Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
When Apple developed Metal, instead of adopting Vulkan or DX 11-12, I lost faith in Mac gaming.

I'm quite sure DX 11-12 is out of the question anyway - it's a Windows only API. I agree lack of Vulkan is a bit sad , but I think Metal can do a thing or two in the long run. We'll see...
 
Change is good. A lot of scared people here, but we don't know the details yet.
  • macOS is not necessarily going to be 'dumbed down'. Why would Apple do that?
  • macOS is not necessarily going to be slower. Why would Apple do that?
  • macOS is not necessarily going to be cut off.
  • The adoption of A series chips in macs is not necessarily going to be the whole range of desktops.
  • We don't know the details of emulation potential yet
Apple having further control over their supplier chain is a good thing. More updates and more progress. The mac business is the founding area of Apple, they aren't going to do anything rash to upset that business.
 
It would be really weird to see Apple completely ditch x86 support. But maybe they also look into custom SoCs more like AMDs chips that are used in current gen consoles, with some in-house chips added to allow running iOS apps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3247
That will be the final nail in the coffin of Apple as a computer for professionals and power users. They have done the best to kick us out since the death of the Xserve, and pro-tools (when they were good). I use an apple because it is/was a Swiss army knife that could run anything. The last ten years have been amazing with boot camp and virtualisation. They move to some Fisher Price architecture and remove power user features, this Apple experiment is over for me.

I don't think think that's how things will unfold, but we'll see...
 
This is a good thing. x86 is an archaic architecture that needs to be taken out the back and shot. I’m surprised nobody else has brought up the fact the whole tech industry is backing an initiative to do exactly that. Look up RISC V.

Microsoft have also realised two things: the future is not x86 and the future is not Windows. Take one look at their org restructure and you can see that.

If you’re worried about running Linux, well, don’t. Linux has been running on ARM happily for years.

Finally we can ditch all this horrible legacy crap that’s required massive, power zapping, hot silicon and replace it with something that doesn’t require most of the microcode to be patches on top of patches to make it work.

The future is bright.
 
You mean about 12 years? I wouldn’t call that a very long time, to be honest. If you had said 68k to PPC maybe..

I'll be 50 years old this year. Used my first Apple in the late 1970's. I had an Apple ][+, IIe, IIc, original Mac and others. I certainly remember the transition from 68k to PPC.
 
Untitled-7.gif
 
The evidence has been leading to this for years. I've mentioned in a few threads in the past that it was puzzling that Apple was so unproductive given their resources. Either they were completely incompetent given their resources, or they were working on something big. Well, this is going to be a major undertaking.

It makes sense why they have been developing gaming (eGPU, Metal 1,2) under MacOS since Bootcamp is probably going out the window.

So I wonder if this will make Apple computers cheaper, or more expensive. Hopefully cheaper.
 
Yeah, well I'm older than you (probably) and I remember the transition from the 68k to the PowerPC. Yes, I fart out dust.

And before that, there was the "32 bit clean" transition within the 68K, and before that, (at least in a manner of speaking) the 6502 to 68K transition.

All kidding aside, I see this as a good thing ... if it happens. No more stagnation waiting for the next Intel chip suitable for whatever Mac design Apple has planned.

Instead, we'll be back to the 'Olde Days' of Apple falling behind & making excuses.

I'm still waiting for my G5 laptop to ship /S
 
Guess you haven’t seen benchmarks for then. Nonetheless what’s laughable is your arse getting chapped over this. It’s going to happen either way and there is nothing you can do about it.
You must be foolish to believe in benchmarks. Android phones beating iPhone X in REAL world scenarios alone, proves benchmarks are meaningless. What is more laughable is the fact that you actually believe an Ipad is faster than an Intel processor. :D:D
 
Why is it exciting? They need to convince Adobe, Microsoft and other major developers to re-write their desktop apps, or will they just port their iOS apps to the desktop?

Yeah I can’t imagine Apple can design a faster chip than intel by using ARM. Even if they could, Intel has a process advantage on every other fab.

Really think Apple will build a competitor to Xeon processors with ARM for Mac Pro?
 
  • Like
Reactions: schneeland
My opinion: Intel's processors on the high end outstrip the ARM offerings. Example: the Xeon in the iMac Pro is far more powerful in terms of cores and speed than anything ARM could offer. Another example would be the 4 ghz+ i7 chip in the iMac on the high end. Honestly, half the reason I have a Mac anymore is because it can also run Windows with no compromise. If they do this, I'm done. I've already gone through one painful transition, I won't do a second. Ugh.

More powerful? Yes. But not in terms of POWER CONSUMPTION.

Apple has been fairly focused on power consumption for a while. ARM would allow them reasonable performance at MUCH greater power savings.

I bet the developer Macs (Mac Pro, etc) will continue to have Intel until Apple can match performance with ARM. Everything else will go ARM probably.
 
Apple cannot compete with Intel in the desktop arena.
I said it earlier. They can compete with Qualcomm and others in the mobile processor arena because the only company in that arena that owns a Fab is Samsung. But Samsung isn't specifically a processor company.

Intel on the other hand, is a processor company with Fab capacity.
They drive technology nodes. Ask Sun Microsystems what happened when they tried to compete with Intel. Oh, that's right you can't because trying to compete with Intel cost them a fortune and they still couldn't compete. Oracle bought them. Ask HP. Oh wait, you can't ask the either because they sold off their computing division.

Intel is a company with 100K people with a whole lot of them focused on making processors, memory and flash.
Intel can do a prototype run in a fab located right down the street. Apple has to wait in line for wafers just like everyone else when going to TSMC.

AMD sold their wafer facilities to Global Foundries and has a wafer supply agreement.
Apple will need a fab partner at 7nm to compete with Intel or they will need to buy/build a modern fab and staff to go with it.

So when Apple partners with a company that has bleeding edge fab capability or they buy/build one; let me know.
Until then Apple doesn't have a chance is hades competing with Intel.
The analysts are just plain stupid and don't underhand semiconductors.


SMH!
 
What are your thoughts on this story, 69?
Honestly, I really don't care one way or the other. As long as this rumored decision doesn't interfere with my use cases, Apple can do whatever they want. I'm not all in on Apple's ecosystem so there's nothing attractive to me about further integration of iOS and MacOS. I like MacOS but I don't use iOS devices anymore. I used to use iPads regularly, but beyond being the main control for a few Chromecasts, the iPads in my house spend more time in the junk drawer. My girls use iPhones but they don't use MacOS for anything. My wife no longer uses Apple anything. I only want one thing from Apple: modular, upgradeable mac mini. If that mythical mini integrates with my use cases, Apple gets my dough. If not, they'll wait until I replace my kids phone's before I crack my wallet for them again.
 
Wow 12 pages full of extremist views. Either it's great with a pile of truths, half truths and outright lies/spin in support, or it's end-of-the-world disaster with mostly worst-case speculation in support. Reality is probably somewhere in the middle. Consider this step-by-step:

Step #1: What's the 2nd word in the name of this site?

Step #2: Breathe... just breathe (use a Luke Skywalker voice if you need to for this one).

Step #3: Those up for buying a Mac in the next (upwards of) 2 years have the same Intel-based choices we have now, presumably with newer versions of Intel if Apple decides to actually give Macs some love. Buy any of those and you have a current platform Mac for upwards of maybe 5 or so years. One of my own macs is on year #8 and running great. Potentially buy the last great Intel-based Mac before the transition and then make your own best decision over the 4-5+ years you'll have before it's wheels start coming off.

Step #4: In approx. 2020 when this may or may not come to pass, SEE what it actually means. Through the "half empty" lens, potentially head for the door. Through the "half full" lens, maybe the bulk of the bigger concerns are covered in some way not yet revealed.

Personally, I hope it's still April's Fools somewhere in the world. Secondly, I'm hoping there's something else going on here and this is only part of the story (maybe a hybrid Mac with Intel + A-Series)? Whatever the case, as I think about this rumor, I step back to Step #1 and repeat.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: snortpig
I don't see how that makes much sense, business-wise.
The Mac is a stagnating business (like all desktop and laptop computers). Custom made processors won't persuade anyone to switch back from phones and tablets to a somewhat legacy class of devices. So being dependent on Intel is just fine from this perspective.
For their mobile devices on the other hand, it made all the sense in the world.

Also designing a really fast and still efficient processor is hard. There were once a lot of CPU makers around, but pretty much everyone else apart from Intel and AMD have given up creating mass market computer processors. Because it didn't make sense, business-wise.
There are a few initiatives for ARM server CPUs, but so far they have been mostly remained promises. What is on the market is not convincing and disappointing, and it's uncertain if it will change.
Sure, Apple can do it, but it will cost them a lot of money.

Also, Windows won't run anymore or only with a lot of drawbacks. There are plans for an ARM Windows with x86 emulation, but that's going to be a huge pain. Lots of things won't work, new drivers for everything will still be necessary, and it's pretty unclear if there is even a market for it. Microsoft have already failed in their first try (Windows RT) because no one needed it. Games will still need an x86 Windows because the emulation will be too slow, so those won't definitely run on an ARM Windows. Microsoft isn't Apple, they couldn't pull this off even if they tried really hard.

And of course, all the Mac software has to make the transition, too...this will probably be the easiest part. And it's still annoying for customers and might drive some away instead of attracting new ones.

So in short, it would be a highly risky move with totally uncertain outcomes and little benefits even it everything works well. And for what? The future lies elsewhere.


Yup. I think Apple might be introducing a desktop iOS device. Or plug your phone into a dock add a GPU. So there could be a switch over time where people prefer something like that. But to just switch the mac at this point seems like it has few upsides.
 
You must be foolish to believe in benchmarks. Android phones beating iPhone X in REAL world scenarios alone, proves benchmarks are meaningless. What is more laughable is the fact that you actually believe an Ipad is faster than an Intel processor. :D:D

I think it’s foolish to be closed to the possibility. Anything and everything is possible.

Let’s revisit this in 2020 and then we will truly see who is going to eat some crow.
 
If you are saying ARM isn’t powerful enough for top end systems, that’s nonsense. “Power” is a function of the chip design, not the architecture. Apple could easily add more cores to the A10, bump up the clock speed a bit, increase the size of some buffers and caches, and use a better thermal solution, and compete quite well with current high end intel chips.

If it's that easy, why have all the ARM server processors been pretty lame so far? On paper they looked really great, but paper is one thing, proper execution another.
Yes, theoretically you could scale an ARM design up, but whether it could compete with Intel chips is entirely unclear. My guess is, that either it can't or the benfits are negligible, or someone would've already done it.
 
That's probably why they've try to do everything wirelessly and started removing ports.

With TB3, aren't devices less dependant on drivers?



Man, the peripheral nightmare will begin with drivers needing to be written for non-Intel code. There would definitely be a transition period while manufacturers write drivers to work with the new processor.
 
  • Like
Reactions: east85
In High Sierra, Apple removed telnet and ftp in terminal for no reason. So, why wouldn't it disappear?
Many modern operating systems killed their ftp and telnet clients during the current or last generations for very good reason: so people wouldn’t be tempted to set up new services based on those insecure protocols.
If you have legacy hardware to manage, you’re probably competent enough to install the necessary clients on macOS, Windows or your Linux distro of choice. If not, why have crap that shouldn’t be used but which can potentially be abused laying around?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.