News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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Nvidia this week introduced a desktop variation of the same motherboard design that debuted as part of Apple’s new MacBook and MacBook Pro last week. Introduced Monday, the new GeForce 9-Series motherboards are coming from leading PC manufacturers this month.
Nvidia’s GeForce 9-Series motherboard
Apple’s newest MacBook and MacBook Pro systems both share a motherboard design that features a motherboard-based graphics processing unit, or, in Nvidia’s parlance, an mGPU. This enables the machines to work faster than previous MacBook systems could while still conserving energy, without having excessively slow integrated graphics—an Achilles’ heel for previous MacBook designs, in particular. The MacBook Pro also adds a discrete Nvidia graphics processor that users can turn on and off using Energy Saver controls if they prefer to have faster graphics.
The GeForce 9-Series motherboards share the same core architectural components—a motherboard-based graphics processor that enables compact PCs to work faster with complex graphics, high-definition video and other computationally intensive tasks. Features include 16-core graphics processing, PureVideo HD technology (which offloads all video processing from the CPU to the GPU instead), and support for LPCM 7.1 audio, dual-link DVI and HDMI.
The reference board design also supports Nvidia Hybrid Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology, which enables more than one Nvidia- based graphics card to work simultaneously with another. Nvidia says this can boost graphics performance up to 70 percent above the motherboard GPU.
What’s more, Nvidia says, the motherboard is being offered in a “much smaller footprint than competing chipsets makes it ideal for small form factor and ultra-slim media center PCs.”
Companies Nvidia has announced that are manufacturing the motherboard include ASUS and Foxconn, two frequent manufacturing partners of Apple’s.
These last two items may provide some clues to the future of the long lamented Mac mini, which, according to one report, may be on its way out—at least in its current form.
Last updated in 2007, the Mac mini is the sole remaining product in Apple’s computer line that still has a motherboard which uses slower Intel integrated graphics. It also sports a much slower motherboard design and doesn’t have 802.11n draft spec-based wireless networking, unlike the rest of Apple’s Mac line.
The mini was introduced in January 2005, before Apple migrated its Mac product line to the Intel microprocessor. It has been slowly updated several times since then so it’s arguably due for a refresh. With the Mac mini sharing a lineage with Apple’s consumer laptop line, it’s conceivable that Nvidia’s GeForce 9 motherboard could be used in the mini—or something like it—sometime soon.
The timing of the announcement is a curious tactic for Apple. Announcing a refresh of a major product line six days out from theMacworld Expo is a little weird; I can't think why Steve Jobs wouldn'thave wanted to pull a big blue sheet off a Mac Pro (the Xserve marketis pretty specialised when you come to it) and startle the world withit. Then again, perhaps he's got something even snazzier in mind; aFlash-based MacBook Pro that costs $300, reads your mind, does yourironing and has a Time Machine that works with any wireless networkconnection.
Alex Kidman | Jan 10, 2008
The world has been rocked this week with the news that Apple has added Andrea Jung to its board of directors. That's right, that Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon. That's right, that Avon, the door-to-door cosmetics company. Clearly this indicates a radical new direction in Apple's retail strategy: as well as mass-market retailers, specialised independent resellers, company-owned stores and of course online, Apple is now going to recruit an army of enthusiastic salespeople hoofing it from house to house with sample cases.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jan 11, 2008
It was one of those days. There's a maxim that to err is human, butto really stuff things up you need a computer. Robbie Burns also oncesaid (in my imagination) that "the best-laid plans of mice and men haveno chance againt modern technology". We had planned our coverage of the keynote so well. We had rehearsed, tested and run through. Nothing could go wrong.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jan 16, 2008
"Don't forget to get there very, very early", was the advice given to me by practically everyone prior to this morning's Macworld Conference Keynote. "Things get pretty hairy", they claimed -- and they weren't referencing Australian Macworld's fine editor. So at 5am, having been woken by the loud gentleman speaking German VERY LOUDLY, I prepared towander down the chilly streets of San Francisco and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. Annoyance doesn't quite cover my mood when another Australian journalist makes an appearance two hours later, right behind me.
Alex Kidman | Jan 17, 2008
