Intel in PC vs Intel in Mac Questions

[mustard]

I have worked at Local PC shop that built, repaired, upgraded & troubleshooted PCs for a couple years. While I was employed there we sold 99% Intel machines.

Question #1
We where an Intel Premium Distributor (I think that is what we where called), which gave us some pricing discounts and such. While I employed there we rarely had any intel hardware failure with either the chips or mobos - but Intel offered a 3 year warranty with the option of advanced replacement for any Intel product. I was curious if the new mother boards are actually made by Intel as well as if the same warranty would apply?

Question #2
I am aware of the Intel road map in regards to there processor line up, but I have not been able to obtain any information on the ZIFF socket type of either the Intel Duo or the Merom chips that are being offered/soon to be offered from intel. I was curious if there will be any sort of upgrade path available with the new Intel Duo machines?
Will working at the local PC shop we had some upgrade options with most mother boards - Eg.) When the original P4 came out they were 400MHz bus then 533Mhz, then hyper-threading, exc., exc. these chips could be simply dropped into any board that had a supporting chipset because they where all used the same ZIFF connector up until the most recent P4s.

I have not worked on a PCs for almost a year and I am a little out of touch but was just wondering if we will have the same potential upgrade paths as PC user have had for years with the ability to upgrade processors.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Well we don't actually know for sure yet. We don't know, for example, if the Duo chips are soldered onto the boards of the MacBook Pro or the iMac as the previous G4 chips have (I'm not sure about the G5s in the iMac G5). My guess is that they are definately *not* soldered in on the MacBook Pro. My reason for saying this is that they offer two versions of the MacBook Pro, one with a faster processor. Since these two variants are identical in every way apart from the processor, memory and amount of hard drive they are probably identical motherboards with different parts plugged in. I'm not so sure about the iMacs since the different speeds are only offered in different form factors.
My guess is that all Intel chips will be using sockets and will not be soldered in apart from if they release any computers with ultra low voltage chips. A reasonable prediction would be that the iMac and iBook line may be soldered in while the Pro line won't be since in the past only Apple's pro line have been considerably upgradeable. PowerMac with PCI slots, upgradeable G4s (aftermarket) etc. PowerBooks with PCMCIA slots etc.
I doubt the PowerMac will have upgradeable sockets and so will be able to handle CPU upgrades with a bit of tinkering.


Spanky

 

[mustard]

Well we don't actually know for sure yet. We don't know, for example, if the Duo chips are soldered onto the boards of the MacBook Pro or the iMac as the previous G4 chips have (I'm not sure about the G5s in the iMac G5). My guess is that they are definately *not* soldered in on the MacBook Pro. My reason for saying this is that they offer two versions of the MacBook Pro, one with a faster processor. Since these two variants are identical in every way apart from the processor, memory and amount of hard drive they are probably identical motherboards with different parts plugged in. I'm not so sure about the iMacs since the different speeds are only offered in different form factors.
My guess is that all Intel chips will be using sockets and will not be soldered in apart from if they release any computers with ultra low voltage chips. A reasonable prediction would be that the iMac and iBook line may be soldered in while the Pro line won't be since in the past only Apple's pro line have been considerably upgradeable. PowerMac with PCI slots, upgradeable G4s (aftermarket) etc. PowerBooks with PCMCIA slots etc.
I doubt the PowerMac will have upgradeable sockets and so will be able to handle CPU upgrades with a bit of tinkering.


Spanky

I figured that know one would know 100% if the chips are soldered to the board or not but would I am really curious is the type of ZIFF connector used by the Intel Duo and the yet to be released Meromand wether or not they are interchangeable.

 

[ansalmo]

There's a preview from last year at AnandTech that discusses the socket. ZIF socket by the way (Zero Insertion Force)

 

[mustard]

There's a preview from last year at AnandTech that discusses the socket. ZIF socket by the way (Zero Insertion Force)

Thanks a bunch, I have been wondering about this since I heard the news.

 

[generik]

Do they still use ZIF sockets nowadays? I thought Intel switched to a new kind of socket (incidentally the new CPUs have no pins)

 

[iMeowbot]

Do they still use ZIF sockets nowadays? I thought Intel switched to a new kind of socket (incidentally the new CPUs have no pins)

Yes, it's still ZIF, and Yonahs do have pins (example). The iMac take-arart photos already out show that Apple used the standard socket, and the Intel spec for that form factor rules out using solder anyway.

vniow posted a photo of the iMac socket in this thread, more photos at Kodawarisan.