Apple Considering Switch From Intel Chips in Future Macs

[darkplanets]

Unless we're talking 12+ SOCs... **** no.

Wouldn't buy another Apple product unless it can at least somewhat compete performance wise. It's already bad enough now since Apple underpowers everything due to the poor thermal designs.

I don't see them being chip competitive. Currently Intel is spearheading the corporate research into next gen procs. When that happens, ARM will eventually be left behind. Also, someone mentioned a Power7... I'd love to see the power series in a MP.

 

[iChrist]

I use Maps every day to go to work. Zero problems. I live in the US so obviously my comments aren't universal.

You need a map to get to the same place, everyday???

In that case I agree, it's not the maps that are the issue.

 

[damir00]

What a great way for Apple to destroy whatever market share it has in the Laptop/Desktop space. They might as well kill off their Laptop/Desktop products and be a mobile device only company.

Laptops/Desktops are dying. 10 years from now, virtually nobody will have one. Only question left is when, and how fast, the transition occurs.

My guess is within 4 years.

 

[ixodes]

If this turns out to be the case, I won't be buying from Apple anymore...

My feelings exactly.

It's rather sad that Apple seems to think they can do it all, or have a company they buy, or align with, do it for them.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Lol@all these people claiming they'll switch to linux/windows. Whats stopping you from doing it now? Why not do it now?

 

[The Phazer]

I use Maps every day to go to work. Zero problems. I live in the US so obviously my comments aren't universal.

Yes, I can certainly see how you admitted that when you said -

Maps turned out great. People need to stop bashing Maps and use it for themselves. The problems are few and localized and aesthetic and have since been fixed. And even when they existed, it didn't interfere with the functionality of Maps. It was just some 3D glitches in Flyover and some errors in the streets/roads database. Google Maps was also like this and still is today. But Maps as a whole is great. I use it every day and I have zero problems.

Clearly, there are many references in that paragraph to how 85% of the world's land is a complete disaster, and Apple Maps is completely useless.

 

[bwillwall]

So what if they sold fusion macs with Intel and ARM that work together so you can run both stuff? Impossible?

 

[nuckinfutz]

Unless we're talking 12+ SOCs... **** no.

Wouldn't buy another Apple product unless it can at least somewhat compete performance wise. It's already bad enough now since Apple underpowers everything due to the poor thermal designs.

Yes. The upcoming Cortex A57/A53 can be linked in up to 16 cores. If this is the case we're going to have to see if Apple can take many core support in OS X beyond Grand Central Dispatch.

Perhaps there's going to be a better way of routing threads across so many cores.

----------

Lol@all these people claiming they'll switch to linux/windows. Whats stopping you from doing it now? Why not do it now?

Many said the same thing when Apple announced they were moving to Intel and when Apple announced that they were moving to OS X.


Lather...rinse...repeat.

 

[LizKat]

Or just build or buy a PC. It's not hard nor really that expensive.

Yeah I could wire up an 8-bit machine in about a year and a half if I had a couple miles of wire and an attention span longer than the one I've acquired using 64-bit machines, broadband and apps like Twitter.

 

[clukas]

If this turns out to be the case, I won't be buying from Apple anymore...

Same here. Although I use OS X on a daily basis, I have some mission critical apps which only run on Windows. If I had to ultimately choose between OS's, it would unfortunately have to choose Windows (7 not 8!) over OSX, so the last Intel Mac, would be my last Mac ever.

 

[Macboy Pro]

If they go back to their failed days of proprietary systems, I am done with Apple. I will not purchase a proprietary Mac. PERIOD!

 

[Claefer]

This will certainly help further differentiate Macs from PCs. For the better, I hope.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Yeah I could wire up an 8-bit machine in about a year and a half if I had a couple miles of wire and an attention span longer than the one I've acquired using 64-bit machines, broadband and apps like Twitter.

Meow. Is that cat in your avatar single?

8-bit. Doesn't that just sound sooooo old school nowadays?

 

[HMI]

Maybe they will put a kickstand on the back of the iPad, call it an iMac, and sell it to you with a wireless keyboard and trackpad. Tadaaaa, it's a desktop!

 

[jackson83]

Guys, that speak of that as if it's gonna be a disaster, and it's wrong, catastrophe. Are you smarter, than people working at apple??? These are best people in their fields, working in one of the most successful companies of all time!!! And who are YOU??? Commenting like you know better than them! Or do you think that they didn't evaluate all possible outcomes, positive and negative sides???

Try not just to sit on your asses and write bull, and switch your brain on, if you have it!!?

 

[scottsjack]

Like this was hard to see coming. That new (too) thin iMac will someday bulge to a whopping 12mm in the middle due to Apple's own CPU/GPU chips. Maybe even a built-in battery option so it can be moved around within a sleep-mode 30 minute window.

Although I'm an Intel fan I really don't care what CPUs Apple uses as long as Microsoft and Adobe software work on them. However I don't think that is what Apple has in mind.

I see the possibility of Macs built like giant iPads but with but more functionality than iOS currently offers. Whether they will be truly open systems or not is unknown. All directions point to semi-closed machines with an advanced iOS look to the UI.

Many of the same people who like MacBook Airs, iPads and minis will love them. The machines will be closed with RAM and SSD sizes only changeable at order time. Let's face it, those people are the ones Apple is targeting as their customers.

For the rest of us there will be Windows.

 

[tmroper]

Architecture talk is cheap. I'd like to hear about a fab roadmap for all this before I start worrying about how I'll be running my Creative Suite in the future. Intel designs chips it knows it can make. Apple will be designing chips it hopes someone else will be able to make. Big difference.

 

[BiggAW]

Apple is going to have to have something really powerful to lure me off of my Quad i7 Macbook Pro. And the x86 emulation better be really good too, as I like Parallels.

 

[AaronEdwards]

Laptops/Desktops are dying. 10 years from now, virtually nobody will have one. Only question left is when, and how fast, the transition occurs.

My guess is within 4 years.

Within 10 years there will be virtually no laptops or desktops?

Amazing prediction, you probably should think more...

 

[xVeinx]

Hmm, so Apple wants to produce processors that can be more power efficient, less expensive, and have similar or greater IPC to Intel in order to better compete with other manufacturers on price (while prices on Intel processors begin to balloon due to manufacturing costs and smaller nodes). Those jerks.



I realize that ARM isn't competitive in terms of performance currently, but Apple now has the in-house expertise and the R&D infrastructure to get to that point (and even AMD is partnering with ARM for similar reasons). They have the OS and related code already to make the transition smoother than IBM->Intel, and Microsoft is working on a similar transition. This isn't to say that iOS would subsume OS X completely, but key portions of the code would already be available. ARM has the benefit of losing the instructions that x86/x86-64 isn't willing to lose due to backwards compatibility. Microsoft sees this, Apple sees this, and Nvidia is investing BILLIONs into developing it's own ARM processors under the same premise. Telling Apple that they shouldn't switch to ARM is like telling them a tablet is a crazy idea. They will release something when they think it's ready, and they've done a fairly good job at this over the years. The failure of maps in iOS 6 should not preclude Apple from doing something different ever again (!), just be more careful in how they do it.

 

[that1guyy]

As long as it improves battery life and speed it's okay. I do want to be able to use Windows when I need to.

It's when Apple decides to take a dedicated graphics card out of the MBPs is when I leave Apple for good.

 

[Renzatic]

I actually think the opposite, just from a logic point of view. Intel is pushing their own x86 processors closer and closer to the power envelope of cell phones every year (ex. Intel Medfield processor). Since they have the most money and experience invested in this area, I really think that there is going to be a shift towards intel cellphone processors within about five years.

It's very possible, but this is really the last thing I'd want. Intel going all out and crushing all the competition now will eventually lead to them getting lazy again. Think about it. If AMD didn't eventually come around and release a better, wildly popular processor, we'd all likely be running fat and heavy 6Ghz Pentium 4's right now. AMD pushed 64-bit into the consumer space, were the first to release multicore processors, and did all kinds of things that made Intel look pathetic at the time. It was because they had that light under their ass that we got the Core line of processors.

As much as I think Intel is the better option for laptops and desktops, I don't want them to be the only choice. Any company that dominates the competition so completely they become the only option will eventually up producing little small-step crap upgrades later. They won't innovate when they don't have to, and we eventually have to settle with good enough until someone else comes in and breaks their stranglehold on the market with some mindblowing product. It happened with Intel before, happened with MS, and would eventually happen to Apple if they managed to grab the vast majority of the smartphone/tablet market. I'm hoping we see some competition simply because it makes things far, far more interesting for all of us.

...and cheaper, too.

 

[TennisandMusic]

Guys, that speak of that as if it's gonna be a disaster, and it's wrong, catastrophe. Are you smarter, than people working at apple??? These are best people in their fields, working in one of the most successful companies of all time!!! And who are YOU??? Commenting like you know better than them! Or do you think that they didn't evaluate all possible outcomes, positive and negative sides???

Try not just to sit on your asses and write bull, and switch your brain on, if you have it!!?

Not everyone who comments here is stupid, or ignorant of the industry, though. This definitely seems like a lock-in move, if it ever actually happens.

 

[Eriden]

Many said the same thing when Apple announced they were moving to Intel and when Apple announced that they were moving to OS X.

Of course some people will adapt. Others won't care one way or another. Still others will be unwilling to pay the price that a pure ARM transition will require and will abandon the Mac as a platform.

 

[Freyqq]

But sometimes the obstacle is power and not overall speed. Which is why ARM is moving into the Server space to battle Atom.

http://www.seamicro.com

This idea is largely unproven and is still in development, as far as I know. I'd hope that apple doesn't jump to a solution until can be proven to be superior to the current solution.