Apple Plans to Ditch Intel and Use Custom Mac Chips Starting in 2020

[kildraik]

Happy. This is super welcome. I can’t imagine how quick these systems will be. The A11 Bionic alone performs better than the highest-end dual-core 13” MBP.

Intel’s roadmap is crap, and their chip vulnerabilities likely sealed the deal, though we all knew this was coming. Their stock is already down 8%.

 

[Heineken]

Well, so it's beginning. I wonder how many people will choose to move on from Apple due to lack of X86 support. I for one will not be buying a Mac that I cannot run windows on

What's windows?

 

[ftaok]

Wow! I remember the transition from power PC chips to Intel. Yes, I am that old and have been around Apple that long. This will be quite the transition similar to that time.

Frankly put, I’m excited especially with some of the business decisions Intel has been making as of late.

Yeah, well I'm older than you (probably) and I remember the transition from the 68k to the PowerPC. Yes, I fart out dust.

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.

 

[yesjam]

While I do have a degree of nostalgia for pre-Intel Macs, I think the incorporation of Intel chips within Apple computers was a net-positive for both consumers and for Apple. Not sure this would be the best move would that it were to happen.

 

[asdavis10]

This will be huge if there are no (or few) compatibility issues with software/hardware. Differentiating the experience between desktop, mobile, cloud, and IoT is where Apple can really get an advantage over rivals.

 

[noxivs]

So it begins...
If it will have x86 integration within the same chip (is that even possible?) then this is good news. If not, not so good. Virtual machines are not good for graphics intensive applications and emulators are emulators. Let's see how it's gonna turn out though. This may merely be a story to gauge the reaction. And we know that Apple is way ahead of anyone else on the market with ARM chips. So maybe it's not a bad thing after all

 

[justperry]

What's windows?

Glass walls.

 

[cmaier]

I’ve been predicting this based on available evidence for a couple years: http://www.applenews.zone/p/feature-why-macs.html

The advantage of apple owning the entire stack - compilers, App Store, etc. is that the transition should be reasonably seamless. But expect them to put some effort into the horrible MAS before that. And not clear how they are going to handle legacy apps not distributed through the App Store - intel isn’t likely to waive its intellectual property rights to permit an x86 emulator.

 

[cemoz101]

Biggest mistake Apple can make

 

[subjonas]

This is huge. I anticipate this transition is gonna be painful, but hopefully for the better.

 

[yesjam]

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?

I don't think it would be a massive challenge to convince Adobe and Microsoft to re-write their desktop apps for the Mac. Not that I think that moving away from Intel would be all that great of an idea.

 

[maflynn]

What's windows?

Its an operating system from a small startup called Microsoft. That OS has a tiny marketshare of 90%, so its quite understandable that you never heard of them

 

[Glideslope]

Remembering all the laughs receive about my comments on Apple OS.

 

[69Mustang]

What's windows?

Related to that little girl who didn't know what a computer was?

 

[zorinlynx]

Wow! I remember the transition from power PC chips to Intel. Yes, I am that old and have been around Apple that long. This will be quite the transition similar to that time.

Frankly put, I’m excited especially with some of the business decisions Intel has been making as of late.

No it will not. The transition from PPC to Intel was a transition from a more obscure architecture to one with widespread use. This was a good thing; it brought Macs into being compatible with the majority of the rest of the computer industry.

Moving from Intel to ARM on Macs would be a major step backwards. You'd be moving away from the industry standard architecture for desktop machines. I'm also not confident that ARM will ever be competitive with x86 in raw performance.

 

[aaronhead14]

Please no please no please NO! This is a TERRIBLE idea! Intel leads the industry in high power CPUs. Going any other route besides Intel will just result in slower computers!

 

[Heineken]

Its an operating system from a small startup called Microsoft. That OS has a tiny marketshare of 90%, so its quite understandable that you never heard of them

Which is irrelevant to more than 90% of Mac users, that one?

 

[kutenai]

Haha. I started using Macs when they created the first Intel Based versions.
I'll stop using them when they stop creating Intel based versions.

The main reason I tout the Mac line is you can run windows AND mac apps, so you get the best of both worlds. Not all apps are available for mac

 

[bsbeamer]

Hope this isn't the case. This may be the last signal many pros have been looking for to abandon ship. Many have been keeping Mac Pro 4,1 & 5,1 machines running while waiting for this more upgradeable or modular Mac Pro 7,1 to be announced/released. The lack of NVIDIA card options in laptops has kept me from upgrading my current MacBook Pro. The lack of Intel chips that work well with non-Apple software will likely do the same. I'll keep the MacPro 5,1 ticking and wait to see what the 7,1 brings...

 

[cmaier]

So it begins...
If it will have x86 integration within the same chip (is that even possible?) then this is good news. If not, not so good. Virtual machines are not good for graphics intention applications and emulators are emulators. Let's see how it's gonna turn out though. This may merely be a story to gauge the reaction. And we know that Apple is way ahead of anyone else on the market with ARM chips. So maybe it's not a bad thing after all

X86 integration is of course physically possible, but it won’t happen unless Intel or a licensed fab (are there any left now that IBM ditched its fabs?) fabs the chip. AMD would also have to license x86-64. And the chip would be huge, consume a lot of power, and be a bad idea.

Intel’s 64-bit Itanium (that we destroyed with Opteron) had an x86 sitting in a corner. Bad idea.

 

[yanksrock100]

If it runs well and keeps Linux and Windows compatibility, I am all for it. It feels like the Intel professor cycle has been a bottle neck for Macbook releases in the past several years.

 

[maflynn]

I don't think it would be a massive challenge to convince Adobe and Microsoft to re-write their desktop apps for the Mac. Not that I think that moving away from Intel would be all that great of an idea.

I'm not so sure. They'll need to see if there's a profit to do so.

For instance, would Adobe just kill off Lightroom classic, and force everyone to start using the newer cloud based one?

I remember the last time we transitioned over from PPC to Intel. It was a painful and slow process.

 

[macsrcool1234]

didnt they learn their lesson the first time?

 

[citysnaps]

Not surprising at all.

Johny Srouji has been spending the additional R&D dollars to that end, which has been in progress for 6-7 years.

 

[EdT]

I intentionally waited to buy my first Apple computer until after they switched to a Intel. The Power PC chip may have been ok/good/great but it didn’t have a lot of 3rd party support. And if compiling programs for Wintel and then for Apple means some developers decide it isn’t worth it then the software choices for Apple computers get fewer. And gaming is already a second or third priority for developers. Apple doesn’t need to do anything to talk game designers out of NOT making games for Apple, but this might do that, if true.