During AMD's Financial Analyst day, several blogs (GigaOM and Fudzilla) picked up on a PowerPoint slide that AMD's senior vice president and chief of sales officer, Emilio Ghilardi, displayed but did not discuss. The slide featured two Apple iMacs and a Mac Pro with the AMD Fusion logo below them. If this slide is any indication, Apple could be on the verge of using AMD processors in its desktops.
AMD this week demonstrated the company's first APU, which stands for Accelerated Processing Unit, based on its Fusion technology. The term "APU" basically describes both the processor and graphics on the same die, similar to what Intel has done with its SandyBridge platform. AMD's trump card appears to be that its integrated and discrete GPUs will be more powerful than what Intel has coming down the pike. And Apple, as we all know, has always been a big fan of GPU power. Apple's desktop line has also been using ATI Radeon GPUs (now, AMD Radeon) for the longest time, so this isn't the first time the company has been in bed with AMD.
But the fact that the Fusion logo implies both CPU and GPU could mean that we might see AMD processors sooner than later. And it makes sense to have AMD APUs on an iMac or Mac Pro, since performance per watt isn't an issue on a desktop. On an Apple Macbook or Macbook Pro, however, it does matter, as Intel CPUs are typically more energy efficient. In other words, don't expect to see AMD parts on Apple laptops anytime soon. AMD also has the pricing advantage in terms of CPU and GPU packaging, so having cheaper iMacs on store shelves would be a huge win for Apple customers.
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