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

Regime2008 said:
Intel processors >> Apple processors, by a long shot.
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Quite possibly not. Apple has the best mobile CPU, they seem to have really good chip designers. However, if they ditch x86 compatibility (even more than ditching 32-bit support), I'm out. It was bearable with the PPC -> x86 transition since I didn't have much invested then, different story now.

--Eric
 
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I hope they are better at updating if they have their own chips they need to support.
 
gpat said:
You mean, like they declined the occasion for developing custom CPU designs for Xbox One and PS4?
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That was AFTER my time :) The difference there is volumes, and the fact that those are just SoC variations. They didn’t have to design new cores, which is undoubtedly what Apple would demand.
 
Doesn’t a custom chip mean a custom motherboard too?

If they are going to invest that much in the Mac then this is proof that Apple intends to fully support the Mac into the future.

maflynn said:
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
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I assume you mean run natively on. I run it in VMs but like the idea that I can run Windows or Linux natively if I so choose.
 
maflynn said:
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
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They might find a solution. Remember there is a new version of Windows for ARM. That one emulates a 32-bit x86 chip, though. Perhaps Apple can license technology from AMD and/or Intel to maintain compatibility but wants more control over the feature set.
 
zorinlynx said:
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.
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OSX Leopard (and later builds of Tiger) ran on both PowerPC and Intel. Whilst an ARM chip has little danger of unseating the server class Intel CPUs in Mac and iMac Pro, I suspect the MacBook (such as the one I'm typing this on) would happily run on a decent ARM CPU and MacOS could run both Intel & ARM code. Not sure what Intel-on-ARM Rosetta type emulation code might exist to facilitate the transition period though. Performance/high end = Intel, pow efficiency/low end = ARM?

Microsoft themselves are gearing up for Windows on ARM, so Office on ARM would surely follow on (or are they going for the Metro/Modern version of Office on ARM only there?) ?

All wild speculation on my part. With my iPad Pro now being my primary machine, I'm not as worried as I might once have been about Apple moving on from Intel. I'm aware that my usage scenario isn't anyone else, leave alone everyone elses.
 
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cmaier said:
That was AFTER my time :) The difference there is volumes, and the fact that those are just SoC variations. They didn’t have to design new cores, which is undoubtedly what Apple would demand.
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It would still serve Apple well in their final goal, increasing profit margins. Also better integrated graphics. They've been sleeping in AMD's bed for some time now, and it would keep compatibility. The time also feels right with Ryzen.
 
I type this on my 4th Intel based Mac and I honestly couldn't be happier IF: this does lead to better performance for the Mac. Intel drug their feet for a long time performance wise because AMD wasn't there to push them on the PC side. Intel's IPC gains have been stagnant from generation to generation for years. Apple wasn't going to update Macs (especially Mac Pros) without a serious performance boost and the boosts Intel has delivered over the years have been in power efficiency and clock boosts. Those improvements have been marginal at best. So, If Apple can give us chips that truly outperform Intel, I'm all for it. BTW, I've only run Windows on my Macs twice and I've always worked in mixed environment spaces. Once I figure out a Mac workaround for my situation (mostly print servers), I wipe the windows partition.
 
Awesome news, it's about time. I look forward to Apple having more control over releases and the feature set. It probably makes sense to go back to the drawing board for macOS, potentially built on iOS, but for the desktop environment. As someone who strictly uses iOS, I think this is great news.
 
maflynn said:
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?
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Not clear from the rumor (heh) but it's possible the mythical chip that probably won't exist could run x86 and x64 instructions directly, no?
 
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This is going to be a source of contention in my own family.

Pro: My wife works for Apple so stock goes up
Con: My bro-in-law works for Intel so this could impact his job
 
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