A wholesale transition for Apple to ARM-based chips is on the cards and here's why

[Redaktion]

Ming-Chi Kuo got tongues wagging this week with an investor note tipping the first ARM-based Mac will arrive in early 2021. While most people expect Apple to dip their toes in the water with a MacBook Air-like model, a wholesale transition from Intel x86 to to ARM in quick time is feasible.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/A-wholesale-transition-for-Apple-to-ARM-based-chips-is-on-the-cards-and-here-s-why.454974.0.html

[Tony]

I wonder if they go about having a mixed architecture - replace the T2 chip with a full performance chip that will run the operating system and apps optimized for it and at the same time they could keep Intel chips as a "co-processor" in the Pro lineup, for performance and for running existing apps without emulation.

[S.Yu]

IIRC ARM based server chips have lower far lower per-core-IPC than x86 and has never caught on despite numerous attempts by different parties, but if anybody could pull off full fledged workstation grade ARM, it's Apple.

[Sanjiv Sathiah]

IIRC ARM based server chips have lower far lower per-core-IPC than x86 and has never caught on despite numerous attempts by different parties, but if anybody could pull off full fledged workstation grade ARM, it's Apple.

Amazon, which as you know runs a massive cloud operation in AWS, is developing a new 32-core chip that can be interconnected with other similar chips through fabric interconnection. If Amazon sees the potential of ARM servers and is continuing to move down that path, you can bet that Apple will be able to scale up its chip designs accordingly, as you point out.

[JohnMac]

Given how capable iPads are becoming is an ARM MacBook really necessary? Especially if the rumours of a touchpad keyboard are true.

[JuanDoe]

Only Apple coule pull this off because Apple users will believe any crap.
Most of them will jump off a building in airplane mode.

[_MT_]

Amazon, which as you know runs a massive cloud operation in AWS, is developing a new 32-core chip that can be interconnected with other similar chips through fabric interconnection. If Amazon sees the potential of ARM servers and is continuing to move down that path, you can bet that Apple will be able to scale up its chip designs accordingly, as you point out.

Problem was never potential but lack of application. A lot of the software starts its life on an ordinary desktop. And those desktops are x86. So, whey you decide to move it to a server, virtual or physical, you're going to choose x86. This is also why people often choose Windows for a server. ARM is so tiny in the server space it doesn't even register.

Because Apple actually focuses on end-user hardware, this isn't a problem for them. The question is whether the workloads that people run on systems like Mac Pro will work well on ARM. We have a huge single core history. In the server space, it's trivial to utilize multiple cores as you serve many requests. Each worker can be single threaded and completely oblivious to the fact that there are hundreds of cores. It doesn't work like this on a PC. Where there is a will, there is a way. But it's not something I would like to bet on. I actually always liked RISC, going back to when we learned computer architecture in the middle school.

[_MT_]

Given how capable iPads are becoming is an ARM MacBook really necessary? Especially if the rumours of a touchpad keyboard are true.

I for one want a really good keyboard and a stable base that I can use on a variety of surfaces. It's possible to deliver this in a detachable format, but I'm not holding my breath that Apple will deliver. Personally, I don't mind the clamshell form factor. I don't even need it to be convertible. It would be nice for sketching, but keyboard is where it's at for me. I don't mind carrying a tablet as well. Actually, it's quite handy for displaying documentation and such. I can have several tablets lying around the desk. The equivalent of having several books open at the same time. Having to switch between files is one disadvantage of a single device (unless you have a big screen). Like referencing different pages in the same book versus several different books. It's nice when you can see it at once. Anyone remembers the StarTrek where they always had stacks of pads? It was almost like they had a pad for each file. Like with a book.