Apple plans to replace Intel chips in Macs with its own

[FN-GM]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-02/apple-is-said-to-plan-move-from-intel-to-own-mac-chips-from-2020?utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=business&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business

[XiJ]

They’ve been planning and talking about this for a long time. It makes a lot of sense for Apple. I do wonder how they’ll perform next to the intel chips - worst case it means that the competitors / anti-Apple sheep would start quoting raw spec speeds etc.

 

Funny how we’ve gone full circular though. The glory years of computing with the Amiga saw those having lots of custom chips and Co processors. Then we went to Intel/PowerPC and ‘standard’ components and now we’re hearing back again

[Lonix]

worst case it means that the competitors / anti-Apple sheep would start quoting raw spec speeds etc.

 

Best case it means higher cost plus all the pro Apple lovers will state "it's better" every five minutes.. once the argument has finished after 100 pages of posts.. it will boil down to "preference".

 

Personally I don't really care about clocking etc. I care about value for money, cost effectiveness and fit for purpose. I also hope they don't purposely slow down these new processors like they did with my iPhone.. and denied it for years.

[XiJ]

Don’t really want to get into a ‘debate’ about Apple vs whatever.

 

But I think it could be a good thing. Sure it will give Apple more control - but again thats bit necessarily a bad thing. They’ve invested heavily in designing their chips. As long as they’re aren’t limited in features purely to add battery life.

[localzuk]

I would see the power users leaving if they did this - one of the big draws since they switched to Intel was the ability to Bootcamp machines. Going back to the old days of poorly performing windows in a VM would be a bad step backwards.

[mjk]

I would see the power users leaving if they did this - one of the big draws since they switched to Intel was the ability to Bootcamp machines. Going back to the old days of poorly performing windows in a VM would be a bad step backwards.

 

Agree. but it does depend upon how they do it; they could keep the same x86_64 architecture for linux and windows, as AMD do, but have something extra for osx users

[XiJ]

I would see the power users leaving if they did this - one of the big draws since they switched to Intel was the ability to Bootcamp machines. Going back to the old days of poorly performing windows in a VM would be a bad step backwards.

 

Really? I don’t understand why you’d spend the extra on a Mac just to run Windows really. And not in boot camp

 

I do appreciate running VM’s is nice. But with Windows also slowing working to some arm versions it could be less of an issue.

 

Might make me wait a bit longer to upgrade my MacBook. It’s still as fast as ever despite being 6 years old nearly. Just a bit heavy now - but I like the (relatively) multitude of ports it has.

[Dos_Box]

Interesting. While I can certainly see the benefits in regards to the unifying of their various platforms, I can't help but think that it may hurt them in the performance stakes in the long run.

I have to admit that Mac performance is not the issue it is in the PC world, the problems they had with PowerPC CPU's which finally had them swapping over to Intel originally may rear it's ugly head several years down the line.

There is also the issue of things like Boot Camp. Will removal of the ability to duel boot be something which can unexpectedly bite them?

Of course this may not be an problem, with Microsoft working on ARM based Windows and manufacturers looking to roll out ARM based PC's and laptops in the future.

Perhaps Apple has seen/knows something that the rest of us have yet to take in.

I suspect the hardware world is to get interesting once more!

Edited April 3, 2018 by Dos_Box

[tg12]

I had been more wondering if they would go down the co-processor line like they started to do, having their ARM-based custom processors running a lot of the basic functions for some power saving and leaving the main processor to be ran when needed.

 

Switching completely would be an interesting strategy. Personally I’m not sure about it. Sure, Apple’s processors in iPhones and iPads are great, but I’m not sure that taking Macs in that direction is right. We’ll see though, maybe they have a trick up their sleeve.

[mjk]

perhaps a rumour to lower intel's share price (again) and make them ripe for a takeover !

[DBazeley95]

I find it interesting how Apple is utilizing their own chips in the iMac Pro, the T2 chips are used to enhance security on the Mac It has been described as a chip "which handles secure booting, password encryption and more". If rumors are true, iPad apps may be coming to the Mac this year, maybe including the Apple A series CPU will be used to boost performance of these apps or even make the app run natively rather than emulated. Edited April 3, 2018 by DBazeley95
Font standardisation

[gshaw]

Quick way to get control of their own x64 architecture perhaps go out and buy AMD?

[Dos_Box]

Quick way to get control of their own x64 architecture perhaps go out and buy AMD?

 

I don't think tat will happen. AFAIK, AMD don't make any ARM chips and you'd have to start at day zero to do so.

Far easier and cheaper to licence ARM and produce your own using existing facilities IMO.

[flyinghaggis]

They’ve been planning and talking about this for a long time. It makes a lot of sense for Apple.

 

Yeah, this story keeps on popping up. I guess there's a good chance it'll happen eventually as we seem to be seeing huge performance leaps in mobile phones/tablet processors whereas Intel seem to be struggling to make the generational jumps we used to get back in the day. Feels like only a matter of time until x86 based CPU's are unable to compete and superseded by something else.

 

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders whether this is purely an attempt to short Intel stock though! It's amazing that what's basically a rumour (and one we've seen multiple times before) by one news company could have such a serious impact on Intel's share value! Not to mention all of the recent scare stories around Intel/AMD CPU flaws. It's almost as though someone out there is literally pumping out negative publicity about x86 chip manufacturers

Edited April 3, 2018 by flyinghaggis

[FN-GM]

I bet one of the reasons is to stop the hacking-tosh community. They will be stuck if they can't get the same CPU in a PC system. We know how much Apple hate people doing things outside of their control.

[Dos_Box]

Yeah, this story keeps on popping up. I guess there's a good chance it'll happen eventually as we seem to be seeing huge performance leaps in mobile phones/tablet processors whereas Intel seem to be struggling to make the generational jumps we used to get back in the day. Feels like only a matter of time until x86 based CPU's are unable to compete and superseded by something else.

 

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders whether this is purely an attempt to short Intel stock though! It's amazing that what's basically a rumour (and one we've seen multiple times before) by one news company could have such a serious impact on Intel's share value! Not to mention all of the recent scare stories around Intel/AMD CPU flaws. It's almost as though someone out there is literally pumping out negative publicity about x86 chip manufacturers

 

I have to agree about the x86. The form factor has been kept the same to pile in more and more cores/features, but still requiring the same cooling and motherboard features to back it up.

ARM based chips, however have come on leaps and bounds in the past 10 years. Smaller, cooler running and with an increasing amount of cores and power. Not to mention much lower costs!

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple begin to produce some truly stunning ultra thin/small desktops once they begin to use these chips.

I am quite excited and can't wait to see the 1st gen of mainstream ARM based computers/laptops that hit the market, what effect this will have on Intel and AMD is anyone's guess, but with quantum computing looming on the horizon (which I don't think we'll see in the consumer market for quite some time yet), they may have their R&D focused elsewhere.

I also found this very interesting article from a few years back - https://appleinsider.com/articles/15/01/19/how-intel-lost-the-mobile-chip-business-to-apples-ax-arm-application-processors

This does seem to suggest that Apple are not simply doing this as a spur of the moment thing, but as part of a long term strategy after cutting their teeth on it's early processor designs and are now ready to scale up on their own terms without waiting on a partner company (Intel) to produce new goods. Given the recent security problems with Intel's offerings it is hardly surprising they have done this now too.

[FishCustard]

If they're not x86_64 (and therefore cannot run Windows) I won't be buying one! I have a Macbook so that I can get the best of both worlds. Sure I could hack macOS onto a regular laptop, but I also like the build quality of the Macbooks - that won't be nearly enough to keep me buying them if they're macOS only though.

 

Then again, I doubt Apple would care as people like me aren't their core demographic.

 

I also wholly agree about x86 though - it hasn't really kept up. It's also something of an oddball in terms of architecture - it became popular almost by accident rather than because it was technically superior. If Apple's offering is ARM based, and Windows 10 ARM can run on that - cool, I'm all for it.

Edited April 3, 2018 by FishCustard