Sticking out of Steve Job's back, I mean. Here's the 411 according to the register's Tony Smith, reporting from Intel's developer conference last week:
Intel will pay whoever designs what it reckons is the world's coolest living room computer $1m. Apple's Mac Mini might be a candidate, but despite the appearance of VP Phil Schiller during CEO Paul Otellini's Intel Developer Forum - a first for the Mac maker - the contest is only open to Viiv-branded machines.They also have to be based on the Core 2 Duo processor. Intel said it was looking for "sexy, stylish and small" designs. Whoever comes up with the best one will get $600,000 to fund the mass-production of the machine and $400,000 to market it.
Steve I love you, I really do; but when will enough be enough already?
The fast, low power, "merom" chips you bet the company on are just now appearing, and at 34 watts for 2.33Ghz you're getting, what? roughly twice the power draw for half the performance relative to the Altivec equiped MPC8641D (18 watts at 1.8Ghz)? And Intel costs more than twice as much? the TCM module is, well, useless? on-board graphics isn't really working out? DOAs are up more than 50%? plus I think you're now issuing more security patches and legal threats than Microsoft, and the halo effect driving ipod sales seems to be failing. Gosh what a bunch of wins for you - but hey, at least the love goes both ways, right? Sure, and that's why Intel is offering a million bucks for someone to blow away your design advantage in the battle for the customer's living room.
Now I know perfectly well you can't just wake up in the shower and have the world realize MacTel was nothing more than a nightmare, but pushing on is throwing more good market positioning after bad - so pull the AMD switch already, ok? and buy yourself time to get back to the future: SPARC or PPC - you know, a world in which that handle's toward your hand, not sticking out of your back?