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Roxy.music

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 9, 2019
830
87
uk
Apple to Dump Intel in Macs?
How will it affect us Apple uses? What happened when they had the change over from Power Mac ,s to Intel?
another guys videos i enjoy
 

ruslan120

macrumors 65816
Jul 12, 2009
1,417
1,139
There was app incompatibility but for the most part it was a non issue because Apple built PowerPC emulation into Intel Macs.

I imagine they’ll keep Intel on the higher end machines.

There will probably be a substantial improvement in battery life at the very least, tbd in terms of performance improvement. Either that or they’ll just make the devices even thinner and marginally bump battery life :p I do have hope that that won’t be the case though since Apple was convinced to make the Pro iPhones a bit thicker for better battery life.
 

Roxy.music

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 9, 2019
830
87
uk
As the guy in the video said it might be a way for Apple to get a better deal from Intel.
 

theluggage

macrumors 604
Jul 29, 2011
7,475
7,313
Apple to Dump Intel in Macs?

...I wouldn't hold your breath. The video was from last April anyway, and nothing got announced at WWDC (which is a developers conference, and developers will need to start their engines 6 months+ before ARM-based Mac products appear - with the PPC to Intel shift, Apple released a developer-only system at WWDC the year before Intel Macs came out).

There's the red herring of the T2 chip which is ARM-based and most likely will be in all Macs by 2020 (I think its just the iMac to go, now) - but its a SSD controller/security chip that doesn't replace the main CPU. Maybe the T3 or T4 will integrate USB4 controllers replacing the Intel Thunderbolt controller (pure speculation)...

The Mac Pro suggests that Apple are committed to Intel at the top end for a while yet.

We've also had the iPadOS announcement + larger screened iPads suggests that they're working on making the (ARM-based) iPads more credible as laptop replacements/supplements: the obvious first candidate for an ARM-based Mac was the 12" MacBook, but its pretty clear that Apple thinks you should get an iPad Pro instead.

Long term, though, ARM Macs are perfectly feasible. I'd be very, very surprised if Apple haven't had one chugging away behind a securely locked door for years. Now, Intel applications won't run directly on ARM, but, as with the Intel switch, but a code translator like Rosetta would take care of that in the short term. Then there will be a large tranche of Apps, written in Swift, ObjC etc. or other high-level languages using the correct Apple frameworks like Metal, core audio, Accelerator kit etc. that, in theory, need the developer to tick the 'ARM64' box in XCode and hit "Build" (not necessarily trivial - note the 'in theory' - but not an unreasonable demand for an active developer).

Then there will be the awkward squad of 'legacy' code with bits of lovingly handcrafted assembly language, possibly with direct use of Intel-specific processor features... Frankly, its 2019 and there should be much less of that than in 2005 - I'd guess that its going to be the big "Pro" apps that suffer, especially ones with lots of third-party plugins. But then, Apple have just announced an Intel-based Mac Pro, so I doubt that they'll be forcing ARM on pro users anytime soon.

The major loss would be BootCamp and the ability to run x86 virtual machines - undoubtedly a dealbreaker for some, but probably not as widespread as in the past esp. if you try and think what you might be doing in 3+ years when the switch becomes unavoidable.

The way that Apple could really muck up an ARM transition would be to let the Intel Macs get badly out of date while they were working in ARM, so people were desperate to upgrade, then drop them like a stone when the first ARM Macs, with all the inevitable teething troubles, come out, forcing lots of people to be unwilling early adopters. But, don't worry, they've never done anything like that in the past. Well, except with the Mac Pro in 2012. Oh, and the MBP in 2016. And the Mac Pro again. And the Mac Mini. And the MacBook Air.... um...
 

panerista

macrumors G5
Oct 20, 2011
12,679
10,516
Austin, TX
There are certain Intel chips which I don't believe Apple will ever replace with an A series chip. The highest of high end intel Xeon chips will remain in the Mac Pro and I think the iMac Pro will be intel as well.

Low end stuff should go to Arm chips sooner than later.
 

AidenShaw

macrumors P6
Feb 8, 2003
18,667
4,676
The Peninsula
There are certain Intel chips which I don't believe Apple will ever replace with an A series chip. The highest of high end intel Xeon chips will remain in the Mac Pro and I think the iMac Pro will be intel as well.

Low end stuff should go to Arm chips sooner than later.
ARM processor would doom macOS.

Take a tiny marketshare and bifurcate it? Suicide.

Do you want the world to be all iOS? Buy the 2020 Mac Pro Touch.

;) Not sure how to interpret a demi-goddess with a beard. What are your pronouns?
 
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Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
How will it affect us Apple uses? What happened when they had the change over from Power Mac ,s to Intel?

They introduced Rosetta,, That's what happened when we went from PowerPC to Mac in 2006(then they took it away shortly after....)

Apple is all about leading everyone.. giving people hopes to bridge 'that gap'.. Then they shatter our dreams at that final moment.

Intel chips current use hyperV... That's why Virtual machines work, so perhaps their would be some soirt of backward emulation compatibility ? Just like virtual machines if there IS gonna be based on emulation, that would translate to 'not native, so poor performance'

But if it can be native, then good.

ARM processor would doom macOS.

Take a tiny marketshare and bifurcate it? Suicide.

Do you want the world to be all iOS? Buy the 2020 Mac Pro Touch.

;) Not sure how to interpret a demi-goddess with a beard. What are your pronouns?

Only because we were never introduced to that 'switch ' on iOS. Plus you have allot more open source on Mac to spear head all that. Developers can code new apps... Just like they do now.. when we move from 32 to 64 bits... Only perhaps on a bigger scale or somewhat "impossible" scale, which would lead to a few throwing in the towel..

At the end, as it always turns out: make a big enough change, and only the strong survives :)
 
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Pro7913

Cancelled
Sep 28, 2019
345
102
It's been a long time since the rumor suggests that ARM-based MacBook will announce in 2020. At this point, we have to wait until next year. But Apple is def preparing ARM-based Mac with macOS. There are several iOS apps already available on macOS. So it is possible to see ARM-based Mac in the future.

You may wonder why? Because Intel is not improving their CPU. They still using 14nm since 2015 and now, AMD is taking Intel's market share. Simply, they cant compete with AMD and they have to wait till 2021. Will they wait? No...
 

Pro7913

Cancelled
Sep 28, 2019
345
102
MS already make ARM based computers for a long time. Tho they kept failing since software didnt support ARM devices even for OS. This compatibility issue still existed in 2018. Microsoft need to remake their OS in order to support ARM but that's unlikely going to happen since they always care about legacy files and compatibility.

On the other hand, Apple can do it better than MS.
 

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
It's been a long time since the rumor suggests that ARM-based MacBook will announce in 2020. At this point, we have to wait until next year. But Apple is def preparing ARM-based Mac with macOS. There are several iOS apps already available on macOS. So it is possible to see ARM-based Mac in the future.

You may wonder why? Because Intel is not improving their CPU. They still using 14nm since 2015 and now, AMD is taking Intel's market share. Simply, they cant compete with AMD and they have to wait till 2021. Will they wait? No...

Sometimes waiting is the best thing in the world.. and may actually do better in the long run..

Apple however, always likes to be first. Apple will always do better in a snap, than MS.

However, they operate in tanget, since they both are SASS in their own respect anyway.. MS is one up on that, but Apple is slowly changing this as well.
 
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