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I don't think they even used the term "ARM" at any point. They're calling it "Apple's silicon," and they acknowledged it's the same as what iPhone and iPad use.
by moduspol 6y ago
I don't think they even used the term "ARM" at any point. They're calling it "Apple's silicon," and they acknowledged it's the same as what iPhone and iPad use. But I thought it was interesting how they seemed to avoid the term. It's probably just a matter of avoiding getting too "techy" and marketing.
- ogre_codes 6y agoI don't know that Apple ever really talks the fact that their chips are based on ARM during this kind of event.
- hanche 6y agoIt's funny how that works. This story may be only tangentially related, but here goes: A few years back, I was visiting the local ARM offices in Trondheim, Norway. I happened to mention something about the iPhones using their processors, and my host immediately said, “I am not allowed to comment on that”. But everybody knows it, I said. In response, he said yes, but he still can't talk about it. Possibly, he broke the rule by admitting even that much.
- spideymans 6y agoEveryone and their dog has known that Apple uses Gorilla glass on their devices since the original iPhone. I believe it was only until recently (this year) that Apple executives acknowledged the relationship in any capacity (one of their SVP visited the Gorilla Glass factory with press)
- 0x0 6y agoHow strange. I mean, Xcode shows which architectures you build for. They even mention "armv6", "armv7", "arm64" etc in their own tech notes. https://developer.apple.com/support/required-device-capabilities/ https://developer.apple.com/support/required-device-capabili...
- ogre_codes 6y agoI don't think it's strange at all. Consider for a moment, what competitive advantage does Apple have advertising that the iPhone uses an ARM CPU? The people who need to know the architecture can find out easily enough, the people who are just buying the latest iPhone know it has an Apple CPU.
- monocasa 6y agoFAANG NDAs can be crazy. I've been in a position where, yes, everyone knew something, and the other company openly talked about it, but because of the way the NDA was written there'd be heavy financial penalties for us to talk about what everyone seemed to know anyway.
- hit8run 6y agoApple also uses EmberJS but ember is not allowed to advertise it on their site.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- snazz 6y agoThe first guy in the "lab" scene (Johny maybe?) mentioned plenty of other "techy" terms. I think that they want to distance themselves from other ARM manufacturers and put the focus on Apple's advantages over Qualcomm and others.
- moduspol 6y agoTrue. I think you're right.
- fomine3 6y agoBut this is WWDC...
- ghostpepper 6y agoSure, the D stands for Developers, but how many of those developers care about things like CPU microarchitecture? Aren't they mostly web/app developers?
- jason0597 6y ago...Why is this being downvoted?
- ghostpepper 6y agoMaybe people thought I was making some kind of value judgement about web developers not being "real developers" because they're not kernel hackers. That's just my guess though - I doubt any of the downvoters will see or reply to this.
- saagarjha 6y agoYou might see it in the State of the Union, that's more aimed at developers.
- bgorman 6y agoARM doesn't really matter very much to Apple - Apple designs the micro-architecture and many (most?) of the other SOC components themselves. With the technology moves Apple has made, they could probably switch to RISC-V at this point, however being able to use ARM devtools probably adds more value to Apple than any cost savings moving Apple would gain from moving away from ARM
- 0x0 6y agoBut the instruction set (ISA) absolutely matters for the entire software ecosystem!
- kps 6y agoIt doesn't. Ninety-nine point five nines of software is architecture-independent, and if you're an App Store sharecropper you'll never notice. It's the users with paid-for x86 binaries who will be screwed, like they were when Apple removed the ability to run PowerPC binaries in OS X 10.7. [Dis]claimer: I have no long or short in AAPL. Anyone posting or voting in this thread should similarly disclose.
- fomine3 6y agoRunning Linux on VM is essential for devs so it's difficult to switch to arch that Linux doesn't support well.
- kps 6y agoThey mentioned running Linux in a VM at least twice in the keynote. I'm not sure why, unless it's an acknowledgement that OS X is no longer a usable development environment. Linux, like any OS written in the past 30 years, is substantially architecture-independent. My day job involves coding for several devices with Linux kernels on ARM (32bit) and Aarch64 and I have no idea which is which, nor any need to. [Dis]claimer: I have no long or short in AAPL. Anyone posting or voting in this thread should similarly disclose.
- enos_feedler 6y agoMaybe that lives them open to switch the internal instruction set to risc-v down the road without a naming issue.
- GeorgeTirebiter 6y agoI also thought this might be a 'dry run' for a risc-v strategy across their platforms, as risc-v was designed to be expanded for specific applications. Most of the IP is no doubt in the peripherals, which are largely CPU-instruction-set independent. We'll see. I say 5 years, tops, to first Apple risc-v device.
- monocasa 6y agoRISC-V doesn't really get Apple anything. They were a very very early investor in ARM back in the early 90s, and the rumor is that they have a pretty much "do whatever you want" licence to ARM technology.
- empressplay 6y agoIt's because the A stands for Acorn and old rivalries die hard.