Is Apple’s rumored move from Intel to ARM processors closer than we think? With the possible doubling of the pixel resolution on the upcoming iPad 3, some believe it means the graphic power is there to efficiently move pixels around on a MacBook Air.
From an article by Mark Reschke writing for T-GAPP:
The highly rumored iPad 3 is said to be doubling the current iPad 2 pixel resolution, moving from 1024 x 768 to 2048 x 1536. The move effectively increase the pixel count by over 4x, which is stunning for a device this size. Apple is likely to upgrade to a quad-processor to help things along, but a massive boost in graphics processing power would certainly be required to push that many pixels.
Apple has a knack for great timing. On Tuesday, Imagination Technologies publicly announced it’s newest line of PowerVR, which may boast up to 20 times more of the performance vs their current core of GPU cores.
He believes that, while a quad-core A6 processor would make the iPad 3 zoom, it could also deliver just enough power to be considered for use in Apple’s MacBook Air lineup.
He writes, “In an odd move, Intel is scrambling to eliminate it’s own processor sales, shipping in Apple’s MacBook air lineup. While that makes little sense, it becomes crystal clear when seeing how Apple can quickly turn the tables on Intel, dropping the chip gorilla off at the PowerPC history museum. At CES, Intel apparently faked a race car video game demo, in an attempt to showcase the power of their new UltraBook technologies, not yet arriving for several more months.”
It’s irrelevant to Intel whether or not Apple continues to use Intel’s chips in their Mac lineup, or moves on to another processor. What matters to Intel is that users don’t all move to a tablet form device. A market where Intel has no foothold. Alternatively, Intel would like to herd consumers into their own Ultrabook form factor, thereby eliminating, or at least postponing their need for a tablet device from Apple or the various Android vendors.
