8 ms·

I hope it's true but I also hope we don't end up with every company selling its own CPU that works only with their own software. Something like what we have no

I hope it's true but I also hope we don't end up with every company selling its own CPU that works only with their own software. Something like what we have now with x84/amd64 but with more companies on the game.

jdxcode 6y ago
That definitely looks like the direction we're headed. Hard to see exactly what Intel's business would be in such a world.
- trianglem 6y ago
  Get incorporated into one or more vertical chains and become a “fab” or have a massive architectural breakthrough that maintains the status quo.
Slikey 6y ago
In an ideal world that'd mean we become architecture agnostic and solutions should work on any CPU entering the market while ARM has still not achieved majority support on desktop solutions. Sadly I am certain there will be an extremely painful phase in which some software runs a lot better (more than the instruction set would explain) on some hardware and not on others. Driver support is going to be really poor and tech support will be a very secure job for the coming decade.. hah :)
giancarlostoro 6y ago
Well this is how ARM has always been though, you can license an ARM chip and produce your own. That's why you have ARM chips from different companies. The difference with Apple was they are a majority share holder so they probably were able to fully retain rights. Seeing how successful Apple has been with their own chips, I guess Microsoft's taken it as a green light. What's sad is Microsoft's been pushing towards ARM for what feels like forever but it hasn't been up to part with x86. If I can honestly buy a Surface Book with ARM and still get a beefy laptop for a fraction of the cost I will happily buy the most expensive model. I also kind of hope this inspires them to work on Windows Mobile again in the future. They just need it to not lag too far behind Windows 10's core, which I heard was an issue from Windows 7 Mobile to Windows 8 Mobile (there was 0 upgrade path / it was a mess to upgrade).
- jononor 6y ago
  Apple has never been a majority shareholder of ARM? I think the most they had was 20%, and that is many many years ago.
  - zimpenfish 6y ago
    Pretty close - their initial investment seems to have been 30%. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-28-fi-4993-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-28-fi-4993-s... "Apple has invested about $3 million (roughly 1.5 million pounds) for a 30% interest in the company" Also from that link, this amusing sentence: "Some analysts speculated that Apple might be eyeing ARM chips for use in a future notebook-sized computer"
    - klelatti 6y ago
      It was actually 43% https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/06/09/how-arm-has-already-saved-apple---twice https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/06/09/how-arm-has-alrea...
      - zimpenfish 6y ago
        I can't find any contemporary reporting that says it was 43% - from what I can see, the first mention of 43% seems to come from this - https://www.cultofmac.com/97055/this-is-how-arm-saved-apple-from-going-bust-1990s/ https://www.cultofmac.com/97055/this-is-how-arm-saved-apple-... - which is bonkers wrong about the initial investment ($1.5b!). Do you have anything pre-dating this nonsense article which says it was 43%?
        klelatti 6y ago
        page 38 http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2015/04/102739951-05-01-acc.pdf http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/201... Edit: Ah I see Cult of Mac quoted Hauser. Well Hauser was a director of Acorn at the time. Also Robin Saxby talks about Apple and Acorn investing $1.5m and VLSI $250k so with some shares for staff that would be about 43%.
adamnemecek 6y ago
This might end up being a big boost for cross platform development.

jdxcode 6y ago

That definitely looks like the direction we're headed. Hard to see exactly what Intel's business would be in such a world.

trianglem 6y ago
Get incorporated into one or more vertical chains and become a “fab” or have a massive architectural breakthrough that maintains the status quo.

Slikey 6y ago

In an ideal world that'd mean we become architecture agnostic and solutions should work on any CPU entering the market while ARM has still not achieved majority support on desktop solutions. Sadly I am certain there will be an extremely painful phase in which some software runs a lot better (more than the instruction set would explain) on some hardware and not on others. Driver support is going to be really poor and tech support will be a very secure job for the coming decade.. hah :)

giancarlostoro 6y ago

Well this is how ARM has always been though, you can license an ARM chip and produce your own. That's why you have ARM chips from different companies. The difference with Apple was they are a majority share holder so they probably were able to fully retain rights. Seeing how successful Apple has been with their own chips, I guess Microsoft's taken it as a green light. What's sad is Microsoft's been pushing towards ARM for what feels like forever but it hasn't been up to part with x86. If I can honestly buy a Surface Book with ARM and still get a beefy laptop for a fraction of the cost I will happily buy the most expensive model. I also kind of hope this inspires them to work on Windows Mobile again in the future. They just need it to not lag too far behind Windows 10's core, which I heard was an issue from Windows 7 Mobile to Windows 8 Mobile (there was 0 upgrade path / it was a mess to upgrade).

jononor 6y ago
Apple has never been a majority shareholder of ARM? I think the most they had was 20%, and that is many many years ago.
- zimpenfish 6y ago
  Pretty close - their initial investment seems to have been 30%. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-28-fi-4993-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-28-fi-4993-s... "Apple has invested about $3 million (roughly 1.5 million pounds) for a 30% interest in the company" Also from that link, this amusing sentence: "Some analysts speculated that Apple might be eyeing ARM chips for use in a future notebook-sized computer"
  - klelatti 6y ago
    It was actually 43% https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/06/09/how-arm-has-already-saved-apple---twice https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/06/09/how-arm-has-alrea...
    - zimpenfish 6y ago
      I can't find any contemporary reporting that says it was 43% - from what I can see, the first mention of 43% seems to come from this - https://www.cultofmac.com/97055/this-is-how-arm-saved-apple-from-going-bust-1990s/ https://www.cultofmac.com/97055/this-is-how-arm-saved-apple-... - which is bonkers wrong about the initial investment ($1.5b!). Do you have anything pre-dating this nonsense article which says it was 43%?
      - klelatti 6y ago
        page 38 http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2015/04/102739951-05-01-acc.pdf http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/201... Edit: Ah I see Cult of Mac quoted Hauser. Well Hauser was a director of Acorn at the time. Also Robin Saxby talks about Apple and Acorn investing $1.5m and VLSI $250k so with some shares for staff that would be about 43%.

adamnemecek 6y ago

This might end up being a big boost for cross platform development.