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Apple's Potential Shift from Intel to ARM for Macs Not Implausible, But Faces Hurdles
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Right now Intel probably has their A team working on the "tock" design for a future PC processor family, and their B team on a "tick" version. That leaves their C and D teams for Itanium and Atom.
Apple wants a chip with an Atom-like power envelope designed by an A team, not a C team. So they are playing their hand to force Intel to do so, or lose that market.
But by now, even Intel's A team may know less than Apple about designing super-high-performance systems that can run on far less than 10 Watts.
Apple wants a chip with an Atom-like power envelope designed by an A team, not a C team. So they are playing their hand to force Intel to do so, or lose that market.
But by now, even Intel's A team may know less than Apple about designing super-high-performance systems that can run on far less than 10 Watts.
Also, there is no freakin' way the Feds would ever approve such a move. As it is, Intel is close to a monopoly when it comes to the consumer desktop computer market, isn't it? Would the DOJ allow Apple to buy Intel and then strangle or cut off the PC market from their #1 CPU vendor?
Apple's already completely trashed their line of computers, the last thing they need to do is to gimp all of them with a lousy mobile processor.
OS X has been a snoozefest since Snow Leopard with its ridiculous iPadification. Mac Pros haven't received a legitimate upgrade in YEARS for professionals. iMacs got gimped by being limited to one hard drive, no user replaceable ram and no optical drive in a DESKTOP that many professionals still use (iMacs get used frequently in design studios). And the Macbooks... at least they kept the normal line of MacBook Pros with a combo drive, I got mine loaded with two drives (one for OS and the other 1TB for storage and files). They gimp that too and I'll make that the last macbook I buy. The Mac Pro doesn't look like a reasonable purchase either.
Congratulations Apple, you've officially set yourself up for fail.
OS X has been a snoozefest since Snow Leopard with its ridiculous iPadification. Mac Pros haven't received a legitimate upgrade in YEARS for professionals. iMacs got gimped by being limited to one hard drive, no user replaceable ram and no optical drive in a DESKTOP that many professionals still use (iMacs get used frequently in design studios). And the Macbooks... at least they kept the normal line of MacBook Pros with a combo drive, I got mine loaded with two drives (one for OS and the other 1TB for storage and files). They gimp that too and I'll make that the last macbook I buy. The Mac Pro doesn't look like a reasonable purchase either.
Congratulations Apple, you've officially set yourself up for fail.
Let's see
Mac Pro Rant - check
iOSification rant - check
Mac appliance rant - check
Any meaningful into on a potential move towards ARM - not covered
You could simply copy and paste your rant into any thread because it has absolutely nothing to
do with this topic.
Yeah, like you ranting about his rant adds to the discussion.
The fact is that like it or not, Apple is going to continue to move towards an iOS/OSX merger and the two lines use different processors. I don't see iPhones moving to Intel, so it makes sense that one day Apple would move everything to ARM. They've already proven that they DON'T CARE what users want in terms of hardware. APPLE KNOWS BEST. Sadly, like in years past, this means the eventual downfall of Apple since that methodology only works when you continually innovate and all I see from Apple since the iPad came out (itself just a "large" extension of the iPod Touch) is evolution, not revolution. The innovation died with Jobs and Apple's recent drop in stock price is just a sign of things to come.
Magnus
People yammer on about revolutionary stuff but the reality is revolutionary products are scary. They break from the norm in such a way that they cause introspection as well as trepidation.
When Apple left PPC people were afraid until their learned about Rosetta and other technologies designed to ease the transition.
When people now read that Apple may be looking at an ARM future for everything it "upsets the cart" once again. Many choose to look at the negative aspects "I don't want mobile processors" or "I need to run virtualized OS".
The assumption in these comments is that the processors coming would be the same they have in their iDevice or that the performance in VM would be significantly inferior.
Some of us still love technology and prefer to have a "can do" attitude. Some of us remember when their were multiple companies vying for tech dominance (Sunsparc, DEC Alpha, Elbrus, Exponential...the list goes on) in microprocessors.
Apple on ARM brings back that feeling that "something special" could come that the move to Intel absolutely extinguished. I have the same microprocessor in my Macbook Air that Asus uses or Dell. Bleh
I choose Apple because of the superior (to me) OS and I want my hardware to have the same flashes of brilliance. I'm not saying that this ARM rumor is anything but a pipedream but I welcome the discussion without jaundiced view.
People yammer on about revolutionary stuff but the reality is revolutionary products are scary. They break from the norm in such a way that they cause introspection as well as trepidation.
When Apple left PPC people were afraid until their learned about Rosetta and other technologies designed to ease the transition.
When people now read that Apple may be looking at an ARM future for everything it "upsets the cart" once again. Many choose to look at the negative aspects "I don't want mobile processors" or "I need to run virtualized OS".
The assumption in these comments is that the processors coming would be the same they have in their iDevice or that the performance in VM would be significantly inferior.
Some of us still love technology and prefer to have a "can do" attitude. Some of us remember when their were multiple companies vying for tech dominance (Sunsparc, DEC Alpha, Elbrus, Exponential...the list goes on) in microprocessors.
Apple on ARM brings back that feeling that "something special" could come that the move to Intel absolutely extinguished. I have the same microprocessor in my Macbook Air that Asus uses or Dell. Bleh
I choose Apple because of the superior (to me) OS and I want my hardware to have the same flashes of brilliance. I'm not saying that this ARM rumor is anything but a pipedream but I welcome the discussion without jaundiced view.