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Intel Restates Support for Apple During Transition to Apple Silicon
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Intel had plenty of time to better the manufacturing process but they either didn't know how or simply became lazy. So it is more like "get out of here, you lazy POS"
ummm, its a multi-core chip - dude, and runs a multi-threaded variant of Unix (has for many years). I'm not sure where you are going with this comment, but it sounds wrong. Sure the A12z runs squarely in the 4-core i5-i7 performance range, but I'm pretty sure the released Apple silicon will be more like an A14x++, maybe have more cores and extra GPU oomph seeing it is not for a mobile application, but for a laptop.
And the thermal issues associated with iPhone/iPad implementations will not be the same on a laptop.
Finally, Apple licenses the ARM IP, and custom designs it on chips, so there is a lot more than 1 company behind this. And you know ARM, the smarts in Snapdragon, Exynos, and many others.
So yah, not as negative as you make it sound.
On the upper end of workstation chips, yah, that might be awhile, but the technology is scalable so we can wait and see
Exactly. Think back to the PPC to Intel transition and devkits. They were based on Pentium 4 chips, if I remember correctly. No Intel Mac ever shipped with a Pentium 4. Only the transition devkit.
At this point I'd say if you don't need it but want it, wait. If you literally need it because your current laptop is failing then buy one now.
It will affect their "image" as it conversely did when Apple announced the transition from PowerPC to Intel. Or when Apple touted the "special collaboration" that resulted in the original MacBook Air CPU. A high profile customer such as Apple going elsewhere might not affect the bottom line so much, but the image of "look, Apple decided to ditch them" might push other manufacturer to consider alternatives more carefully (AMD if they want to stick to x86) or even ARM (like Microsoft might to with Surface, pushing ARM more and more since it suddenly became "the CPU that powers Macs").
What will be interesting, besides the obvious "Windows compatibly issues" which in reality affect only a small percentage of very vocal users, will be the reviews.
I am old enough to remember when reviewers had a hard time comparing Intel PCs to PowerPC Macs because they wouldn't run on the same CPU and therefore wouldn't be perfectly comparable.
Will the first Mac based on ARM be fast? How fast? Which benchmark will reviewers use?
I, for one, don't really care. I'm all for Apple going with their own Silicon especially now that they seem more incline to collaborations (Office and Adobe already working on ARM) compared to some years ago when it was "everyone by himself". Apple Silicon offers a lot of interesting possibilities and, hopefully, push the whole industry forward as they did going full 64bit on their mobile CPUs.
The average consumer does not know nor care to know that this is going on. They just buy a computer that they hope will last them a couple of years. Anyone visiting this site and reading the tech news is already in such a small minority that them holding of purchases won't even register.
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No CPU to benchmark yet. We already know how well the iPad Pro performs and they aren't going to show us how the next chip will do until they have it in a product and can say 10X faster than the 2019 iMac.
All we need is for Microsoft to announce a standalone availability of ARM Windows and its support for Apple silicon.
Microsoft and intel are not the bestest buddies (despite the contrary of wintel platform). With Microsoft embracing ARM and Android, the next couple of years will be an interesting period in computing.
Microsoft and intel are not the bestest buddies (despite the contrary of wintel platform). With Microsoft embracing ARM and Android, the next couple of years will be an interesting period in computing.
Is the industry moving away from x86? Or is Apple just an isolated case?
I haven't heard about Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, Acer and every other PC manufacturer exploring options other than x86.
Those companies may have some models running Qualcomm chips, for instance, but those seem to be experiments at best. None of those sound like an edict to abandon x86.
Agree with everything here! What I'm excited to learn is: where will the extra processing power be going?
99% of consumer applications already run buttery smooth on the latest Intel Macs, and I don't think they'd make this transition solely to give additional performance for pro users. I have to imagine they have something in mind for this additional power that appeals to the average consumer. VR? AR? Something else? I'm excited to find out.
Ah but intel is not the only X86 game in town. Alot of swing to the other X86 manufacturer - AMD whose chips get beter and better lately
Completely agree! That said, if Apple can continue to outpace x86 performance improvements (especially with lower power consumption), other companies are going to start getting more and more interested in running ARM-based machines. I think the next 2-5 years will be do-or-die time for Intel.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
I'm not sure if it was when Apple was transitioning to PowerPC, but I remember an ad from Intel in MacWorld (the print magazine) with a picture of a fork in the road and Intel encouraging Apple to use Intel chips. Apple was kind of small potatoes at the time, although it's always had a lot of mindshare.
Yes, but if Apple manages to create ARM with significant increase in performance compared to Intel, this will open the eyes of other manufacturers and they'll start embracing the idea of ARM in desktop/laptops.
You'll notice that both examples involve the use of Metal and a lot of graphic use and not computational use. It just shows how well Metal is optimized to offload from the CPU.
Let's see if Wolfram and other computational software provides some feedback.
Thats what I’m going to do, I’m worried it might take more than a year though...
This is an Apple iPad marketing line that they desperately want to be true.
That said, computers are still very much an essential item for most people in advanced economies. Every office worker in world still needs a computer, and most people I know who aren't office workers still own a PC for heavy lifting (writing long e-mails, etc.)
outside the Threadripper Lineup, AMD are not better Chips. just better Value.
on the other hand Series 4000 is just around the Corner, then AMD will be better at everything.
there are no signs that Intel has an answer for Zen 3 , yet?.
