iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On 'Hey Siri'

[Falhófnir]

Hey Siri has worked since the A8, I don’t think it has an A10 just for this feature - there’s something more to this.

I guess they're thinking ahead in terms of economy of scale, they won't want to still be producing A8s or A9s just for a single line of computers in 2-3 years, and if they just leave the A10 in there they don't have to worry about swapping it with all the implicit extra work every time they refresh the other internals. It is interesting it's a whole A10 though, I believe the M10 is what drives hey Siri, or is that just what listens out for the command with the actual chip firing up once it's confirmed you're giving it instructions?

 

[tkermit]

really? a computer can do that?

why waste cycles gaming when it could be doing arithmetic?

Apple's devices make better gaming machines than calculators these days...

 

[flat five]

really? a computer can do that?

why waste cycles gaming when it could be doing arithmetic?

huh? you don’t need a computer or a calculator to do that example.

the point isn’t that a computer can add.

it’s about how a human and computer are communicating.

 

[chucker23n1]

It is interesting it's a whole A10 though, I believe the M10 is what drives hey Siri, or is that just what listens out for the command with the actual chip firing up once it's confirmed you're giving it instructions?

Yes. The M* chips are low-power ones. In this case, it keeps the microphone running to listen for "Hey Siri"; everything after that doesn't happen on it.

 

[asdavis10]

This is going to help blur the lines between what you can do on iOS and macOS. And once this gets put into all Macs, Siri will be used a lot more. I'm hopeful that this will bring sandboxed iOS apps to the Mac or maybe iOS widgets/notifications. Handoff was just the start....

 

[scrapesleon]

How does Siri made itself to the headlines

 

[Swazaloo]

That's cool. Unfortunately I've relegated Siri to little more than setting a timer countdown when I make my coffee in the morning. It's the only Siri request that doesn't make me want to shove my iPhone in the garbage disposal out of frustration.

I use Siri mainly for timers, reminders, and scheduling calendar events. It's much easier and faster than doing it manually.

 

[bmot]

Time for Intel to start pissing their pants.

 

[JohnApples]

this:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...version-of-macos.2047329/page-6#post-24613063

?

if so, your memory is a bit hazy

Ah I remember that! But relax, it wasn’t that post I was referring to

 

[Shalev Lazarof]

there has to be more than that.. maybe a touch id smart keyboard on the way that will be managed by the chip

 

[sir1963nz]

That's cool. Unfortunately I've relegated Siri to little more than setting a timer countdown when I make my coffee in the morning. It's the only Siri request that doesn't make me want to shove my iPhone in the garbage disposal out of frustration.

And yet we have a blind staff member who uses it all of the time, along with the dictation feature.

 

[triptolemus]

A separate processor that has access to your microphone even when your computer is off isnt creepy in the slightest.

"off"

 

[Fzang]

“>> Hey Siri, reduce the low pass filter on EQ 2, increase the BPM by 5 and mute track 4”

“...
...
...
...Calling Sam”

Yep. Can totally see this in a pro environment.

 

[thekeyring]

I hope they kept some more secrets and it has FaceID too.

Wouldn’t Face ID require an A11 Bionic?

 

[Labeno]

bring on the Mac Mini update

Tim says to the public, “we deeply care about the Mac”
Tim says to employees, “stop working on the mini, cause there not enough profit”
I miss Steve Jobs

 

[Marx55]

All-in-one (AIO) computers like iMac are a huge aggression to planet Earth. Computers may last for seven years or less, whereas displays may last for more than 20 years.

 

[Glockworkorange]

A-series will do lot more than than just 'Hey Siri'. We just to know what...

To run iOS simultaneously for development purposes?

 

[RuffDraft]

In USD, the MacPro equivalent is about $6k right now, I think your $7,500 is in the ballpark.

Fingers crossed. I wasn't so sure how much they'll slap on the CPU for a 10-core... figured the RAM would be really expensive, and the video card upgrade less so... do you think we'll see the specs prices before they're released, or do you think they'll just post it up live with no notification at all? It's annoying me, as I would like to be the first one in the queue, as I'm tired of editing on my current machine.

 

[citysnaps]

It really freaks me out to have Siri always listening to my conversations. Even if the machine is turnef off...

Simply turn off that option. Easy.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Wouldn’t Face ID require an A11 Bionic?

I think it would, as the bionics is where the machine learning happens.

 

[BruceEBonus]

Hey Siri! Get Me A Life!

 

[chucker23n1]

Tim says to the public, “we deeply care about the Mac”
Tim says to employees, “stop working on the mini, cause there not enough profit”

This is literally a thread about Apple adding a feature to a Mac that wasn't even announced.

I miss Steve Jobs

Here's Steve Jobs: "If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it's worth - and get busy on the next great thing."

He'd probably be even more aggressive about replacing the Mac with iOS.

 

[sjager]

This is exactly what's going to happen, since the majority of Apple customers are likely charging their iPhones directly to the USB ports of their Macs. So all the Apple devices are close to each other, and a single "Hey Siri" request will prompt them all to respond.

Lol current macs dont have usb ports to plug
Your phone into. You need a dongle for that.

 

[Solomani]

Lol current macs dont have usb ports to plug
Your phone into. You need a dongle for that.

iMacs and other desktop Macs. You have no clue what you're talking about.

 

[Falhófnir]

It really freaks me out to have Siri always listening to my conversations. Even if the machine is turnef off...

Unplug it, ‘hardware off switch’