Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Considering Switch From Intel Chips in Future Macs

nickn said:
... My Pentium 4 from eight or nine years still has a good edge over any mobile CPU. According to Geekbench, the A6X manages to get an impressive score of around 1700. Compare that to the Mac Pro though, which benches scores of over 38000, and I think you can all see a problem. This forum in particular likes to say specs don't matter, but I don't think even you all would be stupid enough to fall for a move like that.
Click to expand...

I think the plan is to put in more cores. Lower power, faster cores. You can get the equivalent performance or better with more scalable multitasking. Just imagine a new ARM powered iMac with 16, 32 or 64 ARM cores. You could achieve multiples of the performance of the current Mac Pros and with less power consumption.
It could work.
 
MagnusVonMagnum said:
I watch my 22 year old brother play with his Playstation 360 at his Dad's house. He has no job. He has no driver's license. He has no drive to get either one. Like all of today's generation he wants to "play" with that iPad and instead of smiling, maybe you should be trying to teach kids to actually learn how to do things for themselves. When I was 7 years old I was "playing" with my first computer also, a Commodore Vic-20. I had to actually type in programs in Basic to get them to run games. I had to learn how computers function to make things happen in more primitive operating systems. I learned something even when I was having fun. You don't learn ANYTHING on an iPad any more than learning something about electricity because you use a toaster.

You call that progress. I call it a dumbed down society that no longer knows how to type. They just "thumb" instead. They no longer know how to spell. They just use a spell checker. They don't know how to do math because they use the calculator on their iPhone. They don't have speaking skills because they talk in slang like the rappers they listen to on that iPod. You call that the future. I call it a travesty.
Click to expand...

lol that was fantastic! It is a dumbed down society that is for sure. Apple is just another (of many) player taking purchasing power out of people's pockets and into technology so their thumbs get a work out while their brains turn to mush. Just remember, one man's great future is another man's travesty.
 
linuxcooldude said:
Key work being a version of Windows 8. Still not the same thing as a full version of Windows 8.
Click to expand...

Damn it its still called Windows 8. :mad:









:D

----------
BenTrovato said:
lol that was fantastic! It is a dumbed down society that is for sure. Apple is just another (of many) player taking purchasing power out of people's pockets and into technology so their thumbs get a work out while their brains turn to mush. Just remember, one man's great future is another man's travesty.
Click to expand...

But it's a free market...
 
linkgx1 said:
Damn it its still called Windows 8.
Click to expand...

It's not Windows 8. It's Windows RT.

- Can't run Win32/Win64 software
- Can't run .NET software
- Can't join an Active Directory domain

List of things it doesn't do is long. Again, Windows RT is iOS essentially, a locked down, walled garden OS that happens to be called the same thing as its older brother in order to confuse users.

Obviously, it's working as you and others in this very thread have been very confused about Microsoft's ARM endeavour. Bravo Microsoft, you've succeeded.
 
KnightWRX said:
It's not Windows 8. It's Windows RT.

- Can't run Win32/Win64 software
- Can't run .NET software
- Can't join an Active Directory domain

List of things it doesn't do is long. Again, Windows RT is iOS essentially, a locked down, walled garden OS that happens to be called the same thing as its older brother in order to confuse users.

Obviously, it's working as you and others in this very thread have been very confused about Microsoft's ARM endeavour. Bravo Microsoft, you've succeeded.
Click to expand...

:( I've been duped.
 
Dear Adobe,

Please release Creative Suite for Ubuntu.

Sincerely,
60% of the Mac User base.
 
iGrip said:
That might be impossible. Some would say that they could not care less about the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro creates practically no profits, even when it incorporates cheap old hardware and sells for stupid-high prices. It just doesn't do enough volume.

Apple has MUCH better (meaning more profitable) products to focus on. Back in the bad old days, they had scads of unprofitable products. Steve returned and cut them out of the lineup, and the rest is history.

If you want Apple to again go to hell, then wish for the Mac Pro to be revived. If you want to see Apple become even more powerful and even more profitable, then wish for the Mac Pro to be put out of its misery. Time for the sh it can for the Mac Pro if you are a true Apple fan, as contrasted with a selfish self-centered leech.
Click to expand...

That's a very interesting perspective that I strongly disagree with. Why would refreshing the Mac Pro hurt Apple? It would sure do wonders for the skeptical pro community out there that is starting to ditch Apple because of this. We actually care a lot less about Apple being more powerful and profitable than we do about them selling products that benefit and meet the needs of those who purchase them.
 
faroZ06 said:
I don't know very much about this, but I'm pretty sure that you can only do that with programs specifically designed and well-suited for it. Maybe you can split Safari into a task for each webpage plus a master task, but I doubt you could take advantage of all 32 cores with very many apps.
Click to expand...

Well, in computer science classes, we have several lessons of parallel computing with specific semantics, but these concepts never reached the market in large scale. Maybe a several-core ARM processor would be the first chance where we could explicitly call these parallel primitives, which would bring new ways of thinking programming like non-deterministic-like development.

If Apple launched iOS in 2007 and it's relatively mature after 5 years, I wouldn't doubt that Apple would be capable of bringing this concept to an upcoming OS X+.
 
nuckinfutz said:
ncaissie ..if you yourself have a clue more than me you have an odd way of showing it ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah that’s why they had to put a stripped down version of OSX on the iOS devices and MS had to strip down Windows 8 to RT to get it to run on a Tablet with ARM chips.
Try installing OSX on your iPad and let me know how it goes.
MS is putting Full versions of windows 8 on Tablets with Intel based chipsets.
I have been a Windows/Web developer for 15 years and just started iOS development.
 
holmesf said:
Because programming such a machine would be a nightmare, and Amdahl's law rears its ugly head. Most consumer tasks (outside of graphics) have a limited amount of thread level parallelism, which is why CPU designs favor a handful of very complex cores instead of a vast array of simple cores. There's a reason Intel makes the choices it does. It's not stupid.
Click to expand...

Most consumer tasks have a limited amount of thread level parallelism because we never had decent parallel computers or because it's an intrinsic behavior of such applications?

I don't have the answer, but someone just developed WordStar and similar apps with the tools they had at the time. If several-core CPUs were popular in the 80's, maybe these applications would be inherently parallel today. Or not?
 
Last edited:
ncaissie said:
Yeah that’s why they had to put a stripped down version of OSX on the iOS devices and MS had to strip down Windows 8 to RT to get it to run on a Tablet with ARM chips.
Try installing OSX on your iPad and let me know how it goes.
MS is putting Full versions of windows 8 on Tablets with Intel based chipsets.
I have been a Windows/Web developer for 15 years and just started iOS development.
Click to expand...

It's not a matter of stripping it down. It's one of ideology.

Microsoft wants "one OS everywhere"

Apple is about leveraging their framework across both platforms and being able to take advantage of the unique abilities of hardware on each.

As you've likely found out Apple seemingly has little desire to fold UIkit and AppKit together.

I think neither approach is really better than the other. You're going to find plusses and minus of each.

As for me I've been doing the Mac thing and 20 years and not so fondly remember the days when Xcode never existed and the rage was Metrowerks Codewarrior. Thinking about hopping back in myself and doing light web stuff as well. Welcome aboard.

----------
brdeveloper said:
Most consumer tasks have a limited amount of thread level parallelism because we had never decent parallel computers or because it's an intrinsic behavior of such applications?

I don't have the answer, but someone just developed WordStar and similar apps with the tools they had at the time. If several-core CPUs were popular in the 80's, maybe these applications would be inherently parallel today. Or not?
Click to expand...

It appears that taking on parallelism is going to be ARM's attack vector against Intel. When the Cortex A50 series ships in a year and a half (assuming) what's going to be important is seeing what kind of tools exist to leverage the parallelism. They are aiming the A50 series at low power server fabric so there must be some development tools they are or will be offering to leverage.

Admittedly I know very very little about this but who doesn't love a good tech battle?
 
nuckinfutz said:
Microsoft wants "one OS everywhere"
Click to expand...

Too bad their line-up is still as fragmented as it ever was. The only point in common they have between their offerings is the number 8 in the name. Windows Phone 8, Windows RT, Windows 8 Professional, all different OSes sharing a common kernel and some userspace services.

Not unlike iOS and OS X.

And seriously, both you and AppleMacFinder really need to brush up on parallele programming before you start talking about shoving cores into a machine... It really shows both of you really lack understanding on the complexities introduced by that model.
 
Difference between Windows RT and Windows 8

Windows RT is the same code source as Windows 8 except that it is compiled for ARM processors and does not include software such as the explorer shell (desktop) and any x86 only applications, which are mostly applications that are dependent on the explorer shell.

Previous versions of Windows Mobile operating systems were not the same code source as Windows.
 
Technarchy said:
I don't think ARM is the solution. Not for laptops and desktops. AMD would be a much better Partner for an all-in-one high performance solution
Click to expand...

Well I'm not a huge fan of AMD, as my dual core Mac mini out performs my fathers custom gaming pc run by a quad core AMD chip. And you might be right that arm isn't the solution, but at the very least apple and intel should find a way to run arm applications natively on x86 CPUs with all of the benefits of arm CPUs. Honestly I think it would be better if apple switched to x86 chips in their iOS devices instead of arm in the macs.
 
So Apple is planning to drop intel processors and expect intel to watch? Intel shall deliver more powerful processor than apple can do. I think we will see harsh competition between both companies in term who can build more powerful and faster chip ,,,, At the end All Hail Power Mac!!
 
Aidan5806 said:
Well I'm not a huge fan of AMD, as my dual core Mac mini out performs my fathers custom gaming pc run by a quad core AMD chip. And you might be right that arm isn't the solution, but at the very least apple and intel should find a way to run arm applications natively on x86 CPUs with all of the benefits of arm CPUs. Honestly I think it would be better if apple switched to x86 chips in their iOS devices instead of arm in the macs.
Click to expand...


Virtualization will make this possible. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft and VMWare are trying to virtualize ARM in HyperV/ESX. That will allow ARM applications to run in a virtual environment on an x86/x64 platform.
 
If Apple switches off of Intel I'm done. I have an MB Air, a Pro, and a Mac Pro. Bootcamp and Windows/Linux in VMWare Fusion is an important role in my workflow. If I lose that then I'm gone, I'll switch to Linux and Windows on regular PC hardware.
 
VenusianSky said:
Virtualization will make this possible. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft and VMWare are trying to virtualize ARM in HyperV/ESX. That will allow ARM applications to run in a virtual environment on an x86/x64 platform.
Click to expand...

That's emulation, not virtualization. QEMU already supports ARM emulation.
 
Ok, Windows here I come, oh wait didn't they just ruin their desktopinterface,...
Linux sucks like it always did..., that is going to be interesting, maybe I ditch software development all together and become a guru...

Peace upon you all... let us pray brothers and sisters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back