Apple already licenses ARM designs for it's CPUs in the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV & iPod touch which are currently manufactured by Samsung.
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Apple's Potential Shift from Intel to ARM for Macs Not Implausible, But Faces Hurdles
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Apple already licenses ARM designs for it's CPUs in the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV & iPod touch which are currently manufactured by Samsung.
If Apple could do this they would be doing it now and putting Intel, AMD and others out of business. It is enormously expensive and time consuming to design and manufacture something as complex as a high end processor and currently Apple is barely off the first rung of that ladder in processor design. The reason they use ARM designs for SOC is that most of the hard work is already done for them. Ask AMD how hard it is to compete with Intel, I'm sure they would say the same thing.
Even the fastest arm processors aren't even approaching those horrible pentium 4 levels of performance.
Yes Apple or anyone could build a very fast ARM core and then put 8 cores on a chip and have a very powerful ARM based computer but, a fast ARM core would use a lot of power too. One gains speed by pipelining a lot of operations which means a lot more space is used
One the other hand Intel does make low power x86 ships, look at the Atom.
One the other hand Intel does make low power x86 ships, look at the Atom.
If you are one of those "heavy facebook users" and casual youtube then sure you win.
If you are one of those "heavy facebook users" and casual youtube then sure you win.
If i was to believe every doom and gloom scenario painted in these forums about bigger Apple moves then i'd consider myself a "heavy facebook user".
This isn't about Apple developing its own CPU from the transistors up. ARM technology means that Apple can license the building blocks of the processor individually from ARM and others to put together exactly the chip they want, rather than waiting for Intel to come up with a generic chip that fits the bill. (Plus, they may already 'own' bits of it, they've partnered with ARM in the past).
ARM isn't getting any slower - the A50 64-bit processors are on their way.
In order of most to least likely:
1. Apple are just hedging their bets against the day when Intel produces the next Pentium 4 debacle.
2. They're looking at entry level laptops possibly running iOS or a 'OS X RT', as a hedge against things like the Asus Transformer, Chromebooks or Windows RT machines hitting the big time.
3. They're thinking of hybrid ARM/x86 machine - think about a MacBook pro with an iPad built into the lid, using the ARM to keep up with email and 'personal organiser' stuff and only firing up the x86 for serious work.
Oh boy! ANOTHER Rosetta! FAIL
How long until THAT Rosetta is dumped and your software no longer works again? One year? Two years? Maybe three?
One word: GREED
That's not true - the current ARMv8 chips are capable of about probably about 25% the performance of current Intel chips. Now of course integer performance isn't everything but ARM has the potential to rival x86 processors. If it were pushed towards performance rather than efficiency more then it would become even more of a rival.
Any such switch isn't going to be happening right now. In ten year's time though we might have seen the last of mainstream x86 processors though. I can see desktops and laptops switching to ARM processors coupled with GPUs - an intelligent operating system could potentially split tasks between an ARM based CPU and GPU based arithmetic on the fly giving some crazy fast systems.
Both ARM processors and especially GPU chips are increasing in performance year on year at a far greater rate than x86 processors. Any future thinking computing company needs to keep their options open for potential changes in the computing landscape in years to come.
Would be a mistake to think that because the tablet markets is following your lead that you can do the same in the PC market. If Apple goes down the path of making their Mac products incompatible, Apple will slow their sales dramatically. PC's blow away the market, Macs do not lead yet.
Don't get me wrong, MAC is better product, but PCs are WAY MORE prevalent.
They don't have to. Xcode can target ARM and Intel processors
Most of the major frameworks work across Intel and ARM already. Developers would have an easier time with this transition than PPC >Intel
It doesn't really matter if Intel is close to ARM in 2017 or not. The value here is having and ARM Architectural license. Which means that if you need high memory bandwidth and GPU performance (a la the A6) you can design it in. Intel isn't offering that..they are offering prefabbed generic processors which means you cannot differentiate your product line.
Apple's job isn't to prop up windows.
They key with the ARM chips is going to be scaling them with a CoreLink. So while one Cortex A50 series chip is likely to be only 30-40% the speed of an Intel chip it should be a smaller chip meaning you can place multiple in a computer and scale the chips as needed.
Why would Apple dive into a market where chances are slim that they will do well (i.e., high risk, low chance of being better), and that is capital intensive (billions in R&D). Division of labor, and specialization, works for a reason. No RDF will change that. Especially not with Jobs gone.
LOL.... best comment on here.
Somehow I don't think we'll be seeing any ARM processors matching Xeon speeds anytime soon. Couple that with the fact that you would have to get major software developers to move over to the new architecture... and it's a recipe for sudden death in the pro arena.
My studio is already getting skittish about Apple after their Final Cut Pro X debacle.
wow i can't believe how many people are going berserk with tears over this. Obviously Apple isn't stupid enough to put crappy processors in their machines so grow the hell up and have a little faith in a company that is the best in their league. They are famous and you are a cry baby, that doesn't say much for your crying comments.
You mean the same Jobs that acquired Intrinsity and PaSemi? Jobs set this in motion with acquisitions that lead to exactly what we're seeing here the potential for custom ARM designs.
Most of the Apple Engineers working on these projects have forgotten more than most of us know about these things. The level of ignorance here is breathtaking. Do people wake up and say "let me get snarky on subjects that I don't have the faintest clue about"?
Personally I can't see any real advantage in walking away from intel. It was different with the PPC as it was becoming rather limited at the time. They were great Macs though - one of my main workhorse's is a Dual G5 Tower, still does the job.
I'm of the mindset that Apple would do well releasing the Mac OS for all computers though, which probably makes me something of a minority, if they did this it would allow people to configure their PC's just the way they want. It would most likely see the Mac's market share rise incredibly.
Perhaps there could be a performance advantage with having an Apple chip along with the intel processor?
I'm of the mindset that Apple would do well releasing the Mac OS for all computers though, which probably makes me something of a minority, if they did this it would allow people to configure their PC's just the way they want. It would most likely see the Mac's market share rise incredibly.
Perhaps there could be a performance advantage with having an Apple chip along with the intel processor?