5 ms·
Wish apple was as enthusiastic about processor specs for the mac lineup as they are for the iphone lineup.
by dman 10y ago
Wish apple was as enthusiastic about processor specs for the mac lineup as they are for the iphone lineup.
- tptacek 10y agoThey have a lot more control over the mobile processors. The laptop processors have to maintain compatibility with all the software that people run on their laptops; effectively, that means they're stuck with other people's processors.
- AsyncAwait 10y agoThe problem is, they're not even keeping up with the other people's processors.
- pcwalton 10y agoThat's not really true. x86 emulation is a solved problem at this point, and Apple has shown willingness to use emulation to bridge an ISA transition in the past. I think the real reason is some combination of (a) ARM isn't competitive (or only recently became competitive) at the high power/high performance point that Intel CPUs excel at; (b) the Mac line generates so much less revenue and operates at so much smaller of a scale than iOS devices that it isn't worth developing CPUs in-house for them, not to mention the fixed costs associated with undergoing a transition.
- tptacek 10y agoYou think it's straightforward for Apple to emulate x86 on their own chips with enough performance to rival Intel's own chips? That's a bold claim!
- pcwalton 10y agoNo, I'm claiming that they could use emulation well enough to survive a rapid transition to native ARM apps.
- WallWextra 10y agoYou need a faster processor to hide the emulation overhead. Good luck beating Intel by a big enough margin.
- pcwalton 10y agoI'm only claiming that they could survive a transition to native ARM apps, not that emulation would be a long term solution.
- WallWextra 10y agoI guess Apple could 'survive' releasing a new generation of laptops which run slower than the previous ones to facilitate a user-invisible component sourcing decision, but it seems like a bad move.
- pcwalton 10y agoIt'd be temporary and only for third-party apps, not Apple-supplied ones. But yes, I do agree that it's not worth it for them--this is part of what I mean by high fixed costs of switching.
- maxsilver 10y agoEspecially since there's not much effort from Apple needed to keep the Mac lineup modernized. Intel does much of the work for them. Apple could just drop new Intel chips into their existing MacBooks as they get released, and easily be getting improved speed + efficiency each year. The new Kaby Lake chips even do hardware 4K video and VP9. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/intel-unveils-kaby-lake-its-first-post-tick-tock-cpu-architecture/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/intel-unveils-kaby-la... sigh
- criddell 10y agoYou might get what you are wishing for. I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple dump Intel chips.
- atourgates 10y agoI would - only because of the investment required. Over the past few years, Apple's been very involved in its iOS ecosystem, while investing comparatively little in its Mac lineup. Dumping Intel chips would take a ton of effort and resources, in an area where Apple isn't interested in making an effort or investing resources.
- criddell 10y agoYou're right, it would take a huge investment in effort and resources. You will know they are doing this when you see the Mac lineup sit unchanged for a long time...
- jrochkind1 10y agoOthers are thinking they see clues... http://macdailynews.com/2016/09/30/macos-sierra-code-suggests-apple-could-dump-intel-processors-in-macs-for-apple-a-series-chips/ http://macdailynews.com/2016/09/30/macos-sierra-code-suggest...