Former Apple executive and Be Inc. founder Jean-Louis Gassée explores the possibility of Apple's move to Arm-based Macs in the near future.
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The speculation comes amidst of increasing rumors that Apple will be launching Arm-based Macs as early as 2021.
Gassée explains he was previously skeptical about the ability for Arm-based processors to achieve performance parity with current Intel offerings, but now says he was "wrong". Gassée points to a startup called Ampere Computing that offers high-power Arm-based processors that compete head-to-head with high-end Intel chips:
Ampere top of the line chips consume less power, about 210 watts, than a competing Xeon CPU needing as much as 400 wats, for about the same amount of computing power — hence investors' interest in a device that could progressively supplant Intel products in tens of millions of servers around the world. Ampere shows us that the ARM architecture can yield the class of chips a Mac Pro would need.
Apple, of course, designs its own custom Arm processors, but it seems at least one other company is pushing the limits of performance with the Arm architecture. Apple's custom processors have quickly ramped up to performance that is comparable to its recent Mac laptops powered by Intel processors.
Serious rumors about Apple replacing Intel chips with Arm chips in its Macs started in 2018 with a detailed report from Bloomberg. The most recent rumor has placed the transition at stating in early 2021.
Top Rated Comments
Still got around $700 for my Macbook Pro (Retina) after 6 years... which was $2300 when i bought it. So it ended up not being that expensive after all.Will Apple still insult their consumers with ridiculous prices?
I've been through the 68K to PPC, and the PPC to Intel transitions, and frankly I don't really relish having to go through another, even if Apple has another emulator in the wings that can make it relatively painless process.Honestly, I’d rather have Intel compatibility at this point. I don’t really need more performance out of my system. In fact, I’m happy with pretty much everything my iMac does. I don’t sit down and think “man, I wish my processor was 2x as powerful.” I sit down and enjoy my speedy iMac and I’m happy.
The only reason I’d upgrade is to be able to update to the latest macOS, as I get obsoleted.
My Mac is already as fast as I need it to be, and bringing the iOS app experience closer to desktop isn't necessarily a good thing either, so I'm having difficulty envisioning a compelling reason to switch.
Now, get off my lawn.
That article is about AMD, not ARMSaw this article on Engadget this weekend
https://www.engadget.com/2020/03/08/amd-cpu-take-a-way-data-leak-security-flaw/
The Intel processors have always worked great for Apple so I don't know why they would want to switch to ARM
Either way, I hope they stick to Intel as well
The only reason I’d upgrade is to be able to update to the latest macOS, as I get obsoleted.