Apple Replaces Last Remaining Intel-Made Component in M2 MacBook Air

[SactoGuy18]

You really only need a retimer for the crazy-high 20 Gbit/s transfer rates. I'm guessing the iPhone will switch to a USB Type-C connector, but it is unlikely that transfer rates would exceed 10 Gbit/s. That would avoid the requirement for a retimer and help the device stay within its ultra-low power requirements.

This is why I expect the iPhones that use the USB Type C port to be limited to Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.2 Gen 2 speed (10 gigabit per second data transfer rate). That's still nearly 21 times faster than the current Lightning speed.

 

[v0lume4]

Before the transition, not at all, lots of forum members wanted to give amd a shot instead of moving to in house chips. Not only because of performance but also for compatibility.

After the M1 was introduced, I’m afraid not many people are in your camp. Still it would be nice to have bootcamp. Maybe when the alleged Windows-Qualcomm exclusivity arrangement ends?

That’s mostly where I’m coming from — the compatibility. With ARM, Apple has most likely lost me as a customer. Such nice machines, but I want one machine to rule them all. My current MBP can do it all because it Bootcamp. Like you said, maybe native Bootcamp with Windows ARM? Even that’s a bit of a stretch because Windows ARM is having to use an emulation layer like Rosetta for the x86 apps. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Two years later after the introduction of the M1, AMD’s mobile CPU’s trade blows with the M1 and M2. And they’re definitely more power efficient than Intel’s. Would have been nice to see.

 

[_Spinn_]

Very interesting that Apple has been able to completely remove Intel from the M2 Air. Will be interesting when this happens for all their products.

 

[Manzanito]

That’s mostly where I’m coming from — the compatibility. With ARM, Apple has most likely lost me as a customer. Such nice machines, but I want one machine to rule them all. My current MBP can do it all because it Bootcamp. Like you said, maybe native Bootcamp with Windows ARM? Even that’s a bit of a stretch because Windows ARM is having to use an emulation layer like Rosetta for the x86 apps. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Two years later after the introduction of the M1, AMD’s mobile CPU’s trade blows with the M1 and M2. And they’re definitely more power efficient than Intel’s. Would have been nice to see.

For what is worth, I’m running windows 11 on a mac mini M1 via parallels and ms access runs flawlessly. Way faster than the native wintel machine I have in my office at work.

Of course your mileage may vary, and also there’s the question of running the windows insider version of arm, which is not ideal. Here’s hoping for an official license of windows on arm being released sometime in the near future.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

"Adiós Cucaracha!"

 

[Blowback]

Take note: Pat Gelsinger. Their ain't no going back, Apple's business is forever lost to Intel!

Its ok….Pat and Intel have the public trough now. ‘Welfare’ .

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Nonsense. Businesses don’t work like that, if it makes sense for both companies, they’ll work together in the future.

Only true when one ignores time, but time is quite relevant. Transitioning an entire architecture (PPC to Intel; Intel to M-series) takes years and very substantial resource commitment. That makes the original childish comment "Their [sic] ain't no going back, Apple's business is forever lost to Intel!" largely true for the intermediate term.

Apple no doubt is still working with Intel on other things right now. But the shift from Intel chips to Apple chips was a huge undertaking that will not be reversed in any ~5-year time frame.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Wonder how the tech world will change should Intel go bust. Ain’t gonna happen in short term of course, and Intel isn’t sitting duck either.

With that being said, now Apple everything in the Mac is fully self-designed, lets See how much jump apple can make on M3.

M1/M2 efficiencies are so far superior to Intel/AMD that the real question is what Intel/AMD can or cannot do to bring themselves closer to M-series in efficiency.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Good to know.

When buying USB-C/Thunderbolt peripherals for Macs, it always makes sense to make sure the device is fully compatible with your specific Mac model. However, there are certain model years that are more picky with pre-existing peripherals than others, and I suspect the M2 models could be one of these, because of this chip and driver change.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Wonder how the tech world will change should Intel go bust. Ain’t gonna happen in short term of course, and Intel isn’t sitting duck either.

With that being said, now Apple everything in the Mac is fully self-designed, lets See how much jump apple can make on M3.

IMO Apple made the jump (efficiency) with the M-series architecture. We no longer need to see how much jump apple can make on M3. Small performance increases and ongoing improvement in smoothness of overall system operation are what are needed now.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I disagree - at least from a performance perspective. With the M1 Ultra, Apple introduced a new, super high speed chip interconnect, UltraConnect(sp?), that will allow them to scale performance as desired/needed. As a matter of fact, I think when Apple introduces its Mx based Power Macs, it'll probably have multiple such interconnects.

 

[opeter]

Mind you, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, and the Mx is fantastic. I just don't think you'll see anything close to the huge jump again like we did from Intel to the M1.

You are probably right. The last time we did see something like this was the transition from PowerPC architecture to x86 Macs.