Yeah, and Jobs lied when he said "we still have many more PowerPC products to come" - He lied.. he killed PPC too early. Snow Leopard could have been the final OS for PPC high end G4 to G5. By that time, the G3 was dead. Just my opinion.. But, PPC went away and so did he sadly, in 2011.
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Apple's Path to Arm-Based Macs Could Start With a New 12-Inch MacBook
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Yeah, and Jobs lied when he said "we still have many more PowerPC products to come" - He lied.. he killed PPC too early. Snow Leopard could have been the final OS for PPC high end G4 to G5. By that time, the G3 was dead. Just my opinion.. But, PPC went away and so did he sadly, in 2011.
I think this transition is going to go much slower than the last one. Mainly because, with the last one, computers hadn’t been updated in years. The Macs are still getting new Intel processors, it’s just that they’re not as advanced as Apple wants them to be.
I use one Windows app on my 12” MacBook. Quicken for Windows is still better than the Mac version. But it works using Crossover (WINE), so no need for Bootcamp or Parallels.
Are you crazy?! It will have zero ports. Wireless everything. Ports are ancient technology, it's time to retire them all.
Not as an actual product - but it would make sense to produce a limited number of registered-developers-only lashups to help bootstrap the availability of compatible apps between WWDC and when the "real" product comes out.
That's why there may be a not-available-to-the-general-public developers' system at WWDC. Or, in this day and age, it might be possible to do it all with software emulation and code reviewing tools on an x86 Mac. ARM apps might run slowly on a software-emulated ARM but it's enough to test them. The actual compiling can be done on an x86, just as for iOS apps at the moment. Anyway, it's not going to be about writing unique code that only works on ARM - it's about replacing any specific x86 features with calls to the proper Apple OS frameworks (Metal etc.) and leaving the optimisation to the compiler. It's 2020 and there shouldn't be any place for CPU-specific features in application code.
I don't think it's that big an issue: AMD boards with Thunderbolt do exist and a lot of the scarcity is probably down to low demand for Thunderbolt in the Windows world. They can license the "Thunderbolt" name from Intel if they want, or just badge it as USB4.
First, the biggest differences between using a Mac and an iPad or iPhone are already the operating system and user interface (mice/trackpads/keyboards vs touch-screen). Those were Apple's design choices when they designed iOS and nothing to do with ARM vs x86. Apple could have chosen an x86 when they made the iPhone and the only thing users would have noticed was it was twice as heavy and the battery life sucked. The design decisions would have been the same. iOS already runs on x86 by the way - that's how XCode lets you test iPhone software on a Mac - but using it without a touchscreen is a drag.
Potentially, there's no reason that a user - or even a developer (beyond the small fraction of development work that needs direct reference to the hardware) should notice the difference between MacOS on ARM and MacOS on x86 - just as you couldn't tell the difference between 68k and PPC or PPC and Intel other than by comparing speed. The difference between iOS and MacOS, though is pretty stark...
Second: the power of iPhones and iPads is severely limited by battery life and heat dissipation. Macs have space for bigger heatsinks, fans and bigger batteries so - potentially - ARM processors in Macs will run faster than in tablets. Pro models will be able to offer things like discreet GPUs and Thunderbolt (or USB4).
However - it is slightly odd that Apple have also been working on iPadOS and the iPad Pro to remove some of the limitations mentioned above, adding support for keyboards/mice/trackpads, improving iPad multitasking, adding a sort of Finder in the form of "Files" etc. meaning that the iPad and lower-end MacBooks are already in contention. There's a slim possibility that the new "Macs" could actually be "iPad Laptops" running iPadOS - but that would throw away what is already the key difference between iPad and Mac and ensure that products that could be received as "better iPads" got bad reviews as "knobbled Macs"....
Well yes, but just like you're saying why assume someone who wants a small screen only wants a basic processor, why also make assumptions that if you don't need a fast processor, thus you also don't need a lot of RAM and storage. Just give the full range of processor/RAM/SSD options for each of 12/14/16". And also give a thin, light, less ports Air option, and thicker, heavier, more ports Pro option for all of the array of options. How hard can it be.
E.g. for my own use I currently would want 16", basic slow processor, basic slow GPU, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD. I simply don't need or use fast processing, so don't want to pay for them, but do love a big screen and don't need it to be so thin and light, and do have a complex array of tasks that require a lot of RAM (but not fast processing), and do have a lot of complex software and data that needs a lot of storage space and want room to grow it. Basically, I'd get a 16" Air if it existed (and if they fixed the thermals), and if it had the RAM/SSD options I need.
I feel bad for all the people who just spend thousands on high end Intel based Macs.
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Agreed. Loads of people don't care about what chip(s) are inside their device, so long as it performs smoothly enough for the apps that they use, it doesn't matter if its an i3 or an i9 or a Ryzen or a Hygon Dhyana chip.
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To truly make the switch to ARM would need to be done across the entire Mac line in a way that was done in the past when Apple switched from 68K to PPC, or when they switched from PPC to Intel. Those other models that you mentioned that stuck around did so to hit a price point. Nothing more. Once Apple finished the transition to Intel processors, there wasn't any PPC-based Macs hanging around. That's how you do an architecture transition.
No need to feel too bad for us. I just got an Ice Lake MacBook Pro for $1649. It will still work well for years even if Apple moves to ARM next year. And I can’t wait to put down another grand or so on a revived 12” MacBook. That was and is my favorite computer of all time.
People forget how expensive Mac laptops were back in the 90's. I can remember paying over $3k for my Mac PowerBook.
Remember in the ‘80s the MacCharlie? You slid the original 128k Mac in and it added an intel processor and 5.25” floppy.
This would explain why they got rid of the MacBook 12, to reintroduce it with as an ARM laptop. I'm anticipating all day battery life in the thinnest MacBook yet. I do wonder how locked down the device will be. Will Apple continue to allow app downloads and installs outside of its App Store? If not they could market this as the worlds safest laptop.
I was planning to get a custom MacBook Pro 16 for $4,118.99 because my old computer died. I’d don’t know what to do now. I really need a new Mac and I don’t want to spend so much money on a product that will become obsolete in a year or so. I’m also taking programming classes, will I still be able to write programs in Java and Python on Intel based macbook? What about ARM?
Me too. I have never loved any computer as much as I loved that 12" MacBook.
Hell - some of the MacBooks over the last few years haven't even had a keyboard! (that works)
Many pro applications have in their source code, assembly routines to streamline processes, this assembly code is made for Intel chps, what will happen to all these pro apps? How long will it take for the big firms of these apps to adapt their code for ARM chips?
I have not really followed this closely. While ARM based chips seem to score well on benchmarks, I would like to know if their real-world performance can compete in the long run. Intel is still on 10nm, AMD 7nm and I am quite sure those already are more powerful. Is it a question of uncertainty of Intel’s roadmap?
I emailed Tim Cook two years ago requesting an ARM MB 12. It was an ultimate ultraportable and ARM chip will be perfect match for it's fanless design given that Intel was not able to make suitable new processor.
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Is that an un-edited MacBook color shown in the image? Looks gorgeous there, like a pale khaki whiteish gold. Thought the MacBooks were more ’goldy’ gold.
I have to decide to say with Apple Mac or not. If they transition away from Intel I will have to abandon the Mac. I depend on VMware Fusion to run Linux and (sometimes) Windows.
But for the vast majority of uses, they would never even notice the change all they need is for their web browser to work. Things have changed a LOT sence the last time Apple changed CPU architecture. Today the vast majority use their computer as a web-terminal and would never notice the change.
In fact, most users would be much better off with a Chromebook.
But for the vast majority of uses, they would never even notice the change all they need is for their web browser to work. Things have changed a LOT sence the last time Apple changed CPU architecture. Today the vast majority use their computer as a web-terminal and would never notice the change.
In fact, most users would be much better off with a Chromebook.
I predict that the MacOS and iOS will be replaced by an OS common to both when all the hardware is ARM based (i.e. one OS for everything)..