Intel

Apple’s custom-built A5 chip currently powers iPad 2 and is expected to make its way into next-gen iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV

Japanese blog Macotakara, which accurately outlined some of the iPad 2 features, in its latest story claims that an A5-powered MacBook Air with Thunderbolt I/O is being tested in Apple’s labs. The machine could be manufactured by Quanta Computer, the story has it. The article quotes a source who allegedly saw an early prototype:

According to this source who saw live A5 MacBook Air actually, this test machine performed better than expected. Though it’s not clear which Mac OS X or iOS is pre-installed on this A5 MacBook Air, iOS seems to have difficulty to use features of Thunderbolt without Finder. And even if Mac OS X is installed, developer should spend time to support A5 on Universal Binary Applications. As considering these situation, this A5 MacBook Air seems to be made just for experiment.

The rumor aligns well with a recent SemiAccurate speculation that Apple will transition their portables lineup to custom-built chips with ARM-based processing cores. Not that Macotakara’s hit-and-miss record is anything to go by, but we have to ask ourselves what benefits – if any – the iPad 2’s A5 chip would bring to Apple’s ultra-thin notebook. Here’s the big picture…

Pictured above: a clamcase iPad case

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Chip maker Intel had stressed they, not Apple, own all Thundebolt trademarks. Even though Apple and Intel collaborated on this high-speed I/O technology featured on the 2011 MacBook Pro and iMac families, the confusion arose when Patently Apple discovered that Apple filed for the Thunderbolt brand name trademark, their third since the technology debuted on the new MacBook Pro family in February of 2011. Few were convinced Apple owns the trademark, including Cult of Mac’s Ed Sutherland who asked, “Who the heck owns Thunderbolt, Intel or Apple?”

Deciding enough is enough, Intel has now made claims it owns the Thunderbolt trademark. Responding to an inquiry from Theo Valich over at Bright side of news, Intel’s senior communications manager Dave Salvator provided this statement:

As part of our collaboration with Apple, they did some of the initial trademark filings.  Intel has full rights to the Thunderbolt trademark now and into the future. The Thunderbolt name will be used going forward on all platforms, irrespective of operating system.

[UPDATE May 20, 2011 3:15am Pacific] Intel’s representative has contacted the publication with additional clarification. To make a long story short, Intel and Apple have agreed that the iPhone maker will transfer their Thunderbolt trademark to the semiconductor giant. Valich explains:

Apple filed for the original trademark and is now transferring that trademark to Intel. At the same time, Apple will continue to have unrestricted use of the technology. 3rd party implementations such as Sony’s desire to use USB Connector instead of DisplayPort and the eventual change of technology branding (Sony’s IEEE1394 a.k.a. Firewire implementation was named i.LINK) will have to be ironed out as the time passes by.

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As expected, new MacBooks Airs are going into production later this month for a June or July launch month. The news from Digitimes says that Apple’s updated ultra-thin notebooks will pack Sandy Bridge processors – that recently launched in the new MacBook Pros and iMacs – in addition to Apple and Intel’s new Thunderbolt I/O platform. Apple’s current line of MacBooks Airs include both 11.6 and 13.3 inch models. Because the current design was released late last year, we believe that the new models will simply be an internal specification upgrade and nothing more.

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Computer maker Hewlett-Packard isn’t impressed with Thunderbolt, a high-speed I/O technology Apple and Intel co-developed as a new industry standard meant to replace a plethora of slow and incompatible connection standards in use today. Speaking to PCWorld yesterday, HP’s worldwide marketing manager for desktops Xavier Lauwaert said the company did look into the technology but walked away unimpressed.

We did look at Thunderbolt. Were still looking into it. Haven’t found a value proposition yet. On the PC side, everybody seems to be content with the expansion of USB 3.0. Do we need to go into more fancy solutions? Not convinced yet.

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Previous-generation iMacs were able to drive both the internal and an external display at the same time, but the newly released iMacs are capable of driving two external displays simultaneously – in addition to the built-in display – thanks to the inclusion of Thunderbolt ports. Apple confirmed to GigaOM’s Darrell Etherington that the new 27-inchers’ two Thunderbolt ports (21.5-inch models only have one) can drive a dual external display setup.

Now, using two Mini DisplayPort adapters plugged in to the 27-inch iMacs Thunderbolt ports, users can simultaneously output to two monitors in addition to the main built-in screen of the iMac. It won’t necessarily clog up your Thunderbolt ports, either, since the tech supports daisy-chaining. That means you should be able to connect to Thunderbolt-compatible storage and then on to a display after that, too, without any loss of quality.

Macrumors was able to verify that the Thunderbolt ports can still make the iMac an external display for Blu-ray or video gaming or a cable box.

An Apple sales representative has confirmed to us that the new 27-inch models do continue to support the feature through the new Thunderbolt ports.

Engadget tested out a dual external monitor setup, seen below.

Apple also offers touchpad options allowing you to replace the included MagicMouse with either a Magic Trackpad or a wired Apple Mouse or go with both wireless MagicMouse and Magic Trackpad for $69 extra.

Also, MacStories explain that you can order a solid state drive in the second drive bay that will boot your operating system.

If you configure your iMac with both the solid-state drive and a Serial ATA hard drive, it will come preformatted with Mac OS X and all your applications on the solid-state drive. Then you can use the hard drive for videos, photos, and other files.

(we’re doubting Apple is supporting symbolic links to the hard drive for media – but maybe in Lion?)

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After weeks of rumor mongering and days of dried up channel inventory, Apple on Tuesday finally refreshed its iMac family. The signature aluminum and glass design remained unchanged, but a look under the hood reveals the latest Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors from Intel, the new high-speed Thunderbolt I/O interface developed in co-operation with Intel, a FaceTime HD camera and storage upgrades across the board.

• Apple iMac Core i5 Quad 2.5GHz 21.5″ Desktop for $1,199
• Apple iMac Core i5 Quad 2.7GHz 21.5″ Desktop for $1,499
• Apple iMac Core i5 Quad 2.7GHz 27″ Desktop for $1,699
• Apple iMac Core i5 Quad 3.1GHz 27″ Desktop for $1,999

The 21.5-inch models have one Thunderbolt port and 27-inchers have two. Apple says the new processors deliver up to 70 percent faster performance while AMD graphics with “a powerful new media engine for high-performance video encoding and decoding” is responsible for a threefold jump in performance over the previous generation.

The release quoted Apple’s marketing honcho Phil Schiller:

Our customers love the iMac’s aluminum enclosure, gorgeous display and all-in-one design. With next generation quad-core processors, powerful new graphics, Thunderbolt technology and a FaceTime HD camera, we’ve made the world’s best desktop even better.

The new FaceTime HD camera supports high-def video calling between all FaceTime HD-enabled Macs and standard-resolution calls with iPad 2, iPhone 4, the current-generation iPod touch and other Intel-based Macs. This refresh has brought the quad-core performance of the Intel Core i5 processors to the entire family, with an option to upgrade to a Core i7 chip up to 3.4GHz.

Four new SKUs have replaced the previous models with two 21.5-inch and two 27-inc computers, beginning with the $1,199 entry-level 2.5GHz 21.5-incher and all the way up to the flagship $1,999 27-inch iMac with a 3.1GHz processors. More information and the official press release right after the break.

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All current signs point to an iMac refresh sometime next week. The rumors started a few weeks ago when an unsourced report claimed that refreshed iMacs are en route to the United States for a late April or early May launch. Then, just last week, our sources across the globe backed up these claims, saying that iMac shipments and components are very constrained. Yesterday, our colleague Mr. X told us to expect new iMacs the week of May 2nd as Apple will officially stop shipping iMacs to resellers this week (week of April 25th).

Since Apple tends to release new products on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the likelihood of new iMacs with Thunderbolt I/O and Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors is high for May 3rd or 4th. Now, a reader tells us that Apple has delayed his order for an iMac from the Apple online education store. The order was not completely cancelled but simply delayed to the week of May 2nd. A May 2nd ship date is a possible new iMac release day but also would give Apple enough time to make a May 4th delivery date.

Due to an unexpected delay, we are unable to ship the following item(s)
by the date that you were originally quoted:

Z0JP, IMAC 27\”/5750/SD
will now ship on or before
May 02, 2011

Thunderbolt interconnect, a technology jointly developed by Apple and Intel which debuted February 24 on the new MacBook Pros, will become widely available to third-parties this quarter via the official development kit, Intel said yesterday. This is important for Mac users eager to take advantage of this technology.

Even though pundits had initially slammed Intel for limiting Thunderbolt to the new MacBook Pros, even saying this would spell doom for the new technology, the early release of an SDK means we can expect a lot of Thunderbolt-enabled products by the year’s end. In addition to Mac notebooks, Intel is working with other players to embrace Thunderbolt. At NAB 2011 several video and storage companion products from AJA, BlackMagic, Matrox, Sonnet, G-Tech, Promise and La Cie are being demoed.

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image via Allan Tepper

We’re getting some information out of NAB that Matrox just announced it will be first to market with 7 products on built on Thunderbolt including an adapter that will allow all older MXO family products to work with Thunderbolt enabled Macs.

Update: Matrox just updated its Facebook Page with this:

Exiting News from Matrox just released at NAB: Thunderbolt support for all existing and new MXO2 Products! Full Connectivity with all platforms for video playback, capture and streaming, on laptops or desktops (PC & MAC). Thunderbolt adapter can be purchased separately for existing MXO2 Owners, or can be bundled with any new MXO2 Product.

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Future iOS adapters may work with USB 3 and DisplayPort/Thunderbolt if we read Patently Apple‘s latest finding right.  It isn’t immediately clear if this will be backward compatible with today’s 30-pin connectors but it would make sense.  Schematic below:

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The iFixit MacBook Pro Quad-Core Intel i7-2630QM Mobile Processor (labeled as 2V041112A0127) isn’t chock full of surprises but here’s what they found:

• Wireless is Broadcom BCM4331
• Intel BD82HM65 Platform Controller Hub

• AMD Radeon HD 6490M GPU (labeled as AMD 216-00809000)
• Quad-Core Intel i7-2629M Mobile Processor (labeled as 2V041112A0127)
• Broadcom BCM57765B0KMLG Integrated Gigabit Ethernet and Memory Card Reader Controller
• Intel L051NB32 EFL (we assume this is the Thunderbolt port controller) – pictured below
• Parade PS8301 U08FUC
• TDK 6T213HF 1045 H

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LaCie is one of the first Light Peak partners to announce a Thunderbolt Drive with their Little Big Disk SSDs which promise to deliver absurd data speeds.   Speaking of Promise, they also have a Thunderbolt RAID device in the works, the very same one that Apple posted on their Thunderbolt page (below) which appears to be on the beefier side.

Neither have prices or shipping dates but if you have to ask how much these cost…

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Apple today updated its line of MacBook Pros. We’ll not tell you more than visiting the site.  Press release follows.

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What I don’t immediately understand is how this is going to work with my current MacBook Pro/monitor setup. It would seem that if I got a new MBP and a Thunderbolt external hard drive that the hard drive would have two Thunderbolt ports and I could daisy chain them, still using my current monitor? Or do I have to buy a new monitor that understands Thunderbolt? Anyone?

Also, while we are on the subject, this new cable would allow you to put your noisy Mac Pro in a basement/closet somewhere and just run a cable up through the floor to your monitor/keyboard/trackpad/peripherals.

Now that that is in your head, imagine what a company of 5,000 could do with this tech (after some serious rewiring).

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In the New MacBook Pro leaked box picture it said that the Thunderbolt port was also the Mini DisplayPort.  So that makes the below picture a bit more manageable on the brain.  Notice the Thunderbolt is where the Display port is/used to be:

(click twice for full sized image)

We’re still trying to wrap our heads around this.  Will there be a new MiniDisplayPort switch/cable that connects to your monitor and then connects to other devices?    Discuss below…

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We’ve been hoping Light Peak might make an appearance in new Macs since the technology first made an appearance working with a lab demo Mac Pro in 2009. We’ve been excited for the super-fast and super-flexible connectivity standard ever since — now it seems there’s a way to go before its ready to hit the market, according to Intel.

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It appears that AMD is slowly killing off the ATI brand and will now use AMD for video cards going forward. Look for new AMD video card options in your upcoming Intel Macs.

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Intel has confirmed weeks of rumor, filing a $1.4 billion takeover offer for iPhone component supplier, Infineon’s Wireless Solutions business.

Announced last night, the move means Intel’s determined to take a slice of the emerging smartphone business.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekaQpCmD1_Y&w=670&h=400]

Apple has severed its relationship with a small design firm engaged in tablet development, a report claims.

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