IBM, Freescale Look Beyond Apple
IBM, Freescale Look Beyond Apple
by , 5:10 PM EST, February 7th, 2006
With Apple set to completely transition its computer line to Intel processors later this year, IBM and Freescale have mapped out their post-Apple future, according to an article by Darrell Dunn at InformationWeek. The companies see many opportunities, including the three next-generation videogame consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, to sell tens of millions of processors annually.
Mr. Dunn wrote that during a Monday news conference, IBM and Freescale executives said that their companies will be able to free up resources previously put toward developing the PowerPC as a PC processor. That will enable them to concentrate on "segments ... where both the volume and innovation are more significant [than Apple]," according to Freescale chairman and CEO Michael Mayer.
The companies plan to collaborate as the develop "a common instruction set architecture for future Power processors, and in developing innovations that will extend Power into a broader set of customer implementations," according to Mr. Dunn. They also plan to implement Linux on PowerPC and have created Power.org, a community of companies that will jointly support the processor in different markets.
John E. Kelly III, senior VP of technology and intellectual property at IBM, said during the news conference that "the gaming industry is a good proof point for the Power architecture. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have all used the same fundamental architecture and created custom solutions with different operating systems and software stacks. We have shipped tens of millions of Power processors into the gaming industry."
On the Freescale side, the company is looking to increase its presence in the automotive, communications and networking equipment industries.
"Innovation is no longer centered around the PC, and architectures need to expand out beyond that to supercomputers to automobiles," said Mr. Kelly. "This is a major tipping point for the Power architecture."
Thanks to Macworld UK for the link.
Observer Comments
Smoke and mirrors is right. The "Future" they are talking about (in game consoles) is processors with designs that will be locked in stone for the next five years. And if they are no longer concerned about "PowerPC as a PC processor" then what good will Linux boxes do them? By loosing Apple, they've lost the #1 reason why anyone would want to write Linux for PPC.
These guys had the world on their plates, and they blew it by taking Apple for granted.
Quote"...where both the volume and innovation are more significant (than Apple)," according to Freescale chairman and CEO Michael Mayer
Ah, sure--that must be true. Apple must have said to Freescale and IBM, "Please don't innovate to make superior processors, guys. We just want the same old crap forever."
Yeah, thanks for clearing that up, Mike...
Quotewho's to say that the next, next-gen consoles will use IBM/Freescale processors anyways?
That's right. R&D for a chip for Apple would pay as soon as the chip shipped. Now they are in for a 5 year wait before the research on that generation chips pays a dime. What other use for PPC demands as much computing power as a game console?
who the day Apple left STILL didn't know they'd left. The VPs of marketing in New York had their heads so buried in the sand and were caught so unaware by the announcement (wouldn't you like to know how I know!) they might as well be standing in front of church naked for their first communion.
C-L-U-E-L-E-S-S
Quotealgr wrote:
And if they are no longer concerned about "PowerPC as a PC processor" then what good will Linux boxes do them?
By running linux on those other things that it's currently better suited for than "Personal Computers" - embedded devices, servers, network appliances, set-top boxes, and all the others I'm too lazy to remember before my first coffee of the day.
Problem is that embedded devices and games consoles are in many ways at opposite ends of the spectrum in designing a chip, so I am not too sure how that combination will help. As IBM and Freescale pretty much went their own ways years ago (and pretty much sold out Apple in so doing) i am also not sure how they intend to collaborate now with their increasingly divergent markets. Apple was the only major customer who kept some much needed cohesion in their divergent plans for PPC which is why IBM originally re motivated themselves to keep Apple on board with the G5, and then predictably lost interest again once they did and thought they were hooked. Fact is I am sure that each will do reasonably well in their particular markets but I seriously doubt that those markets will make either that much of a fortune once the development costs have been factored in after all it is now considered that the cost of Cell to Sony is going to be a real problem for Sony in terms of the unit price for playstation3.
Do not forget that Mac-fans, only a year ago, would not have believed Apple is going to go: Intel.
Now we Mac-fans are already buying Mac-Intel computers and as soon Intel starts to deliver multi-OS Intel, whatever the name, chips, the profesional Mac Users have a lot more possibilities.
Steve Jobs and Apple must have had a hard time to make another change in the Macintosh history.
When Apple announced the shift toward Intel's CPU, people commented that the move wouldn't hurt IBM or Freescale pocket. Those guys, rationale was based on Apple's PC market share! not on PowerPC market share.
No doubt Apple still is pretty much PPC market share! considering the fact that Apple is the only PC player using it!. Last quarter Apple reported 1.2M Mac sold!! Going from 1.2M to 0 in 2 year span is a rough call to anyone, even IBM who only use PPC for its big iron!.
Keep in ming that Game Console are not using full bloom PPC CPU, Xbox360 use 3 Cell cores and PS will too.
Some of these comments rubbishing IBM/Freescale do look awfully similar to things being said about Intel a year ago.
IBM does not use PPC in its 'Big Iron' servers - those are full POWER chips. They do offer PowerPC in their blade servers, as well as Xeons. For 'personal computers' well.... IBM doesn't make those anymore. It is strange that IBM and Freescale weren't more interested in giving Apple a laptop chip, in keeping with their "POWER everywhere" ideas, but I doubt they're exactly quaking in their shoes.
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