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Apple Considering Switch From Intel Chips in Future Macs

I have a word for Apple to ponder...

hubris: exaggerated pride or self-confidence

So now, Apple is thinking about "rolling their own" processors. Hmmm.
 
Small White Car said:
That's what's silly about this whole thread...people treating a marketing name thing like it's some big technical discussion. So maybe Apple throws a keyboard on an iPad, gives it modified software that's not like iOS and calls it a Macbook?

Microsoft is doin' it, Apple might too.

...

The title says they're "considering" it. Well, yeah, I could have told you that a year ago. They'd be stupid to not consider it.

Everything beyond that is speculation, though. So remember that, the actual stuff people are freaking out about is all made up.

The "considering" part is real but decidedly non-scary because, yeah, of course they are.
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I was thinking about this while I was downstairs brushing my teeth.

Yeah, I'll concede that there could be a place for ARM in the Mac lineup as an inexpensive, entry level device. Maybe eventually replacing the Mac Mini and MBA. I think it'll be a few years til they get to that point, though. ARM will have to mature enough that it can at least match what the Air is currently capable of before it'd be a truly viable option.

If Apple were to do it tomorrow, it'd be like replacing your MBA with a Chromebook. I don't think anyone wants that.
 
If you look at products like the Samsung Chrome book, I could see docking my iPad and making it a full blown Desktop :)
 
I8P'CS said:
This is the reason I;m waiting for the 2013 iMacs and beyond, I can sit and wait as I have 2011 Model but like the design of new iMacs besides Apple always bumps things on 2 Gens. Hope this is one of them.

Although the article says they won't change for a few years, hope thats wrong.
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i dont think they will switch soon, the arm chips arent that fast yet, but I did hear a story about amd playing with merging arm and opteron....
 
iGrip said:
They hardly make any profit with the OSX line as it is. And the profit potential is going downwards, not upwards. You are probably correct that they will just kill it all off rather than have it die a slow, lingering death.
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What would they develop iOS on ;)
 
jsw said:
A switch to ARM/custom chips would be yet another bad Apple decision in a long line of... no, wait, every major Apple technology change has been met with derision and fear and discussion of why people would stop buying Apple products, and yet Apple has grown ever stronger.

If Apple shifts from Intel, it's likely going to turn out to be a wise decision, and a year later everyone will be mocking (whether or not there is cause to) all the poor people who have to use Intel chips.
Click to expand...

Truer words have not been written today. I admit I was one of the Intel naysayers back in the day because the Pentium 4 was a mediocre chip and I was falling under the assumption that Intel's future roadmap was equally unimpressive but then came Yonah and Merom and things rapidly changed.

It's clear. ARM is moving upscale and targeting Intel's low end stuff. This battle is going to be glorious.
 
Good god no!

I really hope this is some BS used to leverage their position with Intel. The PowerPC was great until it wasn't, and then generation after generation of Macs underperformed.

The switch to Intel was a long, arduous ordeal that involved re-buying every piece of software to gain the performance boost the Intel chips promised.
 
mono1980 said:
Apple will probably just kill OSX all together and you'll be forced to buy iOS devices. :mad:
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Different user-interfaces, different input methods, different apps. They've got a long way to go before there's anything like a merge possible.

If it's a true merge - not just killing off OS X in favour of iOS, you have nothing to be :mad: about. :) Your iPad will get far more capable than it currently is.
 
there is no point on arm based cpu on mac, it will kill mac ecosystem. this news is completely fake. maybe apple will compete with intel like amd but i don't think any arm based cpu on mac, no way.
 
Personally, it doesn't matter to me what chips they use so long as it offers the performance I'd expect in each product category ie. best in class performance you can pack into a 15" MacBook pro format with no compromises.

If they can obtain the same or better performance than using Intel and nVidia chips, and run all of the great OSX software out there without emulation and teething pains then I'd hop right on straight away.

To me, it doesn't matter what name is inside the machine as long as it performs in every manner and is of top-grade quality. That being said, for power uses and software compatibility I don't see them dropping Intel anytime soon in OSX. CPU performance would have to catch up and close the gap pretty quickly versus Intel. The one benefit I see is that all of Apple's integrated graphics solutions are beating the pants off of Intel's - and I hope Intel smartens up.

However.... with Apple designing and tightly integrating everything from the CPU design to chipsets, graphics capabilities and software we could have a very powerful and extremely well implemented package. I'd love the day when you can have more performance in all areas than my MacBook Pro retina 2.7/16/768 in a cooler running, silent package. I don't care what chips run the machine to do it.
 
All of this has happened before, it will happen again.

:apple: Mac Users plan your upgrade cycles appropriately....

Probably happens after OS X 10.9!

Motorola 68000 --> PowerPC --> Intel x86 --> Apple ARM

Didn't Apple seed the company that created the ARM processor? :eek:
 
clutterjoe said:
I really hope this is some BS used to leverage their position with Intel. The PowerPC was great until it wasn't, and then generation after generation of Macs underperformed.

The switch to Intel was a long, arduous ordeal that involved re-buying every piece of software to gain the performance boost the Intel chips promised.
Click to expand...

That was a whole different time when Apple wasn't shipping millions upon millions of devices per quarter. These are new times and a vastly different Apple.

Samsung is one of the few Android vendors turning a profit. Why? Because they are vertically aligned to deliver displays, DRAM, SSD Controllers and SoC design.

Apple's moving there but will be 5x larger when it's all said and done.
 
While I doubt this is anything other than idle speculation or Apple hedging so that there *is* a ARM-capable version of OS X running if Intel pulls an IBM and fails to deliver what's needed for new Macs, I can't think of anything that would make me walk away from Apple as a platform faster.

I don't want or need a hamstrung desktop.
 
thekeyring said:
Your iPad will get far more capable than it currently is.
Click to expand...

This is what I'm hoping for. Thing is, the way things look, it seems more likely we'll be using a low voltage Intel chip for a more powerful iPad than we would an ARM processor. Haswell supposedly gives us all the power of an LV Core iX processor, and battery life approaching what ARM currently gives us.

If Intel can produce a chip that can give us 10-12 hours on a charge without any sacrifices, why get an ARM? The only advantage ARM would have is that they can be used for thinner, lighter machines, and even that might not last long.
 
I dont give a monkeys about what the processor is, but having to replace all my software again horrifies me. Now if they go universal binary and/or make the App store download the other type binary free of charge then its not so bad, except for windows support.

I cant however, see it happening so soon if at all.
 
Goodbye Intel

Intel and Apple work closely for their chip designs, That is what makes Apple unique.

If Apple is going to switch, will this mean no more Bootcamp ? Since Bootcamp only works on Intel processors. I can see ARM is good for low power consumption, but why does it have to be laptops ?

Intel is doing their part by making the next chip cooler anyway, what more can there be ?

Besides, didn't Apple switch to Intel, because its "more compatible" ?

What would ARM do ? Break all those those PC discs you can bot up from.

Looks like were going back to the old days.......

And here, I thought Apple were looking to the future.. It may be with cooling, but that's it.

Unless Bootcamp can work on ARM, I dunno.... Apple will have to make it work by then, and what about virtualization ? Will these all break ?
 
Intel makes a Generic CPU that is good at some things and poor at others.


Apple has Shown with the A6 that they can make chips that blow competition away.
 
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