Once again we have rumors that Apple is working on an ARM-based
notebook, which we find eminently believable. With the success of the
iPad, the number of iPad keyboards on the market, and quad-core ARM
CPUs just around the corner, there's no reason Apple wouldn't be
experimenting with the concept. The question is whether it will be a
Mac or an iOS machine. As Cult of Mac's John Brownlee notes in
Why You'll Probably Never Own a Mac With an ARM Processor, ARM
processors simply aren't designed to do the kind of heavy lifting we
expect of Macs, so any such notebook is far more likely to be strictly
an iOS machine, not a Mac.
General Apple and Mac desktop news is covered in Mac News Review. iPad, iPod, iPhone, and
Apple TV news is covered in iOS News
Review. All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News & Opinion
Rumor Roundup
Tech Trends
Products & Services
News & Opinion
Intel to Postpone Mass Shipments of Ivy Bridge
Processors
In a bit of unhappy news for those Jonesing for new Mac hardware,
DigiTimes' Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai report that Intel recently
notified its industry partners that it plans to postpone mass shipments
of its upcoming Ivy Bridge processors.
They say unnamed sources at an OEM notebook-maker tells them Intel
will announce the new Ivy Bridge silicon and ship a small volume of the
processors in early April, but that mass shipments are not expected to
occur until after June.
Chen and Tsai suggest the holdup may be due to first-tier PC
notebook vendors having trouble unloading their Sandy Bridge CPU based
notebook inventories due to the weak global economy, and that Intel
itself is consequently "troubled" by its own Sandy Bridge processor
inventory backlog, hence an imposed delay in aid of clearing old
stock.
The report says that with Intel changing its launch schedule,
notebook vendors are revising their project timetables for new Ivy
Bridge models, projecting that a hoped-for PC replacement trend is
unlikely to get underway until after September, when Microsoft is
expected to launch Windows 8, making the first three quarters of 2012
"a dark period" for the notebook industry.
That would be except for Apple, of course, with its hot-selling
MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptop lines. However, it stands to throw a
proverbial monkey-wrench into Apple's rumored release plans for a
major, Ivy Bridge powered, redesign of both categories, that had been
anticipated by some commentators for as early as April. That now seems
optimistic, to say the least.
Link: Intel to
Postpone Mass Shipments of Ivy Bridge Processors (subscription
required)
Dual-Core Ivy Bridge Delay Could Impact New MacBook
Rollout
Hardmac's Lionel notes a recent DigiTimes report (above) that Intel had announced to its partners that there
would be delays before the Ivy Bridge processors would be widely
available. However, he says that it now appears that information was
incomplete.
He explains that Intel apparently decided to only delay the
dual-core processors due to stock management issues - specifically
excess unsold dual-core Sandy Bridge CPU inventory, and launching a
faster, more efficient replacement before stocks sell down would
greatly their value as well as the value of the leftover stocks of all
computer makers.
Consequently, Lionel predicts that while desktop Ivy Bridge
processors should still be available in April - possibly first
available in a refreshed iMac - for laptops initially only quad-core
Ivy Bridge processors will be available.
Since Apple is widely presumed to be waiting for Ivy Bridge
availability for a redesigned MacBook Pro lineup, and probably a
heavily-tweaked MacBook Air refresh as well, Lionel posits three
possible ways they might proceed.
The first would be to just wait until June to renew all models in
the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines, with the announcement logically
made at the World Wide Developer's Conference. That might be an
attractive option, because it's recently rumored that an iPhone 5
launch will be pushed back to Fall 2012.
Another way to go would be to use quad-core processors in all
MacBook Pro models, including the 13". That is, of course, assuming
that there will still be a 13" MBP, which I think is debatable.
Option three would be to launch only the 15" and 17" models and wait
for June to ship models using dual-core processors. There have been
predictions that Apple might go for a phased new MacBook Pro rollout
anyway, with the 15-incher appearing first, followed by the 17" model
and then a 13" Pro, if the latter is not to be melded into the 13"
MacBook Air with some Pro features tacked on.
Link:
Ivy-Bridge: Only Dual Core Processors Would Be Delayed
How Use an External MacBook Air SuperDrive with
Almost Any Mac
Dave Taylor says Apple's external USB SuperDrive for the MacBook Air
can be made to work just fine with any Mac, but you have to activate a
little switch in the operating system itself that only lets the drive
work on the MacBook Air and - as it turns out - certain models of the
Mac mini. For everything else it just acts as if it's not plugged in or
that the USB plug itself is damaged and nonfunctional. But it's not -
it's just a deliberate block that can be overridden, albeit involving a
bit of a hack to the Mac OS X operating system using the
Terminal.
Link: Use an External
MacBook Air SuperDrive on a MacBook Pro?
Rumor Roundup
Apple Considered Putting AMD Inside 2011 MacBook
Air
Forbes' Brian Caulfield reports that Apple considered using AMD's
"Llano" processors, which were introduced last year, in the MacBook
Air, according to several former AMD employees.
Caulfield notes that Apple and AMD have a long history, with some
employee crossover and AMD's Radeon graphics processors used in many
Macs. However, he says that AMD's reach was exceeding its grasp, and it
couldn't get early working samples of Llano to Apple on time, one
former employee says, although there is disagreement among former AMD
employees as to just how close AMD came to landing an Apple laptop coup
over arch rival Intel. In the end, Apple went with Intel's Ivy Bridge
Core i CPUs for the 2011 MacBook Air refresh.
Link: Apple
Considered Putting AMD Processor in 2011 MacBook Air
Possible MacBook Air Refresh in March?
AppleInsider's Daniel Eran Dilger says that while NPD Group is
reporting essentially flat domestic sales of Macs, Piper Jaffray
analyst Gene Munster reports in a note obtained by AppleInsider that
"Apple may launch new MacBook Airs as early as March," which would help
boost global Mac sales and reach quarterly street expectations of 4.5
million units.
Editor's note: The problem I see with that is that while it's now
just two days short of a year since the MacBook Pro line got a
substantial update (to Core i processors), and Intel's next-generation
Ivy Bridge 22nm CPUs aren't available yet - and likely won't be in
dual-core permutations for several months yet. A refresh without new
CPU silicon seems unlikely, so where does that leave us? cm
Link: Apple's Mac Sales
Solid Ahead of 'Possible MacBook Air refresh' as Early as March
New MacBook Air to Launch Soon?
PCWorld's Matt Peckham suggests that Apple's next-generation MacBook
Air could launch soon, at least if one is inclined to interpret
DigiTimes' latest report (above) in the most
optimistic light.
Peckham also cites documents leaked to VR-Zone in December
suggesting that Intel would be dropping its 25W "Low Voltage"
processors in favor of "Ultra Low Voltage" versions that use just 17W,
running at clock speeds of 1.8 GHz and 2 GHz, and muses about a
widely-rumored 15" version of the MacBook Air, noting that while 15"
sounds "ginormous" for an ultraportable, Apple may perceive a need to
answer the burgeoning ultrabook market, where 15" models are
proliferating.
However, he observes - and your editor agrees - that the Air's
marquee appeal is how much power it packs into a form factor the size
of a file folder, and at 15" you've traded away much of that advantage
for screen real estate.
Link: Is Apple's New
MacBook Air Poised to Launch Soon?
Piper Jaffray Analyst Reports Apple Working on ARM
Laptop
SlashGear's Chris Burns says Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard
tipped last week by that Apple is actively working on an ARM-based
laptop. In a research note, Mr. Richard suggested that because Apple is
almost certainly working on a laptop that uses an in-house designed
chip, Intel's stake in the company appears to be at risk, and that
while this sort of speculation would not stand up to judgment on its
own, it reiterates at least one previous report from former Apple
intern turned CoreOS engineer Tristan Schaap, who says exactly the
same thing - ARM and Apple will be partnering up soon.
Burns observes that with the merging of Apple's two operating
systems coming ever closer to reality with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion this
summer, an ARM-based laptop becomes more plausible.
Link: Apple ARM Laptop
Tipped by Piper Jaffray
Apple Working on ARM Laptop, Says Analyst
Cnet's Brooke Crothers ponders whether Apple will build a MacBook
Air that uses the iPad's A-series ARM CPUs, citing a research note last
week by Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard who says, "We have numerous
datapoints that Apple's processor design group is working on an
ARM-based product for its notebook line. Whether or not it goes into
production remains to be seen, but it is the highest probability risk
to Intel from the ARM camp in the PC market."
Crothers notes that ARM chips are more power-efficient than the
Intel chips used in Apple's MacBook Air line but don't offer the
level of performance that Intel's silicon does [emphasis added],
and that Apple CEO Tim Cook told a Citigroup analyst last week that
Apple would be satisfied with expanding the iPad line to meet the need
for a notebook-like product.
Link: Apple 'Working
on' ARM Laptop; Bad News for Intel, Says Analyst
Tech Trends
Notebook Makers Expect to See Shipments Recover in
February
DigiTimes' Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai report that notebook makers,
after suffering weak sales performance in January, are expected to see
an overall on-month shipment growth of 10% in February as hard drive
supply returns normal.
Lee and Tsai note that longtime Apple subcontractor Quanta Computer
shipped 3.8 million notebooks in January and expects its shipment
volume in the first quarter of 2012 to drop 10-15% sequentially to
11.8-12.5 million units, but with Apple set to launch a new MacBook Air
model, Quanta's revenues are expected to grow further in the
future.
How far in the future is the operative conundrum. That would seem to
depend mainly on when Intel's new generation 22nm Ivy Bridge laptop CPU
chips are available in sufficient volume.
Link: Notebook Makers to
See Shipments Recover in February (subscription required)
Products & Services
Hitachi Launches 7200 RPM 7mm 2.5" Laptop Hard
Drive
PR: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST)
announced that it has shipped more than 25 million Travelstar Z-series,
7 millimeter (mm) z-height 2.5" hard drives, enabling a new era of thin
and light portable computers, ultra-compact CE devices, and industrial
systems. The company also announced that it is now shipping its new 500
GB, Travelstar Z7K500 drive, the industry's fastest and highest
capacity single-platter 7200 RPM hard drive. All Hitachi GST Z-series
drives can serve as a direct replacement for standard 2.5" 9.5mm hard
drives. They feature common connectors and mounting points for simple
integration into existing systems and enable greater design flexibility
to differentiate and meet market demands for new, thinner, lighter, and
more robust devices.
Embraced by many top PC OEMs, the Ultrabook
specification authored by Intel offers opportunities to create a
tablet-like computing experience in an ultrathin laptop design. In
addition to providing a thin and light design, instant-on capabilities,
and an extended battery life, PC OEMs must also create high-quality,
cost-effective solutions to help drive competition, differentiation,
and mass adoption.
To help achieve this goal, a key part of Intel's Ultrabook
specification is combining a 7mm hard drive with an SSD (solid-state
drive) cache, giving OEMs the ability to explore the limits of modern
ultrathin and light designs without sacrificing capacity, performance,
battery life, or quality. For instance, a Hitachi 7mm hard drive
combined with an SSD cache can help OEMs meet the Ultrabook
specification for performance and startup times while providing a
high-capacity, space-efficient, and cost-effective solution. Based on
Hitachi's OEM customer plans, this combination is expected to ship in a
significant majority of Ultrabooks in 2012.
"We expect cache SSD shipments to soar over the next couple of years
due to the rise in Ultrabook demand," says Ryan Chien, research
associate for memory and storage at IHS. "Shipments of cache SSD units
in 2012 are projected to reach 25.7 million units - a 2,817% increase
compared to 2011 - and will reach approximately 121 million units by
2015. This growth is extremely significant for hard drive
manufacturers, as combining slim magnetic storage with caching SSDs
gives customers high-speed access to massive amounts of storage at an
affordable price."
Solid state drives offer great performance, but currently none come
close to the cost-per-gigabyte economics of hard drives, as SSDs are
largely cost prohibitive for the mainstream ultraportable consumer
market. SSDs can be 12 times more expensive on a cost per gigabyte
basis when compared to Hitachi Z-series drives. Competing hybrid drives
are another option, but current implementations don't offer the 7mm
form factor and may not meet price/performance targets.
With Hitachi Z-series drives, manufacturers can utilize space
savings to design thinner devices, increase shock robustness, improve
unplugged time by using a larger battery, or allow for enhanced cooling
and air flow due to the thinner hard drive design.
"Slim, compact, lightweight - no matter how you phrase it, there's
no denying that thin is in, and this trend is driving broad market
acceptance for our 7200 and 5400 RPM 7mm 2.5" drives," says Brendan
Collins, vice president of product marketing at Hitachi GST. "We are
proud to report that all major PC OEMs have qualified our previous
generation 7mm drives for a variety notebooks, Ultrabooks and CE
devices, confirming that the industry continues to recognize the value
and benefits of this new form factor. By adding the first 500 GB,
high-performance 7mm drive to our portfolio, Hitachi GST now offers the
market's broadest 7mm 2.5" hard drive portfolio to meet the needs of a
diverse mobile computing and storage segment."
"We're witnessing a change in the industry in terms of how laptops
are designed. From manufacturing, performance, efficiency, weight,
aesthetics and features, we're bringing compelling advantages to the
end user," comments Wentao Yang, vice president of Global Procurement,
Lenovo. "Equipping our laptops and Ultrabooks with Hitachi Z-series
drives allows us to offer new designs, while ensuring that we have the
quality and reliability that our customers expect."
7mm Travelstar Z7K500 2.5" Hard Drive
The new 7200 RPM Travelstar Z7K500 family delivers on the company's
proven strengths of reliability, high-performance, low-power,
exceptional shock resistance and quiet acoustics. With an
industry-first 6 Gb/s SATA interface, as well as a 32 MB cache and
7200 RPM, the new thin and rugged Travelstar Z7K500 is claimed to
deliver up to 33 percent more performance in PCMark Vantage testing
than other 2.5" hard drives on the market.
The new 7200 RPM Travelstar Z7K500 family features 1.8 watts (W)
read/write power and 0.8W low-power idle, and delivers a nearly silent
operation at 2.3 idle/2.4 seek bels. They also feature Advanced Format,
which increases the physical sector size on hard drives from 512 bytes
to 4,096 (4K) bytes, thereby improving drive capacity and error
correction capabilities.
Optional Travelstar Z7K500 drive models are available, including a
self encrypting drive (SED) designed to meet the highest standards for
protecting data, and an enhanced-availability (EA) model for
applications needing around-the-clock data access in lower-transaction
environments.
Highlights
- Industry's First 7200 RPM, 7mm, One-Disk, 500 GB Mobile Hard Drive
(630 Gbit/sq. in.)
- Industry's First 2.5" Drive with a 6 Gb/s SATA Interface and a
32 MB cache
- Industry's Fastest Hard Drive, Delivering up to 33 Percent More
Performance vs. other 2.5" Drives on the Market
- Highest 2.5" HDD Operating Shock at 400G for Designing Rugged
Portable Devices
- Advanced Format, 512-byte emulation
- First 6 Gb/s SATA interface on a mobile hard drive
- Low power consumption
- Halogen-free for eco-friendly footprint
- Self-encrypting models for data security
- Enhanced-availability (EA) models for applications needing
around-the-clock access in lower-transaction environments
The Travelstar Z7K500 family comes in 500 GB, 320 GB and 250 GB
capacities. Qualification samples of the Travelstar Z7K500 family have
been shipping since January; volume shipments will begin in March.
Link: Travelstar
Z7K500
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