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MR: "With its own chips, Apple would not be forced to wait on new Intel chips before being able to release updated Macs, and the company could integrate new features on a faster schedule."

That's a baseless speculation. Intel releases dozens of chips every years. Apple releases at most 2 CPUs (which are not that different). ANd desktop chips are way more difficult to design. So, if anything, one may expect fewer Mac updates because of a new chip not more.
 
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Buh bye. Don’t let the door hit you in the hindquarters on the way out

I guess I should start making plans for my exit from the Apple ecosystem.

While I've been able to tolerate the closed nature of the iPhone and iPad, since I treat them mostly as appliances, I would not be able to tolerate the same thing on the Mac.

Using Intel CPUs maintains compatibility with the rest of the industry. I can run virtual machines on my Mac running Linux, Windows, or pretty much any x86-based OS. This is crucial to my usage of the platform.

It's unfortunate if this is true and I really hope it isn't.
 
c) Nvidia see so little promise they drop support completely, I will have no choice but to switch. This is coming from someone who ran MiniCAD in the PPC days.

Nvidia GPUs have had lousy performance on MacOS for years because Nvidia won't release the source code to Apple so they can write proper drivers.

AMD GPUs absolutely SMOKE Nvidia on the MacOS platform. This has been my personal experience for a long time.

If you need CUDA, build yourself a Linux-based GPU compute server and use that. Let's not saddle Macs with Nvidia's craptacular MacOS drivers.
 
Well, I will be leaving the Apple eco system for good if Apple does this. I realize that MR users are not super technical but I would imagine that most people who are excited by this don't really understand how applications work nor do they understand the impact this will have.

You can say goodbye to Boot Camp, VMWare Fusion and Parallels along with the vast amounts of software they allowed Mac users access too. There is a huge chasm between virtualization and emulation and this will force Mac users back to emulation which will be incredible slow.

Intel CPUs allowed developers to easily port their software over or use one of the many wrappers that allowed Mac users access to games and applications they would not normally have access too. With those tools gone, I'm sure the software market will shrink.

Finally, if you think Apple's CPUs can come close to Intel CPUs when running complex multi-threaded/multi-core applications you are going to very disappointed. Intel has been making semiconductors for a LONG time and the breadth of knowledge of their engineers is second to none.

It will be a huge win for Apple but a terrible direction for users. Though, I understand Apple's perspective. The Mac is the oddball device in their product line. Apple makes the most money on their iOS line and converting the Mac to an iOS device makes sense for them. What a shame...

-P
 
On a different note, is anybody having difficulty loading Mac rumors on Duck Duck Go browser, it just will not giddy up when I try to open the main page. Not having this problem with any other websites.
 
Both will probably run a lot slower than today.

If Apple do make the Mac a closed platform, VMWare / Parallels probably won't make the AppStore requirements.
I doubt they would phase out intel right away. They would probably still sell more intel hardware for a few more years and then support it software wise for quite a while afterwards.
 
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Don't think Intel is happy with this news, and this is an understatement.

Does one really believe that Apple was just recently considering this move, and now Bloomberg is reporting this prediction to the world. I am sure Intel also saw this eventual move on the horizon, hence their have been expanding to the mobile space for awhile.

Apple was part of the group developing PPC chip (IBM, Apple and Motorola). With that experience it expanded its interests by acquiring and developing its own chips. Initially in collaboration then taking more of an integral role. Incorporate the chip into your mobile devices, being its cash cow its a risky move. This just leads credence that Apple wanted to refine its processor power to power consumption ratio. Create a separate co-processor (M1, M2), embed that co-processor into the main chip. Venture into the desktop co-processor line (T1), create a lightweight MacBook/iBook line (ChromeBook), eventually move it to the middle and then onto the top end notebook and desktop models.

There is no mistake why there is an iMac and iMac Pro line. The Pro line will receive x64 processors, while the consumer “i” line will receive its custom ARM processors. The transition has been happening for awhile with features and design of macOS and iOS, now with hybrid apps, next a physical device on the entry models and finally Apple has control of its hardware, software, marketplace and distribution. Synergy, as future versions of Windows may run on ARM processors, I do not foresee the naysayers concerns presently, as an issue in 2-5 yrs time.
 
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I don’t think apple would make the switch without some kind of emulation software similar to Rosetta during the PPC transition days, at least for the first few years.
I guess I should start making plans for my exit from the Apple ecosystem.

While I've been able to tolerate the closed nature of the iPhone and iPad, since I treat them mostly as appliances, I would not be able to tolerate the same thing on the Mac.

Using Intel CPUs maintains compatibility with the rest of the industry. I can run virtual machines on my Mac running Linux, Windows, or pretty much any x86-based OS. This is crucial to my usage of the platform.

It's unfortunate if this is true and I really hope it isn't.
 
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Windows already runs on ARM, they could easily still have boot camp.

Yep. However, it doesn't run x64 apps (at least not right now - that could change if ARM PCs become popular), and I'm not sure x86 performance is great either.
 
You mean I have to wait three years for my MBP with 32 gig RAM? Not gonna happen.
And Marzipan? Too cute. Computers becoming more like stupid smart phones.
 
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So will Apple use this new processor to prevent apps from running that weren't bought on their App store?
 
If Apple transitions to ARM, I expect that will be the end for Mac OS X. The replacement may be called "macOS," but I suspect that it would be something much closer to iOS; with optimizations for KB+Mouse. This would also open the door for a clamshell iPad with mouse support. A single continuous product line from watch to desktop; Apple's answer to Chrome.
 
This is my guess. I am expecting them to start from scratch and build something from the ground up.

Exactly.

We saw what happened when HP basically put an off-the-shelf ARM Snapdragon 835 chip into a laptop. It isn't very fast. Who knew that laptop workloads are different than smartphone workloads. :p

But imagine an ARM chip that was designed specifically for a desktop. Apple could impress us here.
 
If Apple transitions to ARM, I expect that will be the end for Mac OS X. The replacement may be called "macOS," but I suspect that it would be something much closer to iOS; with optimizations for KB+Mouse. This would also open the door for a clamshell iPad with mouse support. A single continuous product line from watch to desktop; Apple's answer to Chrome.

I don't see Apple staying with ARM.
 
Yes I do, but then apple locks it down, i.e., there is no terminal.

Were not the initial jailbreaks on iOS rely on creating a terminal session to the device to gain root access to run jailbreak? The ability to terminal may have been removed for current security on the phone but there is no technical reason because of what chip is being used to stop this.
 
If that happens, I will certainly ditch the platform. I have no incentive to deal with some obscure platform nobody supports. Ever since macs moved to Intel they were an amazing compromise somewhere between Linux and Windows, offering great developer support and the advantages of a Unix system. With the support gone, I'm probably better off switching to Linux.
 
Apple is slowly moving toward the now abandoned Ubuntu goal of docking the phone and using it as a desktop PC. You folks in the USA have no idea how many people in the world cannot afford both a computer and a smart phone. The demand for this if offered economically would probably be a billion units.

I used to say that whoever successfully developed this would become the next Apple. Maybe it will be apple, because the rest of the tech world is too stupid to figure this out. Apple realizes it has reached peak phone revenue, and is looking for new directions.

Apple now has the capability of adding a GPU to their systems using a doc. There is already a monitor and USB connector on these docks. They only need a slot for docking the phone. You can bet your ass apple has one of these running in a lab.

Apple's handheld chips have had desktop computing power for the last three iterations. The iPhone X has more computing power than the first Cray computer.

Think about it, plug your $300 (or less) phone into a dock with a $100 monitor and a $10 keyboard, connect to the cloud and you have everything wherever you go. If you need graphics, you just buy/rent a more expensive dock. Schools would buy these docks and phones by the millions.

Reminds me a bit of the patents from a few year back showing a tablet being plugged into a monitor frame. If the idea of a dumb monitor with GPU on board was to be driven by an iOS device such as a phone it would be interesting but the automatic assumption here would be AMD (rather than Nvidia) to create it. Are AMD capable of doing that? Or will Apple be doing something in house?
 
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