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"Over the years, Apple's product releases have been stymied by Intel chip delays, and with its own chips, Apple will not be tied to Intel chip release cycles."


Memories of PowerPC anyone?
Completely different this time. Today Apple designs its own processor. On top of that, it has established itself as one of the best, if not the best, SoC designer in the world. Plus, Apple's user base is one billion strong. During the PowerPC days, Apple was just a blip on most people's radar.
 
The design is going to be interesting. I don't think they will necessarily use the same chips as in the iPad Pros.

Will there be Rosetta-like software?

That said, an A14X would be fast enough for a lot of usage, even with Rosetta-like translation.
Hey, I am not to much into tech. Could you explain what Rosetta-like translation is?

Thanks!
 
ARM will be fantastic on desktops and workstations, just like every other RISC architecture before it.

If you are willing to provide a desktop-style cooling solution (i.e. heatsink and fan) there's absolutely no reason ARM can't own x86-64.
You already know this, but prepare for the incoming sh!tstorm from the ABC (AMD Boosters Club) telling you that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
 
It basically will be an iPad running iPad type apps. Or maybe some of that catalyst garbage. But it won’t be a Mac.
There's no reason why desktop apps can't be recompiled for ARM. Just like how Mac developers transitioned their software from PPC to x86 back in 2005.
 
The problem is always for people who need to buy something now, but don't want it to be obsolete in two years. Apple is finally coming out with laptops with decent keyboards again. But now it looks risky to buy one, because if they change the architecture next year then it won't be long before new apps won't run on a machine that is only a couple of years old. Sigh.
 
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Ta-ta, Intel.

Although many of us would like to instantly celebrate on a rumor ... this is NOT going to be good for Apple, users or Apple's current partner relationships for a while.

1 ... laptop sales could significantly drop affecting revenues and profits to fuel R&D for the long term of macs!
2 ... stagnation of the best chips from Intel until first product launch and full lineup transition ... anyone recall Power to Intel ... that took 18mths! the existing chips of G4 and G5's lagged in performance vs the competition ... new software was VERY scarce and exisitng software updates were very late to be released.
3 ... performance with existing software could lead to no significant improvement save for minimal battery life longevity when used.

Don't buy the first released product!!

The design is going to be interesting. I don't think they will necessarily use the same chips as in the iPad Pros.

Will there be Rosetta-like software?

That said, an A14X would be fast enough for a lot of usage, even with Rosetta-like translation.

it'll most likely have to be this way for any first or third party software from Logic to Adobe Premier to have singificantly updated to support the new cpu's beyond the OS.

Remember that although ARM chips are loosely based on RISC cpu design ... it's exactly that: loosely based!

Power to Intel took 18mths!
 
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And in with a single choice of image (by MacRumors), expectations of a laptop ARM-based Mac are seeded.

It could be a desktop first.

I'm not saying that's likely, but with great click-count comes great responsibility.
 
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Would prefer them to be doing something with AMD rather than going all out with ARM products. You would imagine that with AMD they would have a lot of clout to get the best from them and use that to their advantage. Support the underdog, which Apple is.
AMD STILL doesn’t have a complete product portfolio for all of Apple’s needs and simply shackles them to another company controlling their (Apple’s) destiny. Apple wants to own the whole stack and they may finally be at that point. I cannot blame them after Intel’s Broadwell-Ice Lake dramas, debacles and broken promises.
 
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You already know this, but prepare for the incoming sh!tstorm from the ABC (AMD Boosters Club) telling you that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

I just wonder where these people were when I was at AMD designing opteron? Could've used the cheerleading :) (At Exponential we had the apple-fan cheerleading. It was nice).
 
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It basically will be an iPad running iPad type apps. Or maybe some of that catalyst garbage. But it won’t be a Mac.
It will be a student machine, for me as a business student, I only have excel, word and powerpoint installed and as long as excel can handle all complicated datasets, I don't need more. If in addition the price is considerably lower, I think it will be a great competition to chromebooks, even if the price is still much higher.
 
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Bring it. Intel's been resting on their laurels for too long.

I'm dreaming of a day where an Apple notebook's performance isn't hindered by thermals.
 
Unless they have an absolutely killer x86 and x64 interpreter, then the last Intel Macbook might be the last Macbook I buy.

There is just soooooooo much great software available for x86/x64 that is designed for traditional desktops and laptops that a switch away from x86/x64 would be giving up. Don't get me wrong, ARM is great but then might as well just have an iPad.

Porting should be a straightforward recompile, which means all the major apps like Adobe's suite would be available on launch and hopefully other, smaller third-party apps would follow not long after.
 
I need Bootcamp. Period. I *don't* want a slow virtual layer between me and the Windows apps I need to run.


Or do you have any specific indication Apple will remove Bootcamp support?
 
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So hopefully, hopefully, we should see the last of the Intel Macs (a redesign) released the first half 2020, right? A man can dream.
 
I'd agree with you, but in the long run the ARM chips will beat x86 in performance, and the customer base for slower, crappier machines will fade. The "I don't care about performance, just compatibility" market is small. Just ask Sun, SGI, etc.
I agree, but I am curious about ARM and scaling. It’s very clear that in the mobile space ARM is absolutely crushing Intel, but in the server space, which is also really sensitive to performance per watt, I am not seeing a ton of ARM data centers and server farms yet.

I have yet to see even a proof of concept workstation class ARM CPU that can beat a Xeon on actual power, and I am not sure why. Does ARM struggle to scale up as well at high power/heat?

I don’t think it makes sense for Apple to switch the “Pro” line until ARM clearly wins in performance and I don’t know for a fact that will happen. It’s clearly going to happen in the low to mid power space (laptops, even iMacs), it’s arguably already happened, but I don’t know about ARM killing Xeon anytime soon. (I hope it does!)
 

Or do you have any specific indication Apple will remove Bootcamp support?

I understand what you are saying, but the vast vast vast majority of vendors do not provide Windows ARM versions of their binaries.
Most people running legacy, specialty, or gaming apps require Windows x86.
 
I agree, but I am curious about ARM and scaling. It’s very clear that in the mobile space ARM is absolutely crushing Intel, but in the server space, which is also really sensitive to performance per watt, I am not seeing a ton of ARM data centers and server farms yet.

I have yet to see even a proof of concept workstation class ARM CPU that can beat a Xeon on actual power, and I am not sure why. Does ARM struggle to scale up as well at high power/heat?

I don’t think it makes sense for Apple to switch the “Pro” line until ARM clearly wins in performance and I don’t know for a fact that will happen. It’s clearly going to happen in the low to mid power space (laptops, even iMacs), it’s arguably already happened, but I don’t know about ARM killing Xeon anytime soon. (I hope it does!)

There is nothing inherent in the ARM architecture that means it can't beat Intel at any scale. The only thing that's prevented it is market forces so far.
 
So the 68xxx-based Mac and the PowerPC-based Macs weren’t proper desktops or laptops?

A ChromeBook is dependent on a constant connection to the internet and web apps. This is in no way equivalent to what Apple is doing, if they are moving to ARM-based CPUs. You are conflating the hardware with the software or confusing them, either out of ignorance or you’re just being disingenuous.

If a “proper” desktop/laptop is only one that contains an Intel or AMD x86-based CPU then your worldview is extremely narrow.

My view is that a proper desktop/laptop must be able to run any software that is compatible with it and there must be a good choice of comptable software available for it.

Thus, an 68xxx and PowerPC Macs, if measured relative to the time period when they were available, were proper desktops and laptops.

ChromeBooks were not dependent on a constant connection to the internet and web apps. It's possible to release standalone apps for ChromeOS. And more recently Google made it possible to run Android apps on them. But other than first-party apps, nobody really bothered making software for them. The lack of compatible software is why they aren't proper laptops/desktops.
 
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