatest biblical prophets: Is the Mac better?

I avoided the Mac for years for the usual reason cited by the Windows faithful: a dearth of hardware and software. (The so-called Mac tax was never really an issue for me.) That said, I won't go into a broad platform critique because I risk rehashing Windows-versus-Mac religious arguments that have been repeated millions of times for (digital-age) eons. (Besides, I'll leave that faith-based debate to the digerati of the world.)

Suffice to say, I now use a MacBook full time. Though, in the spirit of complete disclosure, I do have a Vista-based HP tower that I still use when there's something I absolutely can't do on the Mac. And, no, I have not gone the Boot Camp or virtual machine route yet.

So, without getting into an unwieldy philosophical argument, there are some nuts-and-bolts things that make the transition a challenge (and it's different for everyone, as every user has different needs.)

And one more disclaimer: I'm writing this from the perspective of a Mac neophyte/new user. Not as a seasoned Macophile that can instantly troubleshoot issues as they pop up.

Docking stations (lack thereof): This is a biggie. I had grown attached to the convenience of Hewlett-Packard docking stations. Apple should have connectors for docking stations (or port-replicators) built into MacBooks. The ease of popping an HP business laptop--which I had been using for years--in and out of a docking station cannot be overstated.

Microsoft Entourage: This is not the Windows Outlook equivalent. In a word, it's slow. In two words, very slow. (Note: I can't use the OS X "Mail" client because it can't run the email programs that I use.)

Web compatibility: All things should be equal here. But they're not. Like many people, I use both Safari and FireFox. Last week, there was a live video stream that, while it loaded on my MacBook Air, wouldn't run. The applet was there but it wasn't streaming. I didn't have time to figure out why it wasn't streaming. I just needed it to work. Out of desperation, I tried it on the Vista-based HP tower. It streamed immediately. In my book, that's a problem. And generally, on many Web sites that I use, Windows Media Player (that is, WMP v.11) is more adept at streaming video than the applets that come standard on the Mac OS X platform.

OS X local search: OS X local search is great (e.g., Spotlight) but it won't let me exclusively search a folder full of JPEG files. This issue was validated by a Mac "Genius" at my local Apple Store who admitted it was "odd." Let me repeat, an Apple Genius verified that I could not do this. Of course, I can find these files a dozen other ways but there's an application I use everyday that would be a lot easier to use if I could search JPEG files exclusively in that folder.

(Update: After a second visit to my local Apple Store and a separate discussion about changing the user short name--which the Genius did, as this process is a little tricky--I can now do JPEG searches on one of my MacBooks. I do not know how this came to be fixed, however, as it was an unintended consequence.)

The Apple MacBook Air has remained almost unchanged for a year and a half--a testament to the staying power of its design. So, how will Apple respond to the wave of inexpensive, ultra-thin lookalikes hitting the market over the next six months?

The Air is still a stunning design but its novelty and high price will come under assault as lookalikes flood the market

(Credit: Apple)

The Air was a sensation when it debuted in January of 2008. Not that it sold by the boatloads, but the stunning form factor set off an industrial-design frenzy. Ergo, the Dell Adamo and the raft of "ultra-thin" laptops in the hopper as a result of Intel's push to get its "ULV" (ultra-low-voltage) chips in as many glamorous but affordable designs as possible.

The just-announced ultra-thin Acer Aspire Timeline is the writing on the wall. No, it's not the equivalent of a MacBook Air or Dell Adamo but it's close enough to give prospective buyers even more reason to balk at the $1,800-plus price tags attached to those two gorgeous designs.

And other designs are already out there like the 0.78 inch-thick MSI X340 X-Slim, which is, more or less, a photocopy of the Air. And even Lenovo is tempting fate with the 3.5-pound 13.3-inch IdeaPad U350, which will start at $649 and make the $1,900 ThinkPad X301--and the Air--look very expensive.

So, what does an Acer Aspire Timeline get you for $899? Let's take a quick look:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor SU9400 (1.40GHz, 10 watts)
  
• 13.3-inch LED-backlit TFT LCD
  
• Mobile Intel GS45 Express chipset
  
• 4GB of DDR3 memory
  
• 6-cell lithium ion battery
  
• 500GB SATA hard drive
  
• 3.5 pounds
  
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
  

Many of those specifications are a stone's throw away from the Air (and Adamo)--or match it.

So, what will Apple's MBA encore be? Thinner? Lighter? Faster? 3G capable? Dare I say, cheaper? Or a new industrial design that will send all the ultra-thin wannabes back to the drawing board? I'm waiting.

Updated at 10:45 p.m. PST with additional system specifications.

The aesthete buys an Apple. This dig in the latest Mac-attack Microsoft ad contains a kernel of truth.

Here's the essential choice: A Dell with a pedestrian design but all the fixin's or a gorgeous Apple MacBook that doesn't offer quite as much. (Whether the prospective buyer needs a maxed-out laptop is a pertinent question too.)

The Dell paradigm is how many people define practicality, i.e., you get more box for the money. Hewlett-Packard of course falls into this category too.

I use both a MacBook (an Air) and a Windows machine (HP): a dualism of sorts: one pleases the eye, the other is more utilitarian. Of course, this characterization of the two platforms is greatly oversimplified (dare I not mention the dueling OSes: OS X Leopard versus XP/Vista?), but this is the kind of thinking that drives many purchases.

Without further ado, let's do a side-by-side.

Aluminum 13-inch MacBook

(Credit: Apple)

Aluminum 13-inch (LED) MacBook:

• OS: OS X Leopard
  
• Processor: 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo
  
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 9400M
  
• Memory: 2GB DDR3
  
• Hard drive: 250GB 5400rpm
  
• Camera: built-in camera
  
• Connectivity:10/100/1000 Ethernet / 802.11n
  
• Optical drive: 8x (DVD±RW)
  
• Warranty: 1 year
  
• Price: $1,599
  

Dell XPS 13

(Credit: Dell)

Dell XPS 13 (LED):

• OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
  
• Processor: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo
  
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 9500M--256MB
  
• Memory: 4GB DDR3
  
• Hard drive: 500GB 7200rpm
  
• Camera: built-in camera
  
• Connectivity: 10/100/1000 Ethernet / 802.11n
  
• Optical drive: 8x (DVD±RW)
  
• Warranty: 2 years
  
• Price: $1,598
  

A quick glance at the features shows that the Dell beats the Apple. That said, the Dell isn't an aluminum unibody design, doesn't wow like the MacBook, and doesn't carry the cachet of the Apple brand. The latter two intangibles are important for a lot of buyers.

Perceived performance is also an intangible. The question of which of two comparable systems is faster is often based on one's individual definition of performance.

So, which computer carries the day? I'll let the reader decide.

Additional notes: Some readers say the OS plays a very large role in the buying decision. Particularly the fact that the Apple OS is a Unix derivative and that Apple users can run both OS X and Windows via Boot Camp. Duly noted.

Nvidia is in at Apple. So, what's the connection between Apple's graphics-fortified lineup and Snow Leopard OS X?

First a quick canvass of the state of Apple's graphics. Low-performance Intel integrated graphics have been booted from MacBooks, replaced by Nvidia. And, earlier this week, Apple updated the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro with Nvidia graphics across the board and didn't mince words on its Web site: "Ultrafast Nvidia graphics" ad copy is prominently displayed for the iMacs. ATI graphics are also promoted for the Mac Pro and offered on the iMac.

Then, there's this Snow Leopard blurb on Apple's site: "OpenCL (Open Computing Language), makes it possible for developers to efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit (GPU). With GPUs approaching processing speeds of a trillion operations per second, they're capable of considerably more than just drawing pictures. OpenCL takes that power and redirects it for general-purpose computing."

So, what does this add up to? "Apple is teeing up to accelerate graphic applications better than anyone else--a market segment they are well known in and loved, so it behooves them to nurture and protect it," said Jon Peddie, of Jon Peddie Research, which tracks the graphics market. "Nvidia has been working in the background with Apple, very closely, for about five years now. What you're seeing now is the manifestation of that investment," he said.

What this means is that Apple is doubling its efforts to unlock the parallel processing power of GPUs--which these days pack hundreds of processing units--to speed up more than just games. Apple wants to use the GPU more as a general purpose processor by expanding, via OpenCL, the range of applications that can tap into the prodigious processing power of the GPU--which can be programmed to crunch certain kinds of data much faster than a dual-core or quad-core Intel processor.

U.K.-based technology Web site The Register had this to say about Snow Leopard back in December: "There's a strong possibility (Snow Leopard) leapt well past Windows 7." And goes on to say: "The release of OpenCL 1.0 is a giant step towards the long-sought goal...in which the massively parallel capabilities of GPUs (graphics-processing units) are brought to bear on general-purpose applications."

Apple is also extolling the virtues of Intel multicore processors, saying on its Snow Leopard page that Grand Central, a new set of technologies built into Snow Leopard, "brings unrivaled support for multicore systems to Mac OS X. More cores, not faster clock speeds, drive performance increases in today's processors."

Sounds like Windows 7 is going to have some competition.