Merom on July 23!

[freestyleguy128]

Apple Insider claims that Intel is looking to "simplify" its Core 2 Duo releases by releasing Merom alongside Conroe on the 23. If this happens, that could potentially mean merom rev. b macbook pros by the beginning og august. Any thoughts?

 

[WildCowboy]

Not a big news item...they're only considering announcing them at the same time as Conroe. They still won't ship until the late August timeframe we've been expecting for a while now.

 

[freestyleguy128]

Not a big news item...they're only considering announcing them at the same time as Conroe. They still won't ship until the late August timeframe we've been expecting for a while now.

But won't that downtime between announcement and release still push apple to crank out new MBPs before the end of august?

 

[WildCowboy]

But won't that downtime between announcement and release still push apple to crank out new MBPs before the end of august?

I'm sure Apple has known about the timeline for Merom availability for quite some time and has planned their product releases accordingly. That date has not changed, so any balloon-dropping, banner-unfurling announcement of what they already know won't push them to do anything.

What we don't know is how closely Apple is tying their Merom-based MBP release to the availability of the processor. Will it come out right after the processor comes available? That'll depend on how far along they are in the engineering of the machines and the expected initial availability of the processor. Or will they wait maybe until October for processor production to stabilize? Who knows?

 

[aaron.lee2006]

I could honestly care less about Merom. Sure it is a huge thing to most. i just ordered myself a MacBook Pro 1.83 refurb. Then again I want to browse internet, listen to music, play BF2, COD2, CSS, HL2 and DOD:S So Merom isn't a huge deal to me considering this MBP with be 10000 times better then my PC. It can't even run BF2 on low. So I'm excited about this thing. When I here thwe title "Merom Released" I will be like meh.

--Aaron

 

[Eidorian]

Well Apple had the iMac Core Duo out 5 days after Yonah was launched at CES in January. If Intel pushed its Merom launch to July 23rd we might expect something at WWDC.

 

[WildCowboy]

Well Apple had the iMac Core Duo out 5 days after Yonah was launched at CES in January. If Intel pushed its Merom launch to July 23rd we might expect something at WWDC.

You're missing the point. Apple unveiled the iMac a week after Intel started shipping Yonah. Intel is still planning to ship Merom in late August...nothing has changed there. Who cares when the big brass band and clowns have an announcement party? All that matters to Apple (and by extension its consumers) is when production quantities of Merom start flowing off of Intel's loading docks. And that's still late August.

Could there be an iMac announcement at WWDC with shipping occurring later? Possibly, though I doubt it since WWDC is focused on the Pro line.

 

[ironic23]

I just hope that the MacPros come out during WWDC. Any upgrade to the existing line would just be an add-on.

 

[Superlat]

information, please

I'm ignorant on this topic, so can someone tell me will this Merom
chip run cooler? I will be using the computer for rendering and
CPU intensive projects, so will it be faster, stronger, better?
And will it generate enough less heat so that people will stop
writing threads about their hands burning and parts of their MBPs
melting?

OK, I just went to the Merom link, thanks. Higher performance, lower
voltage on the slower ones.

What prevents someone from buying a 2.33 dual Merom or Conroe XE for $650
and plopping it in some box from Fry's and installing OSX on it? The logic board?

 

[mgargan1]

What prevents someone from buying a 2.33 dual Merom or Conroe XE for $650
and plopping it in some box from Fry's and installing OSX on it? The logic board?

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/promacs.ars/5

We've even seen reports of such upgrades on the Intel Macs that have shipped so far. Some enterprising Mac mini owners have swapped out their Core Solo CPUs for much faster Core Duos. There have even been reports that someone managed to drop a prerelease Merom (which is pin-compatable with Yonah) into a Mac mini.

Don't get too excited, though. While being able to swap CPUs at the drop of a hat would be great for consumers, it would also be a threat to Apple's business model. We won't see soldered CPUs in the towers like Apple has done in the MacBook Pro, that's for sure, but there is another tool at Apple's disposal to prevent users from upgrading their Intel desktops willy-nilly: TPM.

Intel's LaGrande platform has morphed into the Trusted Platform Module. The TPM has been included on all Intel Macs shipping thus far, and there is no reason to believe that it will be absent from future Macs. Its possible uses are many, but for Apple, it boils down to two things. First, Apple wants to tie Mac OS X to Apple hardware. That's no surprise: the EULA for Mac OS X allows the user to run it only on Macs. Hacks exist—and will continue to exist—to get around this limitation, but for the majority of users, the TPM chip will ensure that OS X runs solely on a Mac.

Second, and more important for our discussion, is the possibility that a TPM chip could prevent processor upgrades. One of the nice (or nefarious) features of TPM is that it can tie a particular hardware setup to a particular machine. In the case of Macs, that could prevent users from dropping in a new CPU.

In fact, Apple wouldn't even need TPM to prevent upgrades. For years, PC manufacturers have been able to lock out new CPUs via the BIOS. It should be trivial to accomplish the same thing with EFI. Don't be surprised if reports of users upgrading their pro Macs with faster CPUs are few and far between. Having said that, it may not happen at all.

hope that helps

 

[generik]

Ahh.. the big brother chip twarting upgraders. The joys of being a Mac user, the joys of being a tool...

 

[Eidorian]

Ahh.. the big brother chip twarting upgraders. The joys of being a Mac user, the joys of being a tool...

Well, it might also depend on the OS as well. 10.4.8 might be the minimum OS for a Core 2 Duo CPU to be properly registered as an official Apple CPU. (Right now it just shows up as Genuine Intel.) You might need to install 10.5 or somehow wrangle in 10.4.8 or 10.4.9.

 

[codo]

X3000, anyone?

+ Merom = A MacBook Chris would be truly happy with.

But need dictates I’m purchasing one at the end of August, X3000 or not. Then I'll just flog it on eBay when the GMA X3000 is in the MacBook (which could be months, I guess). Loose a few hundred Pounds, but it will be worth it for a better graphics chip.

 

[Eidorian]

X3000, anyone?

+ Merom = A MacBook Chris would be truly happy with.

But need dictates I’m purchasing one at the end of August, X3000 or not. Then I'll just flog it on eBay when the GMA X3000 is in the MacBook (which could be months, I guess). Loose a few hundred Pounds, but it will be worth it for a better graphics chip.

The mobile X3000 isn't coming out until Santa Rosa next year. Merom can work just fine usng the GMA950.

 

[codo]

The mobile X3000 isn't coming out until Santa Rosa next year. Merom can work just fine usng the GMA950.

I was aware they could work separately, I wasn’t aware that X3000 wasn’t being released until next year.

That’s perfect then, nothing to worry about buying ASAP.

Cheers Eidorian, your full of funkily helpful advice - We like you.

 

[Eidorian]

I was aware they could work separately, I wasn’t aware that X3000 wasn’t being released until next year.

That’s perfect then, nothing to worry about buying ASAP.

Cheers Eidorian, your full of funkily helpful advice - We like you.

Yeah, Q2 2007 for Santa Rosa and the X3000.

http://www.pcnx.com/view/1374/