Current MacBook Air Almost Had an AMD CPU Instead of Intel!

[tonymacx86]

AMD Failed to Provide Llano Chip for Apple's MacBook Air Because of Faulty Parts
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12 ... parts.html

Here's a great article on apparently what could've been, if AMD hadn't dropped the ball... ouch. :?

 

[MonkeyDLuffy1810]

So close to get Lion on AMD

 

[tonymacx86]

The article says that AMD was "Plan A"

 

[djt82]

wow that woo be love

 

[Baoren]

It would be great to have some other competitor in the cpu business. I don't know this llano cpu, to be honest, but I doubt that macbook air would have been half powerful than the actual i5 version.
There was a time amd was ahead in the competition with intel, but actually I really can't consider amd a competitor. And this sucks, because alone in charge, intel does whatever they want with cpu releases and prices.

 

[powerpcg5]

Congratulations to AMD for being the #2 fabless semiconductor firm in the world! (Jan 2010)

Big fail to AMD for failing to deliver parts in time, and too many parts failing (according to the article).... maybe if they've not become fabless, they could have delivered in time and had better quality control.

There was a time amd was ahead in the competition with intel,

That'll be good sidenote material for the History Channel. It will be hard to compete now when Goliath owns several fab houses which they operate fully as their own, vs a firm that doesn't even own their own factory.

 

[marty73]

It really is a darn shame, since AMD's purchase of ATI their A series APUs have been well outperforming Intel on the integrated graphics front, slightly behind on the CPU performance though. This may change with Ivy Bridge and HD4000, but in the meantime you can get an AMD 3GHz Quad-Core A8-3870k Black Edition for about $140 .... Bargain! I sooo wish I could make a Hackintosh build with one.

 

[powerpcg5]

but in the meantime you can get an AMD 3GHz Quad-Core A8-3870k Black Edition for about $140 .... Bargain!

There's a reason it's a bargain. It scores 5,101 on CPUmark.
While a non-overclocked Intel 2600K scores 9,103.

Heck, even the 8-core AMD 8150 scores only 8,255... still beaten by the 4-core Intel 2600K.

 

[marty73]

I was thinking of using the A8-3870K instead of an i3-2105 for a mini-itx HTPC for my parents in the lounge since they are about the same price point. Would I be better off using the i3-2105 instead?

 

[tonymacx86]

After Years Of Hard Knocks, AMD Honing Its Killer Instinct
http://www.forbes.com/sites/briancaulfi ... -predator/

Apple Seriously Considered Switching to AMD in 2011 MacBook Air
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/23/app ... cbook-air/