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Reading this makes it very clear why Apple would be moving towards using its own chips in laptops.
by 33degrees 8y ago
Reading this makes it very clear why Apple would be moving towards using its own chips in laptops.
- baxtr 8y agoI think it was a very smart move of them to hedge for exactly this situation by introducing the A series chips (and to this end building the capabilities in-house). Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and we’ll probably never know a 100% if that was the core reason to do that, but if it was the case, it was brilliant.
- MBCook 8y agoI’m not sure that was the plan so much as their ruthless search for power efficiency and integration on the phone. But wow does it look like it will pay off.
- robdachshund 8y agoThe A series is just custom ARM. It's really nothing groundbreaking. They created ARM chips to power phones and tablets. The possibility of moving full computers to ARM was just a bonus, not some genius plan.
- baxtr 8y agoLike iOS is just custom NetBSD?
- toasterlovin 8y ago"Just". Apple's mobile CPUs are several years ahead of all the competition in terms of single core performance.
- macintux 8y agoEvery successful Apple innovation goes through the same phases. 1. Well that's stupid. Why would they do that? Nobody needs this. Within a few months... 2. Huh. This is actually really sweet. Nobody else has this technology. And then a few years pass... 3. It's really nothing groundbreaking.
- baxtr 8y agoExcept for the things Steve presented... they started at 2.
- tonyedgecombe 8y agoIt will be nice not to pay the Intel tax.
- Analemma_ 8y agoThis is Tim Cook's Apple we're talking about, where margins are king. The cost savings from switching away from Intel, if and when that happens, will not be passed on to the consumer.
- MBCook 8y agoLargely agree (dropping prices some would help with sales). But I think Tony’s point was it would be nice for Apple to not have to pay the tax. It would help their bottom line.
- Redoubts 8y agoWas there ever an Apple where this was not the case? They’ve been making $5000 computers for decades.
- perl4ever 8y agoThe LC II was a big deal as a cheap color Mac when it was introduced at $1700. Of course, inflation. Today that's $3000.
- imtringued 8y agoThe Windows ARM laptops are hardly cheaper than their intel counterparts but they have worse specs and inadequate software compatiblity.
- MBCook 8y agoBesides everything else going on, they left 68k because it was falling behind and couldn’t compete or speed up enough. They left the G3/G4 line when once again they were stuck and Intel was running away. So they went to Intel. They’re now on the same treadmill as everyone else. Can’t do better, can’t be totally stuck. But Intel isn’t progressing very fast, and they don’t seem to be focusing on the things Apple wants like ultra-low power. But Apple’s chip division is kicking ass. The 10.5” iPad Pro is a monster, and could easily power a MacBook faster than an Intel chip. The real question is what to do on the MBP and iMac Pro. Apple has never been keen on AMD for some reason, not sure if they have a chance on the high end. My impression is they don’t compete on low end/low power but I don’t know how accurate that is.
- robdachshund 8y agoPretty sure an ARM tablet chip is not going to beat Intel, even on the low end. Otherwise we would have moved on already. Also, apple does like AMD and uses their gpus because they have bad blood with nvidia. Apple primarily makes laptops and AMD has not been competitive until they developed Ryzen.
- godzillabrennus 8y agohttps://9to5mac.com/2017/09/22/iphone-8-geekbench-test-scores/ https://9to5mac.com/2017/09/22/iphone-8-geekbench-test-score... The iPhone 8 CPU is competitive with a Core i5
- melling 8y agoi’d rather have Apple turn the iPad into something that can replace a laptop for most people. If they don’t do it, expect Microsoft to perfect a future version of the Surface.
- robdachshund 8y agoI mean, you just described the surface. Apple has been making god awful decisions for the past 5 years or so. MS is beating apple at their own game. The iPad pro is a great example of how out of touch apple is.
- vxNsr 8y ago>>>.The iPad pro keyboard cover is a great example of how out of touch apple is. FTFY. The first time a colleague requested an iPad pro with a keyboard and got it, I was blown away by how much origami apple expects you to do to properly use it.
- freehunter 8y agoI haven't used the keyboard cover but just the basic Smart Cover, I constantly feel like I must be using it wrong. A lot of times, I am using it wrong unknowingly and after a minute or two the whole thing collapses. Not to mention it's impossible to use the Smart Cover in portrait mode so holding recipes while I'm cooking means propping it up against the toaster.
- scentoni 8y agoI've been using an origami cover for my iPad 12.9" and am reasonably satisfied with its different configurations, including portrait. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072JZ1K55/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072JZ1K55/
- vxNsr 8y agothat link shows what one might call intuitive origami, apple's "smart cover" falls in a category all its own. a good 60% of time you fold it incorrectly when opening or closing it and it can take up to a minute of finagling before you figure out how to fold it so it stays shut/open.
- lyime 8y agoIf Apple does in fact move towards their own AX CPUS for PCs then might start with a hybrid approach before completely eliminating their dependency on the x86 instruction set.
- nfriedly 8y agoI think the touchbar MBPs include an ARM CPU, so in a sense they already started the hybrid approach.
- scarface74 8y agoI don't think Apple cares enough about a line of products that make us less than 10% of their CPU line to go through the engineering effort to create ARM based laptops. I think it's more likely that Apple will make iOS more flexible on the iPad and make it a true laptop alternative.
- cpeterso 8y agoOr Apple could decide that the resources spent tending x86 hardware and dev tools for just 10% of their products would be better spent on one architecture (ARM) across all products. Switching Macs from x86 to ARM would be a one-time investment compared to the ongoing costs of maintaining separate x86 and ARM product lines.
- scarface74 8y agoHow is it a "one time investment"? They still would have to create processors specifically for the high end where thermal limits aren't as big of a concern that are used in their desktops.
- svantana 8y agoNot necessarily, they could run them at a higher clock and perhaps put two or more of them on the motherboard for the high end units. Keep in mind that the iphone 8 is already on par with their fastest 13-inch macbook pro.
- scarface74 8y agoHow would that compare to the top end Intel chips that Apple is using in the iMac Pro and the forthcoming Mac Pro?
- redial 8y agoThe watch is less than 10% and the HomePod is less than 10% and they seem to manage just fine custom designing chips for them. And at some point the outlier in your example is going to be the Mac, and I don't think Apple would care enough about it to go through the engineering effort of creating x86 laptops when all their expertise is in ARM.
- ChuckMcM 8y agoI was thinking something similar. It might also explain the slow progress on the Pro and MB Pro as they wait for Apple CPU silicon to be reborn. Time will tell.