Apple Considering Switch From Intel Chips in Future Macs

[the8thark]

We already deal with lagging gaming ability as it is, why do we have to have lagging core processors? Not a fan of this at all.

You know the iPad? Custom Apple silicon and it rocks. I believe the new Apple custom Mac silicon would be just as amazing. But the intel->Apple silicion would be like the 68k->PPC or PPC->intel. Would take a while for devs to get on board and you'd lose bootcamp.

I believe Apple has lots of alternatives made up in their lab. But only will use them if forced to. Like they were forced into intel cause the PPC G5 and better just were not up to the Apple standards. So Apple had to find a new and intel were the only others that could do the job. In that vein I think the Apple custom silicon for Macs will only happen if intel becomes unsuitable for Macs in the future.

Apple considers all future possibilities. So the article is technically correct. But will they ever do it. Definitely not in the near future in my opinion.

And gaming om a Mac is great. Despite what many people think. The only issue is certain game developers who either refuse to port to OS X or have poor cider etc ports that are sub par to the windows equivalent game. So blame the game developers there and not Apple.

 

[roxxette]

Get real mate ! Apple doesnt care about us anymore unless your needs are "heavy facebook use"

 

[AppleMacFinder]

Starting at 10k usd ?

ARM CPUs are really cheap, compared to Intel.
For example, Allwinner A13 CPU (up to 1.5GHz) costs just five dollars!
So, eight ARM CPUs could be much cheaper than one Intel CPU (which could cost up to $300)

 

[roxxette]

Who tha hell told you that devs will develop for the "new mac" ? They dont sell now what makes you think they will in the future

 

[xgman]

Apple is not so slowly either suing, alienating, or running out of business, every source they have. It follows that Intel will follow sooner or later.

 

[76ShovelHead]

Then i'll switch to Windows 7/Linux. There, i said it.

Everyone can live without the Metro interface, but the speed improvement between Windows 7 and 8 is tremendous. For my system, anyways.

 

[roxxette]

ARM CPUs are really cheap, compared to Intel.
For example, Allwinner A13 CPU (up to 1.5GHz) costs just five dollars!
So, eight ARM CPUs could be much cheaper than one Intel CPU (which could cost up to $300)

Go check prices for macs

 

[milo]

I don't know why this rumor surprises so many.

Because it would break compatibility with all apps and require all new builds, just like the PPC transition all over again.

Not going to happen. At least not for the whole product line, maybe just for the "air" style laptops.

 

[AppleMacFinder]

Who tha hell told you that devs will develop for the "new mac" ? They dont sell now what makes you think they will in the future

A lot of linux libraries could be easily compiled on ARM architecture (my personal experience).
Same story with Mac libraries (don't forget that Mac OS X is 100% UNIX Certified )

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Go check prices for macs

Hope Apple won't be greedy

 

[mjtomlin]

Stupid reasoning. Why would they switch to ARM and not just license the x86-64 ISA and design their own compatible parts as Intel, AMD, and VIA do?

 

[roxxette]

A lot of linux libraries could be easily compiled on ARM architecture (my personal experience).
Same story with Mac libraries (don't forget that Mac OS X is 100% UNIX Certified )

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Hope Apple won't be greedy

They dont sell ! people dont upgrade laptops or desktop every year, only maniacs like us upgrade regulary; i dont know a regular consumer that will drop the apple "premium" if they can get what they are looking under 800 bucks and still be a capable machine.

 

[melendezest]

I'm confused. Last I checked Apple execs are male. I thought women were more indecisive.

I don't mind Apple making changes, but if they are going to change their Mac line up every few years, it can actually be a bad thing as people won't know what to expect next and might be scared buying into Apple.

If ARM is the way to go, being just as quick with same or battery life, and can still run the apps I need, then go for it. Just make sure that developers have time to re-code apps in time for release because I'm not waiting 2+ years.

Not sure what the relevance gender has here. Nevertheless, Tim Cook is gay, which (somewhat) negates your comment regarding Apple execs...

 

[roxxette]

It doesnt matter if Tim cook is gay mate or does he had surgery done ?

 

[nutjob]

Nice to see someone posting a thoughtful response on this thread to counter all of the knee-jerk reactions. Seriously, people, do you not know that MS is also working at porting the full version of Windows to ARM? The best strategy in this business is to keep your options open, because things can change quickly. At some point, something will surpass Core technology, just as Core tech surpassed Netburst. If ARM surpasses Core, then it makes sense to have the capability to switch to ARM. That is not to say that Apple or MS must make the transition to ARM, or even that it will happen in the next 5 years, but if it is advantageous to do so, both OS makers want to have the ability to do it. And I suspect that ARM is not the only alternative processor technology that Apple and MS are working to port their systems to.

You don't understand CPU architecture or fabrication. ARM processors are successful in mobile devices because you can licence the design instead of buying pre-made silicon, and because they have been designed from scratch for simplicity and efficiency. Performance takes a back seat due to these design choices.

Intel processors on the other hard are successful because they use a sophisticated (and complex) design to offset a poor and archaic instruction set, but more importantly, Intel is the king of chip fabrication. Their manufacturing processes are ahead of everyone. Intel don't fabricate other people's CPUs, only their own. This gives them the edge in CPU performance and efficiency where power usage is less important.

OS X will run on ARMs today, and you can make a workable laptop with ARM processors, as many people do, but performance will always suffer compared to Intel. ARM will never be the successor to Intel processors because the ARM architecture is not optimised for performance and no-one can beat Intel in the CPU game right now. When someone does (as the PowerPC did for a while), I'm sure Apple will switch over, but saying the ARM is the successor is like saying Hyundai is the successor to Porsche.

 

[sseaton1971]

No need to wait for Apple, anyone can do that now. Apple are basically tacitly supporting hackintoshes by abandoning the MacPro.

Given that Apple makes a lot more money on laptops, and it's killed the 17" laptop, the chance of the MacPro being killed off is basically 100%. The best people can expect is that the existing MacPro will be left in the lineup with minor tweaks but otherwise ignored.

According to Tim Cook in a confirmed email message, "Although we didn’t have a chance to talk about a new Mac Pro at today’s event, don’t worry as we’re working on something really great for later next year." (June 2012)

Connie Gugliemlmo from Forbes confirmed that the email was authenitc: "Here’s a copy of the email, which Apple told me was indeed sent by Cook to a customer identified only as 'Franz.'" (6/6/2012)

David Pogue also wrote in his New York Times blog: "An executive did assure me, however, that new MacPro designs are under way, probably for release in 2013." (6/11/2012)

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

 

[AppleMacFinder]

Stupid reasoning. Why would they switch to ARM and not just license the x86-64 ISA and design their own compatible parts as Intel, AMD, and VIA do?

1) They have already advanced quite far at the ARM processor development route.
Already five generations in Ax family.

2) x86-64 architecture has a lot of unnecessary legacy stuff,
which takes space that could be used for better purposes.

 

[roxxette]

Try to find a working magnetic reader drivers and app on macs, thats right none ! There goes the bank bussines.

 

[ncaissie]

Bye Bye Macbooks!

 

[AppleMacFinder]

Try to find a working magnetic reader drivers and app on macs, thats right none ! There goes the bank bussines.

I thought, a bank business was PC-only for ages.

They dont sell ! people dont upgrade laptops or desktop every year, only maniacs like us upgrade regulary; i dont know a regular consumer that will drop the apple "premium" if they can get what they are looking under 800 bucks and still be a capable machine.

Because of the cheapness of ARM CPUs, the price of Macs would be lower (or at least the same).
So, people would upgrade like usual. And, there are always quite a lot of people
who are looking for their first Mac

 

[slprescott]

I seems there could be a grand-convergence of Apple's four main form-factors: Desktop (iMac), Laptop (MacBook), Tablet (iPad), and Phone (iPhone) on a single chip architecture. Under this scenario, would Apple retire some of the products became the "new" MacBook would just be an iPad with a keyboard (sorta like the MS Surface)?

 

[roxxette]

Because of the cheapness of ARM CPUs, the price of Macs would be lower (or at least the same).
So, people would upgrade like usual. And, there are always quite a lot of people
who are looking for their first Mac

The wont be cheaper ! For all whe know they will try to get 50% profit margin if its cheaper i can see it right now OMG

Quite a lot of people looking for their first mac ? Get a grip man !

 

[ncaissie]

This is going to be very bad for real games and not these mini games they have on the iOS now. Good luck running Diablo 3 on an ARM processor.

 

[roxxette]

This is going to be very bad for real games and not these mini games they have on the iOS now. Good luck running Diablo 3 on an ARM processor.

Some think "infinity blade" is a real game.....

 

[pvalpha]

I might be tempted if its not an IOS driven system. A 64 core ARM design or something else on the RISC platform. Even at 64 cores, an ARM would still sip power compared to a x86-64 design. And linux/BSD would still be a viable option. They just need to acquire NVidia or maybe AMD to complete the package. I could see them taking the Alpha bus technology that AMD helped Digital design, integrating an updatable x86 microcode emulator in hardware, feeding 64 risc CPU cores and 2-4 graphical-compute engines (GPUs) using the Radeon-Fusion tech.