Hmmmm. AMD hires away top Apple execs. Apple hires AMD GPU engineers in tampa..
It is Orlando.
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/2...es-for-an-orlando-gpu-team-still-hiring-more/
And it isn't clear if this is Mac related or not. If look at that article one of the qualifications was
".. 5+ years proven experience building/hiring medium/large (30+) complex ASIC IP development teams ..."
Intellectual property (IP) is more so designs than finished product. The iOS SoC CPU/GPU packages have GPU IP in them. This can be more so highly tweaking/customizing the Imagination GPUs that Apple gets ..... or getting off of Imagination GPUs... ( not sure whether their recent jump into MIP as an ARM competititor has them looking at other options (e.g., tweaking ARM's Mali faster) or not. )
What the Mac systems needs is not particularly ASICs but drivers (which they did get someone with that kind of background from AMD Orlando) and work incorporating ASICs (not making them). I suspect the work is a bit split with perhaps small numbers of folks doing Mac but most are in SoC work. Basically the move is to make the group that was in Cupertino bigger by hiring talent where they happen to live (Orlando) rather than trying to drag them to CA ( and higher cost of living. ) .
AMD earns major design win for 7970/Firepro architecture in next-gen mac pro, not to forget xbox 1, PS4 design wins.
AMD has been willing to license to 3rd parties at deeprer level than Nvidia. That is in part because they are playing "catch" up in terms of revenues and growth.
Haswell MacBooks set to launch sans Nvidia architecture.
There are a bunch of 2012 Ivy Bridge MacBooks that launched sans Nvidia Architecture.
MBA 11" sans Nvidia.
MBA 13" sans Nvidia
MBP 13" sans Nvidia
rMBP 13" sans Nvidia
MBP 15 Nvidia
rMBP 15" Nvidia
2/3's of the whole line up doesn't have them. That same thing is probably true of the 2013 Macbook/laptop line up. The fact is
*MOST* of the Mac laptop line up needs better integrated graphics. That has nothing to do with dropping Nvidia. Nvidia isn't even a player in integrated x86 graphics anymore. And AMD is only a player is can dislodge Intel also on the x86 core.
The whole "classic" MBP 15" product might get tossed in 2013. That also has little to do with Nvidia or not. That would bump the percentage up to 4/5's of the laptop line up. There is no "good, better , best" offering of the 15" anymore. It is one model and all BTO for variation. Last Apple stores visited there is only one demo model in the store like the Mac Pro. It is probably on a slippery slope.
The key issue for Nvidia is really whether the MBP 15" survives at all or not. Apple may fall back to a entry level MBP 15" that has integrated graphics only ( 2009 9400M only entry model ) to push the price down a bit.
The other blow will be the entry iMac if it dumps a dGPU; again to lower price a bit.
It is probably a generation too soon to dump the dGPU from the rMBP 15". I know there are claims Apple is dumping now rather than later, but we'll see later in Fall.
the MBP 13" and rMBP 13" are the two models most in need of the Haswell IrisPro. The combination of those two is also a large chunk of the Mac laptop volume. Nvidia is a non player there now just as much as later this year in that block of Mac laptop sales.
The only real question is wither Apple is going to kneecap the classic MBP 13" (which still reportedly the best selling laptop model ) without a Haswell IrisPro update and use that to push the rMBP 13" in front on volume.
I'd place $$$ on a AMD variant in the next iMac.
Probably not. The same reasons why AMD lost last year's design win for iMac are still in place. Both AMD and Nvidia updates for 2013 are just clock speed bumps for their 2012 models. $ , performance, and drivers that won last year likely in place for this year too. 2014 the door is wide open. It depends upon AMD's and Nvidia's tweaks and pricing they exposed to Apple in NDAs this year.
Both cuts could pose a good hit to Nvidia's bottom line and ties them even closer to Tegra and it's Android offerings..
Apple's cuts in and of themselves? Not really. The overall PC market going stagnant and dropping in some areas is a much bigger hit to Nvidia's bottom line.
There are alot more than just Apple's systems that Nvidia is going to get squeezed out of by the IrisPro. But that is a trend that has already been in place for last 2-3 years.
Nvidia will need to lean harder on CPU-GPU combos that are possible for them in the ARM SoC space. But Qualcomm is no slouch there either. ATI's old mobile division (which AMD didn't get ) is helping Qualcomm take a large chunk of the ARM market. ( e.g., new Nexus 7 dumped Tegra and has substantially better graphics than last year. )
Nvidia can print money for another couple of years with Pro cards and trapped in tarpit CUDA library software. But that is a short term crutch.
