[Infowarrior] - Apple to 'ditch' Intel for Nvidia in standard MacBooks

[Richard Forno]

Apple to 'ditch' Intel for Nvidia in standard MacBooks

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/13/apple_drop_intel_for_nvidia_rumour/

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in PCs & Chips, 13th October 2008 12:37 GMT

Apple will drop Intel’s integrated graphics chipsets in its new family  
of MacBooks in favour of Nvidia’s new mobile platform, according to  
speculative reports.

The company is expected to announce that decision tomorrow,  
AppleInsider reports. If the rumours are correct, the standard 13-inch  
machines will be loaded with chipsets from Nvidia’s MCP79 platform.

Apple began shipping Intel-based x86 processors in its notebooks in  
2006.

The MCP79 platform, which is seen as a substitute for Intel’s Centrino  
2 “Montevina” system, supports the 1066MHz front side bus and has PCI  
Express 2.0 interfaces and optional DDR3 memory.

Centrino 2 was finally released into the wild in July this year after  
a series of problems forced Chipzilla to delay the release of its  
refreshed platform.

Apple boss Steve Jobs first told software developers in June 2005 of  
the company's decision to migrate from PowerPC to x86 processors,  
courtesy of Intel.

Meanwhile, Apple on Friday said it will repair MacBook Pros where the  
Nvidia GPU has failed, or fails within two years from the purchase date.

It also put the boot in to Nvidia after it confessed earlier this year  
to a higher than normal failure rate for some of the company's  
graphics processors due to a packaging defect. The chip maker claimed  
at the time that Apple's Mac computers were unaffected by the glitch.

Apple has disagreed with that assessment.

"After an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some  
MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics  
processor may be affected," said the firm in a statement on its website.

"If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or  
fails within two years of the original date of purchase, a repair will  
be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty."

Odd then, you might agree, that Apple could be considering Nvidia over  
Intel for its new line of MacBooks. We should know more tomorrow. ®