Originally Posted by nthach
Apple started the iCPU movement in laptops with the original Whitebook/Blackbook MacBooks after the Intel transition, and then the MacBook Pro used iCPUs. The PC makers didn't start until recently, Lenovo started using iCPUs on the ThinkPad T420s. Now, all the ThinkPad CPUs are soldered in. HP and Dell followed along. My current work computer is a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, the CPU and RAM is all integrated, only things I can swap out are the SSD and WLAN/WWAN cards.. It's almost like a current MacBook Pro. My old T430s and T450 are the same deal but have removable RAM.
Apple started doing it several years before the Intel transition. The last Mac laptop with anything resembling a "socketed" CPU was the PowerBook G3 Pismo, which had the CPU on a small daughtercard. The first G4 PowerBooks were considerably thinner and used a soldered CPU, something that stayed through the rest of the PPC years and didn't change with the Intel transition. The iBook(consumer series) laptops always had soldered CPUs, going back to the original "Clamshell" models.
I know several folks who have experimented with fitting G4s to computers like iBooks and iMac G3s. I'm waiting on a friend of mine to do just exactly that on a Clamshell logic board. That same friend has built a couple of G4 cards for Pismo G3s, which was actually an upgrade that was offered by some aftermarket makers back when the computers were current. I have a Lombard G3 with a G4 upgrade, although it doesn't help the computer a ton as that is a system that is handicapped in several other areas.
Apple HAS been hit or miss on sockets in other models. A lot of PowerPC iMacs after the first general tray loaders were soldered, while the earlier Intels went back to sockets. I have a first generation Intel Mini that I've actually upgraded the CPU in twice-I took it from a CoreDuo to a Core2Duo of the same clock speed, and then more recently(when they got comically cheap) put the fastest Core2Duo that would fit the socket in it. Similarly, I've gone through a couple of different CPUs in both my Mac Pro 1,1 and Mac Pro 5,1-the former is now on dual 3.0ghz quads, while the latter has dual 3.46ghz hexes. These CPUs are the fastest that will fit their respective sockets. I don't THINK that the current "trashcan" Mac Pro has sockets, but then I've not dug THAT deep into one nor have I really researched it.