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I wonder what an alternate timeline would look like where Apple went for AMD semi-custom x86 chips instead of Arm. The Mac Pro would have 64 cores, MacBooks wou

I wonder what an alternate timeline would look like where Apple went for AMD semi-custom x86 chips instead of Arm. The Mac Pro would have 64 cores, MacBooks would have great APUs, and Apple would be able to segment their products at their own discretion–not Intel's. I also wonder if any chiplet designs will find their way into Apple's Arm-based lineup.

larkost 6y ago
At the time Intel was pushing on performance-per-watt, AMD was not. So AOM was significantly further away from getting the iPhone contract than Intel was. And Apple is already extensively using multiple small chips put together to form their A13 APUs, so they are not far from the full "chiplet" already (they just are not using silicon wafers as the interface yet). Right now I think that the main barrier to the Mac Pro already being on AMD CPUs is the lack of Thunderbolt. Already there is 1 Thunderbolt AMD motherboard, and with Thunderbolt becoming part of USB 4, that barrier will fall next year. So it will be an interesting race: is Apple pushing for AMD Mac Pros, or ARM ones?