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Still under wraps: Apple’s new notebook line-up to be announced on Tuesday may retain the Intel processor, but shift to a more a graphics-friendly NVIDIA chipset.

Anand Parthasarathy

Bangalore, Oct. 13 It is an awkward acronym — but it masks an uncomfortable development for the world’s leading computer chip makers: GP-GPU stood for General Purpose Graphical Processing Unit.

And it is turning out to be arguably the biggest challenge faced by leading manufacturers such as Intel and AMD, of what is traditionally called the CPU or Central Processing Unit, the silicon chip that has been at the heart of the personal computer for over a quarter century now.

Recent years have seen graphics processing specialists such as NVIDIA bring out chips that are so powerful, that in addition to fuelling compelling 2-D and 3-D applications they have enough muscle left over to address the primary housekeeping role of the main system processor.

Move over CPU, GPU is here?

We are not quite there. But this week might offer an indication of which way the wind in the processor business is blowing in the general-versus-graphical battle.

Throughout the weekend, rumours were rife on the Web that when Apple unveils its new notebook line-up on Tuesday, it will announce that some, at least of the new portable Mac range, will shift from an Intel chipset to NVIDIA’s competing platform — probably the MCP79.

The core processor is expected to remain an Intel product (Apple shifted from the Power PC to the Intel family in 2006) — but by opting for the satellite of associated chips from a graphics player, Apple might beef up the performance of its new machines in the vital area of gaming.

‘Apple Insider’, a well informed but unofficial source of Apple news, says that if as expected, Apple augments its larger-screen-sized laptops with an entry in the 13-inch or smaller form factor, it will almost certainly plump for the NVIDIA platform rather than Intel’s Centrino 2 ‘Montevina’.

The Insider’s hunch is backed by many other Apple watchers. The shift will reduce the number of chips in the set from two to one and also enable Apple to tout NVIDIA’s GeForce-class graphics.

If the launch in Cupertino, California on October 14 vindicates these predictions, it will mark the PC industry’s first small but significant lurch to a more graphics-centric processing approach.

For this reason alone, it will mark a watershed of sorts that the large community of application developers based in India can no longer ignore.

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