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The company could return to a practice common during the years of PowerPC-based Macs in which it developed proprietary chipsets to support the primary processors in its systems.

Which would probably get us discrete GPUs at the low end again. Making the MacBook run its battery down faster and adding to cost. Unlikely. But Apple won't design its own GPU.

Another option is that Apple could forge a relationship with one of the other established third party chipset manufacturers, such as NVidia, AMD or Via, in a move that would allow the company to build its next-generation systems using technology cherry-picked from the best of both worlds.

Smart.

El Lombardo wrote:

I highly doubt that.

At the least they will have to ensure windows compatibility.

I could envision Apple going back to apple-designed chipset, after their P.A Semi acquisition but not this soon.

Windows compatibility is mainly dependent on the CPU.    As I understand, this speculation does not include moving away from Intel CPUs.

For that matter, they stay with off the shelf, but an unlikely combo- say, AMD 790 core logic and

Preliminary benchmarks provided by VIA showed the Nano outpacing Intel's Atom in many benchmarks -- today, PC Perspective and Hot Hardware put those claims to the test.

Both sites took an Intel Atom 230 (1.6GHz) processor paired with an Intel BOXD945GCLF motherboard and pitted it against a VIA Nano L2100 (1.8GHz) processor with a VIA Nano Reference Motherboard.

Although the VIA Nano was clocked 12.5% higher than the Intel Atom used in both site's testing, Hot Hardware found that the Nano was anywhere from 15% to 20% faster than the Atom. In many cases, the delta between the two was much greater in the Nano's favor. PC Perspective also found that under load, however, the difference in power consumption between the two processors was 17 watts with the Atom having the upper hand. Both sites came away impressed with VIA's Nano platform and its openness compared to the relative closed Intel Atom platform.

"Vendors are not allowed to build Atom motherboards with PCI Express, digital video outputs or more than one memory slot," said PC Perspective. "VIA on the other hand is openly courting board manufacturers to put as much technology on a mini-ITX design as they can - as long as they DO build one."

VIA sees the Nano processor as its ticket to success while Intel appears to fear Atom will cannibalize its Celeron sales."

My bold. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12525

Low heat/power consumption, decent graphics and battery life, motherboard with more features than Intel allows with anything Atom... sounds like a good 'Book combo.

^ the bamboo one looks neat.

OT: I'm really interested to see if this glass track pad rumor pans out.  I hate using track pads in general(can't stand the texture mostly).   I'd also welcome an aluminum macbook.

Bat wrote:

For that matter, they stay with off the shelf, but an unlikely combo- say, AMD 790 core logic and

Preliminary benchmarks provided by VIA showed the Nano outpacing Intel's Atom in many benchmarks -- today, PC Perspective and Hot Hardware put those claims to the test.

Both sites took an Intel Atom 230 (1.6GHz) processor paired with an Intel BOXD945GCLF motherboard and pitted it against a VIA Nano L2100 (1.8GHz) processor with a VIA Nano Reference Motherboard.

Although the VIA Nano was clocked 12.5% higher than the Intel Atom used in both site's testing, Hot Hardware found that the Nano was anywhere from 15% to 20% faster than the Atom. In many cases, the delta between the two was much greater in the Nano's favor. PC Perspective also found that under load, however, the difference in power consumption between the two processors was 17 watts with the Atom having the upper hand. Both sites came away impressed with VIA's Nano platform and its openness compared to the relative closed Intel Atom platform.

"Vendors are not allowed to build Atom motherboards with PCI Express, digital video outputs or more than one memory slot," said PC Perspective. "VIA on the other hand is openly courting board manufacturers to put as much technology on a mini-ITX design as they can - as long as they DO build one."

VIA sees the Nano processor as its ticket to success while Intel appears to fear Atom will cannibalize its Celeron sales."

My bold. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12525

Low heat/power consumption, decent graphics and battery life, motherboard with more features than Intel allows with anything Atom... sounds like a good 'Book combo.

The nano looks pretty sweet.  And it can run Crysis.

http://gizmodo.com/5031606/why-apple-is … s-probably