The MBA hardly needs to get thinner. As for ARM, there's nothing about ARM that would prevent it from having the same performance as an x86. It would require a big deep pipeline and a bunch of extra circuitry, and power use would skyrocket, but you could do it. It would probably use less power than an x86 too, since it's a lot simpler design without tons of legacy cruft wasting power and die area.
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Intel Launches New Broadwell Core M Processors, Likely Destined for Apple's Ultra-Slim Notebook
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Yes the configurable TDP is the big new feature of this refresh. I think the standard 4.5W is targeted at tablets which are not only fanless, but largely enclosed. In the case of a laptop, even without a fan, it can still have vents allowing more efficient convective cooling. This might make a 6W fabless laptop viable and is hopefully something Apple is considering.
Mac's life cycle is ~7 years. Do you really think you can buy 800 MHz or even 1.2 GHz "Mac" in 2015 and use this calculator until 2020 with all software updates? Or now we must buy them every year or two? Who the hell needs this one-off computer?
No, as apple have said multiple times converging OS X and iOS is a non goal. And having a device dual boot just because you want a hybrid device for the sake of it seems very un-Apple.
Oh.my. God. Finally!!! Can't wait to upgrade!
Even though Skylake (tock) will also probably launch in 2015 ?
Introducing the 2015 MacBook Air. It has a processor speed from a decade ago, the same amount of RAM as a decade ago, the same amount of storage as a decade ago and finally to round things up it has the same price as a decade ago.
And introducing the "new" Apple logo, rainbow-colored.
We might as well buy old PowerBooks at this point.
iPhone 6 only has 1GB RAM, so at least they're consistent.
800 MHz clock on these? I trust that they'll be plenty fast and OK for new machines...Intel know its stuff...but am I the only one having a bit of throwback seeing numbers like that?
You need to read the clock speed and the turbo speed. Most people don't use much power for more than a second, and the computer will run at the much higher "turbo" speed for a short time. It's not the processor to use for video editing.
I've been thinking about that too, but I came to the conclusion that I've been waiting for this product for so long that I'll buy it anyway, and then maybe upgrade sooner than usual with Cannonlake.
It's too bad Broadwell was delayed, but I'm currently using a 2010 Core 2 Duo...
He probably means that TDP used to stand for the highest power consumption. Now it stands for highest sustained power consumption, with the CPU able to push further until it heats up too much.
As long as you understand what's meant, it's not misleading. What the chart in the article means, for example, is that if you provide cooling for 4.5 W, the 5Y71 guarantees a sustained clock speed of 1.2 GHz.
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Pretty sure it has been shown that x86 takes a small part of (an admittedly huge) die. For the most part modern x86 CPU's are RISC internally with a small section dedicated to converting CISC to RISC.
cTDP (Configurable TDP) and sTDP (Scenario TDP) are the new hotness when refering to chip power consumption.
Even some Haswell chips have cTDP, the i5-4300U has a 15w sTDP, but with turbo boost is allowed to use up to 25w of power for a short period of time.
I don't see these chips running os X, more iOS.
I think they would be too long in turbo mode to get a good experience with Yosemite.
I think they would be too long in turbo mode to get a good experience with Yosemite.
Yeah, maybe for you. Raw CPU doesn't matter for a lot of people in the market for a laptop, we want more battery life and thinner/lighter.
so they go the microsoft route instead and offer two devices that are the same size and look very similar but one runs mac os and one run ios?
my prediction is that its a macbook air with removable keyboard which will turn it in a tablet with a special UI layer as springboard replacement on mac os; even if they say they dont wanna converge; they did work towards a unified experience (eg full screen apps)
Would have thought the next gen macbook airs would use the 'Broadwell U' processors rather than these?
The discrete graphics in the highest spec 15" rMBP is, unfortunately, disappointing at the price level that you pay for.
ARM architecture is far superior Intel on a like for like basis, which is why Intel's mobile CPUs have largely flopped.
ARM have a 64-bit server design, which AMD are betting on, and if a big enough customer wanted 'laptop class' or 'desktop class' CPUs ARM and it's partners would likely do a great job. The rumours of Apple 'going ARM' I think have some validity as they'd love to reap significant power savings from the architecture.
ARM is a design house - it doesn't make chips in a vacuum and put on them on a shelf hoping someone will buy them.