14 DAY TRIAL // This is a case of what might have been, and it might have been major indeed if a certain plan of Apple's hadn't ended up axed at the very last moment.
Apple made the news again, this time not for anything it did, but for something it didn't do, though it planned to. At least, this is what SemiAccurate reported.
Some information made its way to the Internet about what could have happened to the MacBook Air.
Though the laptop has Intel processing parts, it could have used chips from Advanced Micro Devices instead.
In fact, AMD was the original choice of the Cupertino company, until the very last moment in fact.
Production issues ended up dooming the collaboration, however, issues on AMD's side of the field that is.
The report is unverified, so it isn't possible to confirm or deny whether this new revelation isn't just unreal speculation.
Still, knowing that, regardless of what PR teams say, Advanced Micro Devices never lacked viable computing products, there is no reason to assume this could not have happened.
If it did, though, the deal is supposed to have flubbed not because Apple changed its mind on its own, but because AMD just didn't manage to produce enough so-called “premium” parts.
MacBook Air was going to use Llano APUs (accelerated processing units), but Globalfoundries, the one who was supposed to make them, ended up having big problems with the 32nm process, the same way TSMC had with the 40nm node.
This could also be why there aren't very many tablets based on Fusion, although, true enough, that could be due to Windows 7 not catching on as a mobile OS.
Also, Tegra 2, and now Tegra 3, don't leave much room for competition on that front, at least until Windows 8 comes around.
AMD could score some deals in the future, at elast, provided ARM doesn't steal them all away before its foundry gets its act together.