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Prediction: Atom processors for Air

Jynto

Jynto

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 16, 2012
382
119
Nottingham, UK
Okay, two factors have led me to this conclusion, so hear me out here.

1) Apple will not consolidate their two MacBook lines. Laptops are the main part of their Mac business, so it would make no sense to only sell one product in that category. The recent redesign of the Pro is here to stay for about 4-5 years, during which it can not be everything people want from an Air. The Air still holds its niche as an ultraportable.

2) That said, the new Pro is very Air-like. If Apple gave the fabled retina display to the Air, it would make them even more similar. In terms of weight they are less than a pound apart, and a retina display would only make the Air heavier. The Air needs to move into its own space, away from the Pro.

With those things considered, I believe the headline feature will be, wait for it, no cooling fan.

How will this be done? Apple will give it a low-voltage processor, like the Intel Atom, which has come a long way from crappy netbooks. I doubt they will switch to the ARM platform, not in the short term anyway. If they do, they will do it with all their Macs at once.

An Air with a low-power processor and a low resolution display removes the one remaining roadblock to reducing its weight - the battery. The battery will get smaller, but battery life will remain the same, in exchange for shorter charging times and even more portability.

This could happen this year. If it does, expect the Air to be accompanied by a corresponding update of the Pro to appease the "we want Haswell" crowd. Those who need that power will flock to the 13-inch Pro. Those who care about the price point will stick with the Air. Those who wanted an 11-inch laptop with Haswell are out of luck, but every Apple update is bound to disappoint somebody.

Retina Airs and touchscreens for Macs are probably half a decade down the line. At that point they may consolidate the MacBook line, but they'll also introduce a new product to further bridge the gap between the MacBook and the iPad
 
Menel

Menel

Suspended
Aug 4, 2011
6,351
1,356
Jynto said:
Okay, two factors have led me to this conclusion, so hear me out here.

1) Apple will not consolidate their two MacBook lines. Laptops are the main part of their Mac business, so it would make no sense to only sell one product in that category. The recent redesign of the Pro is here to stay for about 4-5 years, during which it can not be everything people want from an Air. The Air still holds its niche as an ultraportable.

2) That said, the new Pro is very Air-like. If Apple gave the fabled retina display to the Air, it would make them even more similar. In terms of weight they are less than a pound apart, and a retina display would only make the Air heavier. The Air needs to move into its own space, away from the Pro.

With those things considered, I believe the headline feature will be, wait for it, no cooling fan.

How will this be done? Apple will give it a low-voltage processor, like the Intel Atom, which has come a long way from crappy netbooks. I doubt they will switch to the ARM platform, not in the short term anyway. If they do, they will do it with all their Macs at once.

An Air with a low-power processor and a low resolution display removes the one remaining roadblock to reducing its weight - the battery. The battery will get smaller, but battery life will remain the same, in exchange for shorter charging times and even more portability.

This could happen this year. If it does, expect the Air to be accompanied by a corresponding update of the Pro to appease the "we want Haswell" crowd. Those who need that power will flock to the 13-inch Pro. Those who care about the price point will stick with the Air. Those who wanted an 11-inch laptop with Haswell are out of luck, but every Apple update is bound to disappoint somebody.

Retina Airs and touchscreens for Macs are probably half a decade down the line. At that point they may consolidate the MacBook line, but they'll also introduce a new product to further bridge the gap between the MacBook and the iPad
Click to expand...
Atom is or was barely usable from a user perspective.

What made the Air so popular, was that it was thin and light like an Atom based netbook. But had decent horsepower and worked responsively.

Going to a **** CPU like Atom would be a big step back toward the netbook market that has flopped.

Also, Intel requires Haswell/Ultrabooks to have touchscreens and their Wireless Display. There is no sign Apple is interested in incorporated PCAP into MacBooks. Apple already pushes AirPlay and AppleTV, they don't need or want Intel's stuff.
 
Last edited:
Drew017

Drew017

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2011
1,254
11
East coast, USA
Jynto said:
Okay, two factors have led me to this conclusion, so hear me out here.

1) Apple will not consolidate their two MacBook lines. Laptops are the main part of their Mac business, so it would make no sense to only sell one product in that category. The recent redesign of the Pro is here to stay for about 4-5 years, during which it can not be everything people want from an Air. The Air still holds its niche as an ultraportable.

2) That said, the new Pro is very Air-like. If Apple gave the fabled retina display to the Air, it would make them even more similar. In terms of weight they are less than a pound apart, and a retina display would only make the Air heavier. The Air needs to move into its own space, away from the Pro.

With those things considered, I believe the headline feature will be, wait for it, no cooling fan.

How will this be done? Apple will give it a low-voltage processor, like the Intel Atom, which has come a long way from crappy netbooks. I doubt they will switch to the ARM platform, not in the short term anyway. If they do, they will do it with all their Macs at once.

An Air with a low-power processor and a low resolution display removes the one remaining roadblock to reducing its weight - the battery. The battery will get smaller, but battery life will remain the same, in exchange for shorter charging times and even more portability.

This could happen this year. If it does, expect the Air to be accompanied by a corresponding update of the Pro to appease the "we want Haswell" crowd. Those who need that power will flock to the 13-inch Pro. Those who care about the price point will stick with the Air. Those who wanted an 11-inch laptop with Haswell are out of luck, but every Apple update is bound to disappoint somebody.

Retina Airs and touchscreens for Macs are probably half a decade down the line. At that point they may consolidate the MacBook line, but they'll also introduce a new product to further bridge the gap between the MacBook and the iPad
Click to expand...

It would make absolutely no sense to put a slow, outdated processor in a MacBook Air. If you look at the history of any line of MacBook (ex MacBook Air) the processor has always been upgraded from the last version. Not downgraded. The MBA has always been above any other netbook because it didn't really compromise power for size.

BTW I wouldn't mind having an 11 inch with a Haswell ;)
 
K

kustardking

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2008
152
1
New York
Jynto said:
With those things considered, I believe the headline feature will be, wait for it, no cooling fan.
Click to expand...

1) Atom will never figure into any Apple product. Why? Atom is synonymous with both a failed market and with Windows. Not tangential to that failure is the lack of horsepower in the CPU relative to what people came to expect from their computers. Furthermore, Intel continues to raise the low-power high-umph bar in their Core CPUs. Apple may be reducing their prices, but they won't resurrect the netbook market.

2) Apple will *never* headline something so base as "no cooling fan" unless the entire laptop range loses it, or unless its departure heralds something substantial, which an Atom will not. And no, longer battery life is not a valid trade-off for a return to netbook performance. Also, Apple puts a lot of effort into making those fans unnoticeable, so they're not going to bring attention it.
 
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Jynto

Jynto

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 16, 2012
382
119
Nottingham, UK
Okay, it appears I haven't done my research on processors, as I've had a look at the sort of machines that have Atoms inside.

I still think an energy-saving processor could be the way forward for the Air, as soon as the performance difference becomes unnoticeable. What else could they use besides Atom? Perhaps they could take the approach of spreading the load among multiple cores to save power.
 
A

Aegelward

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2005
528
54
UK
AMD's Steamroller based GCN platform comes out around the same time as haswel, which should be a huge leap over the Piledriver chips currently used.

Ether the Kaveri (Steamroller) or Kabini (Jaguar, same CPU used in the PS4)

The current Atoms use a single core version of the GPU used in the iPad, and isn't exactly great for desktop use. Reviews of windows machines using these chips have been quite dismal.
 
yanksrock100

yanksrock100

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2010
673
245
San Diego
If anything, Apple will put a powerful ARM processor in the Air. However if they don't they will stick to Core i5/i7. Atom would be a huge step down, unless Apple decided to make the price ALOT lower in the process.
 
H

help4desk

macrumors newbie
Feb 14, 2013
23
0
Menel said:
ARM isn't happening. Huge paradigm shift for software support.
Click to expand...

No less that what happened with the Motorola->Intel transition.
And, we know, Apple already tested ARM CPU on Macbook Air, so they may be prepared....

I just don't see it happening for the next two years, but in the future, who knows?
 
V

volvik

macrumors newbie
Nov 30, 2010
19
0
Atom...yikes!

Atom is THE four letter word for me. I'm on my second netbook which can take credit for me moving to a MBA 11 next month.

This latest one requires a calendar to time functions not a watch!
 
K

kustardking

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2008
152
1
New York
Jynto said:
Okay, it appears I haven't done my research on processors,
Click to expand...

Right, so there should be a period at the end of that sequence of words, and your post should end there.

Jynto said:
I still think an energy-saving processor could be the way forward for the Air
Click to expand...

Yes! Way to go! Connect those dots! Then, maybe, could we also say that a weight-saving chassis could be another way forward for the Air, because Apple certainly hasn't tried that one out, either?
 
Last edited:
Abazigal

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,550
21,989
Singapore
An Air with a low-power processor and a low resolution display removes the one remaining roadblock to reducing its weight - the battery. The battery will get smaller, but battery life will remain the same, in exchange for shorter charging times and even more portability.
Click to expand...

I actually wondered some time back if Apple would actually create some sort of hybrid intel/arm processor. Just like the bigger macbook pros have 2 graphics cards which they could switch between depending on the nature of the task, a laptop with such a hybrid chip could switch between ARM (for basic tasks like web-surfing or word processing) or intel (for heavier tasks like photoshop).

The main draw would be lesser power consumption for lighter tasks. It would also enable Apple to break out of the predictable Intel release cycle that pretty much sees them announcing new laptops alongside everyone else in the industry.

Granted, the devil's in the details, and being an engineering noob, there are probably issues I don't yet realise. :p
 
Menel

Menel

Suspended
Aug 4, 2011
6,351
1,356
help4desk said:
No less that what happened with the Motorola->Intel transition.
And, we know, Apple already tested ARM CPU on Macbook Air, so they may be prepared....

I just don't see it happening for the next two years, but in the future, who knows?
Click to expand...
ya.

I was more referring to upcoming Air refresh, and the thought of splitting the CPU architecture of Pro and Air into two separate architectures requiring different binaries.

----------
Abazigal said:
I actually wondered some time back if Apple would actually create some sort of hybrid intel/arm processor. Just like the bigger macbook pros have 2 graphics cards which they could switch between depending on the nature of the task, a laptop with such a hybrid chip could switch between ARM (for basic tasks like web-surfing or word processing) or intel (for heavier tasks like photoshop).

The main draw would be lesser power consumption for lighter tasks. It would also enable Apple to break out of the predictable Intel release cycle that pretty much sees them announcing new laptops alongside everyone else in the industry.

Granted, the devil's in the details, and being an engineering noob, there are probably issues I don't yet realise. :p
Click to expand...
dont get your hopes up.

Two completely different microarchitectures requiring different binaries.
 
K

Kissaragi

macrumors 68020
Nov 16, 2006
2,340
370
Jynto said:
I still think an energy-saving processor could be the way forward for the Air, as soon as the performance difference becomes unnoticeable. What else could they use besides Atom? Perhaps they could take the approach of spreading the load among multiple cores to save power.
Click to expand...

But they already use an ultra energy efficient cpu in the air. The next generation of the processors will be even better.
 
K

kobyh15

macrumors 6502a
Jan 29, 2011
616
0
It would be ARM way before Atom. And I doubt ARM will happen in next 3-5 years. Intel is getting their act together. Who knows though. Predicting technology trends is like predicting the weather.
 
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