Apple Considering Switch From Intel Chips in Future Macs

[ssgbryan]

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



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

Lower the price of the Mac or just pocket the larger profit margin?

Decisions, decisions.


If they go forward with this, I'll miss Apple......

 

[AppleMacFinder]

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 !

Why they won't be cheaper? I don't see the point.
If eight ARM CPUs are cheaper than one Intel, then the system is cheaper to make,
therefore the end price should be cheaper.

 

[roxxette]

Why they won't be cheaper? I don't see the point.
If eight ARM CPUs are cheaper than one Intel, then the system is cheaper to make,
therefore the end price should be cheaper.

16gb upgrade kit = 400usd nuff said

 

[Jibbajabba]

Image

 

[ncaissie]

Folks ..there are plenty of people that run Macs and don't give a flying $%^&*( about running Windows.

Business are moving to tablets and even Microsoft is supporting ARM.


X86. Put a fork in it.

You have no clue. You’re a simple fanboy who doesn't know anything about computers. Those people buy Macs for the power to process videos and such. There is no way ARM processors can compete. You obviously don't do anything more than watch Youtube and surf the net.

 

[roxxette]

You have no clue. You’re a simple fanboy who doesn't know anything about computers. Those people buy Macs for the power to process videos and such. There is no way ARM processors can compete. You obviously don't do anything more than watch Youtube and surf the net.

Finally someone with some sense !

 

[mjtomlin]

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.

1) The Ax family are SoCs not CPUs. The A6 is the only SoC that contains an Apple design CPU core (Swift). All the others were off the shelf ARM designs; Cortex-A8, and A9.

There's no reason Apple couldn't hire more engineers and designers who are experienced and proficient on the x86-64 side.


2) This is exactly why Apple would want to design their own x86-64 cores.


Personally I think the best route for Apple to go, would be to work closely with Intel and co-design CPUs that cater towards Apple's needs.

 

[AppleMacFinder]

16gb upgrade kit = 400usd nuff said

This is optional RAM upgrade from Apple; is not related to CPU.

I remember, the price on Macs didn't increased during PowerPC-Intel transition,
so it should be the same this time as well.
And also, Apple will have quite a big profit, since people who would like their system to be supported
would have to buy a new Apple computer (like they did after PowerPC-Intel transition)

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There is no way ARM processors can compete.

This way was mentioned before: multiprocessor personal computers.

 

[roxxette]

Damm RAM is cheaper ! Yet look at the prices, get real !

 

[Jibbajabba]

Image

The other half trolls

 

[ncaissie]

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)

Exactly! And there is a reason for that. ARM Processors are cheap and underpowered. That will be great to play Call of Duty don't you think? LMAO

 

[AppleMacFinder]

The Ax family are SoCs not CPUs. The A6 is the only SoC that contains an Apple design CPU core (Swift). All the others were off the shelf ARM designs; Cortex-A8, and A9.

There's no reason Apple couldn't hire more engineers and designers who are experienced and proficient on the x86-64 side.

Before A6, Apple was heavily involved in designing as well; they have even bought Intrinsity.

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Exactly! And there is a reason for that. ARM Processors are cheap and underpowered. That will be great to play Call of Duty don't you think? LMAO

Multiprocessor personal computers. Mark my word

 

[iphoneclassic]

8x4 = 32 physical cores ==> a much higher level of multithreading in this example

Again you are missing the financial aspect of this decision. Even if each ARM chip costs $10 it would be $80 which is expensive than what Intel would charge Apple in multi million volume contract.

Not only that Apple's board design and production cost will go up to support 8 processors. BTW there are only handful of gaming laptops with two processor socket.

Even with all this Apple is not going to pass on any savings to customer, only pain and misery.

 

[strausd]

Considering Thunderbolt was partially made by Intel, would Apple be able to implement it with any other CPU?

 

[roxxette]

Considering Thunderbolt was partially made by Intel, would Apple be able to implement it with any other CPU?

No they will make "crossbow" and say its more efficent and quiet.

 

[AppleMacFinder]

Damm RAM is cheaper ! Yet look at the prices, get real !

"$400" is Apple official price for upgrade.
People could buy 16GB RAM upgrade for $100, and keep their default RAM for themselves.

About CPUs: Intel i7-2760QM costs $378. Just one.
For these money, you could buy 75 of these cheap 5-dollar ARM processors!

I still don't see how it could be more expensive.

 

[roxxette]

"$400" is Apple official price for upgrade.
People could buy 16GB RAM upgrade for $100, and keep their default RAM for themselves.

About CPUs: Intel i7-2760QM costs $378. Just one.
For these money, you could buy 75 of these cheap 5-dollar ARM processors!

I still don't see how it could be more expensive.

For the love of god my friend the point is that apple is no longer loyal to the mac users, if the price to make gets cheaper its 100% sure the profit will go up and if they can push 50% margin they will !

 

[AppleMacFinder]

Again you are missing the financial aspect of this decision. Even if each ARM chip costs $10 it would be $80 which is expensive than what Intel would charge Apple in multi million volume contract.

I don't see how Intel could charge less than $80, even for multi million volume contract,
while their i7-2760QM CPU costs $380.

 

[KurtangleTN]

Apple has been on this path for quite a while now.. look at what they've done in the past few years.

They've sealed a lot of the lineup now.. the Retina Macbook is sealed, Air is of course sealed, the 21" iMac is sealed, and I'm sure they'll eventually seal or get rid of the non Retina MBPs, and the Mini will be sealed soon, leaving just the amazingly outdated Mac Pro to rot away.

At the same time they've done this they've also emphasized form over function, they made the iMac a bit thinner and lost the 7200RPM drive, optical drive, and even beyond that they've never adopted Blu-Ray, took ages to get USB 3.0, and generally tend to put little thought into the graphics of their computers. I mean a 512MB GT 640M is comical for a $1300 computer.

Apple used to go out in keynotes and be proud they were one of the first to bring things to the market, besides the Retina they haven't done anything similar in the past 6-8 years.

Power users are dropping Apple like a rotten piece of fruit while the iPhone/iPad users are now getting Macs and they want them to be more and more like big iPads with a mouse and keyboard.

ARM simply isn't powerful enough to do a whole lot, luckily they've largely pissed off most of the power users and they've either done the smart thing and jumped ship or they will when this happens.

There is no way they'll be able to emulate Intel processes with an ARM chip that's gonna be a fraction of the power... so they'll probably have to come out with a new OS that's dropping all prior support.

It will probably launch as OS 11 or even just a brand new OS all together, dropping the Mac or something and Mac OS dies off, could even see them renaming their lineup. OS 11 will probably be dumbed down to unimaginable levels, I see full screen apps only, app store apps only, and a very sealed OS with maybe no file manager.

The writing on the wall is here, if you use your computer for more than Facebook and Angry Birds you might want to look to a new company.

 

[eltaurus]

What makes you think that it would not be powerful? In the past when Apple have changed CPUs it's been out of necessity, because some alternative came along that was better. In this case intel is leading, at least in low to mid part of the market so the only reason for them to consider a switch is if they have come up with something that is significantly better, something that sets them apart by a large margin.

simple logic ... 4 wheeler Car can't take load of 18 wheeler ..

I just bought rMPB 15" and i have Mac Pro 3-4yrs old .. when it comes to rendering & heavy Simulation Mac pro easily beat a Laptop.

if you say untill 2017 ARM will be powerful like i7 or Xeon ... Then at that time xeon will be much more powerful.. have many more cores ..

I know in future may be handheld device will be more powerful then my current rMBP but then laptops & desktops will be many times more powerful...

 

[AppleMacFinder]

For the love of god my friend the point is that apple is no longer loyal to the mac users, if the price to make gets cheaper its 100% sure the profit will go up and if they can push 50% margin they will !

In my opinion, Apple will not do such move with ridiculous price increase.
Or they will lose customers, and their end profit will be lower.
They could just keep the same price, and enjoy the higher profit.

 

[roxxette]

I don't see how Intel could charge less than $80, even for multi million volume contract,
while their i7-2760QM CPU costs $380.

Agree thats imposible to answear but i dont think will be crazy if they get it at 50 bucks a pcs

 

[AppleMacFinder]

I just bought rMPB 15" and i have Mac Pro 3-4yrs old .. when it comes to rendering & heavy Simulation Mac pro easily beat a Laptop.

If we look on the benchmarks, your current rMBP should beat that old Mac Pro.

 

[roxxette]

In my opinion, Apple will not do such move with ridiculous price increase.
Or they will lose customers, and their end profit will be lower.
They could just keep the same price, and enjoy the higher profit.

These people didnt do it when they where almost 6ft under, why do you think they will do it now ??!!!

 

[eltaurus]

Apple has been on this path for quite a while now.. look at what they've done in the past few years.

They've sealed a lot of the lineup now.. the Retina Macbook is sealed, Air is of course sealed, the 21" iMac is sealed, and I'm sure they'll eventually seal or get rid of the non Retina MBPs, and the Mini will be sealed soon, leaving just the amazingly outdated Mac Pro to rot away.

At the same time they've done this they've also emphasized form over function, they made the iMac a bit thinner and lost the 7200RPM drive, optical drive, and even beyond that they've never adopted Blu-Ray, took ages to get USB 3.0, and generally tend to put little thought into the graphics of their computers. I mean a 512MB GT 640M is comical for a $1300 computer.

Power users are dropping Apple like a rotten piece of fruit while the iPhone/iPad users are now getting Macs and they want them to be more and more like big iPads with a mouse and keyboard.

ARM simply isn't powerful enough to do a whole lot, luckily they've largely pissed off most of the power users and they've either done the smart thing and jumped ship or they will when this happens.

There is no way they'll be able to emulate Intel processes with an ARM chip that's gonna be a fraction of the power... so they'll probably have to come out with a new OS that's dropping all prior support.

It will probably launch as OS 11 or even just a brand new OS all together, dropping the Mac or something and Mac OS dies off, could even see them renaming their lineup. OS 11 will probably be dumbed down to unimaginable levels, I see full screen apps only, app store apps only, and a very sealed OS with maybe no file manager.

The writing on the wall is here, if you use your computer for more than Facebook and Angry Birds you might want to look to a new company.

Very true ... I am really worried to invest more into MAC hardware ... it was the power user who convince other people to buy iphone & ios devices .. (in my case i make so many people buy iphone bcz i am good in tech stuff so people ask advice) but with current apple policies i am suggesting Galaxy S3 instead of iphone5 .. but for laptop i still recommend them rMBP ... i donno how long i can suggest them that.