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No Merom notebooks until 2007?

Swad

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Swad
Swad
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Although we won't claim that the Inquirer is a great pillar of 'net journalism, it does pass along some interesting information. Today, they're claiming that Apple won't release a Merom-based notebook until sometime in 2007.

Sources deep within Intel tell us everything is going swimmingly for the new MCW cores, but Apple won't produce a laptop with Merom until 2007. The delay is most likely due to a convergence of two things, production and Apple's limited range.

 

So, said trickle means that you don't put the few Meroms you get in anything but the highest end lowest volume models of your lineup. If you have a dozen models, you might pick one to be graced by the new wondercore. If you are Apple with two or four models, depending on how you count, then you can't really get enough to supply even one model.

 

What this means is Apple is faced with putting out laptops that have cases made of real unobtanium, or they can wait and roll it out right. Since it is mole migration season, I have been asking many of the little critters streaming past my house, and they all say that iMeromBooks are a 2007 product.

There are a few reasons why this might make sense. First, it would be somewhat odd for Apple to update the iMac and Mac Mini lines yesterday while holding off on a Merom notebook that was ready to ship. Secondly, the notebook lines are doing quite well without Merom, so Apple may simply lack motivation.

 

There are still 115 days left in 2006, however, each one bringing the opportunity for a manifestation of Steve's whims. We'll see what happens.

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OSXtasy
OSXtasy
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It actually makes sense to wait for Santa Rosa anyway, as Merom is just a "bump" in the road, albeit with 64bit extensions, which really doesnt matter at this point and time to be honest. Heck, you cant even fit more than 2 gig of ram in these lappys anyway as they stand right now, and I cant think of anyone (not me anyway) that would want to be capped by a 2 gig limit due to the formfactor/motherboard shortcommings. Then again, just my 2cents.......

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Ali Zaid
Ali Zaid
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Me too, I will wait for Merom, it's not reasonable to buy MBP without it, Merom is the latest Laptop processor, and if apple want us to buy their laptops they have to have it like the others, after all they choose to switch to Intel.

 

Don't get me wrong I'm not upset from Apple, I will be if I buy now a MBP (now after Merom is out) and after a month or so Apple release MBP with Meroms, So I will wait, and still hoping that during this month we will have another suprise like the 24" iMac, I really don't care much about new iPod or iPhone (I do but not as much as for a new MBP)

 

Apple?

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bofors
bofors
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... but Apple won't produce a laptop with Merom until 2007. The delay is most likely due to a convergence of two things, production and Apple's limited range.

 

So, said trickle means that you don't put the few Meroms you get in anything but the highest end lowest volume models of your lineup. If you have a dozen models, you might pick one to be graced by the new wondercore. If you are Apple with two or four models, depending on how you count, then you can't really get enough to supply even one model.

 

This is totally backwards.

 

If Apple had any kind of Merom shortage they would have upgraded the MacBook Pro first, not the iMac.

 

The Inq. may have some good sources at Intel, but they aren't getting Steve's "Super Secret" PodCast.

 

At best the Inq. might be right in that the MacBook may not get Merom until 2007, but I expect the MacBook Pro to be upgraded within weeks.

 

... as Merom is just a "bump" in the road ...

 

Oh, please... :thumbsdown_anim:

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jgrimes80
jgrimes80
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I don't mean to sound pessimistic but;

 

It doesn't matter when you buy a MBP, MB, Mini, iMac, or MacPro; there will ALWAYS be something right around the corner that's bigger, better, faster, sleeker etc.

 

That being said, the only real arguable point is to have 64bit compatability... but like mentioned previous these laptop can only be geared up with 2Gs of RAM which kind of defeats the purpose.

 

I was always taught to: "Buy what you need when you need it, if you can wait, you don't need it and you sure hell better not buy it." - Dad

 

To each his own I guess

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bofors
bofors
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... there will ALWAYS be something right around the corner that's bigger, better, faster, sleeker etc.

 

Yes, but with SSE4 Merom is a huge improvement over Yonah for anyone processing media which is supposed to be Apple's forte. It is literally twice as fast at vector computations.

 

What follows Merom, the Santa Rosa chipset, will be a large "bump", but Merom is a much bigger deal in the Apple world especially because Mac users expect something comparable to AltiVec and Yonah's SSE3 just isn't even close.

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br0adband
br0adband
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From everything that I've read, Merom processors are literally drop-compatible with current Core Duo machines - you should be able to just "drop" a Merom in the socket in place of the Core Duo CPU (can't remember the damned codename at this precise moment, duh).

 

I read that someplace a few weeks ago, but of course the negative there is the prohibitive expense of a bare Merom chip in the first place even if it's true.

 

bb

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Darwinian Dude
Darwinian Dude
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I have just sold my 20" Intel-based iMac, 2GB/250, w/ 256vram... becuase I need a portable machine now. I shall wait for the new 17" Macbook Pro instead of getting the current model because:

1) I want Core 2 Duo, as all i use the machine for is audio production and gaming.

2) The 17" Macbook Pro is double the price of the new currently faster iMac 20".

3) I'm hoping they'll drop in the GeForce Go 7600 GT or some other better than X1600 gaming option. The 7600 GT is a BTO option on the 24" iMac, i'm hoping they put it in the new Macbook Pro 17".

 

Anyone else going to guess if the new MacBook Pro's will be a change in design, a la Macbook? I love the deisgn, but i wouldn't mind an improved keyboard w/ full size inverted T arrow keys.

 

I really feel for those poor guys who paid top dollar for their 15" 1.83 ghz Macbook Pro's.... I guess there are worse things that could have happened to them, like buying a powerbook for the same price from a shifty sales guy. ;)

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unstatusthequo
unstatusthequo
Posted
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Yeah I'd be pissed if it was pushed off until 2007. If it is, hell, I might as well wait for Santa Rosa, which is expected in March of 2007. Apple will not put Merom into the MBP line for 3 months and then switch... that makes no sense at all. It would make more sense to see Merom soon, then Santa Rosa in Summer of 2007, right after or maybe right before Leopard is rolled out, IMHO.

 

I sold my laptop and am tied to the desktop ATM, which sucks, but, this is one of those things that none of us can really change. My Merom motivation is mostly the 64 bit extensions. I'm sure Apple is very aware that there are literally tens of thousands of people holding off on purchasing a laptop until a revision is announced.

 

Having said that, I really don't care what the Inquirer says, even if they say it in such a patched together butchering of English as in that article. I actually trust some blogs more than that site. I agree that a story about Intel being unable to provide for the demand is probably unrealistic. It's their new processor, I'm sure they planned ahead with the expectation that ALL manufacturers would be dropping the C2D chips into their product line. Are we really expected to believe that Intel would not figure Apple into that mix?

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RobNyc
RobNyc
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I'll wait for the Merom from Apple . It'll prob be my first Apple pc =]

Unless, I can get a Hackintosh Merom cheaper + works the same as a real 1 ;)

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bofors
bofors
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Yes, but with SSE4 Merom is a huge improvement over Yonah for anyone processing media which is supposed to be Apple's forte. It is literally twice as fast at vector computations.

 

For people wondering about this, here are some pictures of the difference between Yonah and Merom in terms of vector processing throughput and architecture:

 

Yonah:

p6-vector.png

 

 

 

Merom:

ngma-vector.png

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/core.ars/4

 

 

 

 

Yonah:

merom-3a.gif

 

 

 

Merom:

merom-2.gif

http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?Arti...6143144&p=3

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Ali Zaid
Ali Zaid
Posted
Posted

Hay Guys;

 

Good news, MBP will have Merom before 2007!

 

Well, this is the only way I can get my life back after I heard the rumer :D, but really, after reading all the comments about this rumer here and there, I started to see it's not true, Apple always supprise people, and definatly it's going to supprise the guy that wrote the artical.

 

:), now I can sleep

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doug_jnr
doug_jnr
Posted
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What an absolute awesome move it was for Apple to move to Intel. Look at the amount of us waiting on Rev 2 MBP's. I'd guess that Steve has pulled more switchers from this Intel move than ever before. There is even a truckload of people that have been running OSX illegally for the last year that are now willing to cough up the big bucks for the real thing.

 

Long live Apple!!!

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Mebster
Mebster
Posted
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I've heard a few different type of processor names and am a little confused as to what is what, does what and when it should be out. Can someone please help clarify this. Ideally for all the new ones and not just Merom but Woodcrest and any other too.

 

I'm sure this will help a lot of people including me who are confised but want to know.

 

Thanks

 

EDIT:

I found this which is helpfull but if anyone had any extra info or would like to help clify it would be great.

Does this mean only the iMac and the Pro line (Mac Pro wouldnt be too logic) get a Merom Conroe. Not the Macbook I've been waiting to buy because I want that Core 2 Duo?

no, merom and conroe are 2 different things. merom is the laptop version, conroe the desktop version. rumors

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Bearcat
Bearcat
Posted
Posted
I've heard a few different type of processor names and am a little confused as to what is what, does what and when it should be out. Can someone please help clarify this. Ideally for all the new ones and not just Merom but Woodcrest and any other too.

 

I'm sure this will help a lot of people including me who are confised but want to know.

 

Thanks

 

EDIT:

I found this which is helpfull but if anyone had any extra info or would like to help clify it would be great.

 

no, merom and conroe are 2 different things. merom is the laptop version, conroe the desktop version. rumors

This is my understanding.

 

Core2Duo

 

Woodcrest (Xeon) released first, dual core, in an LGA 771 package for server chips and currently used in the Mac Pro.

 

Conroe released next, dual core, in an LGA 775 package for desktop use.

 

Merom, dual core, in a mobile 479 socket for direct Yonah replacement in current Yonah machines like the new iMacs.

 

Upcoming Quads,

 

Kentsfield, quad core, in a LGA 775 socket for Conroe replacement.

 

Clovertown (Xeon), quad core, in a LGA 771 socket for server replacement.

 

Other then that, I haven't been following what the codenames are for the newer platforms like Santa Rosa coming in 2007

 

Hope that helps

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