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Chat => Entertainment & Technology => Topic started by: neXus on June 23, 2020, 04:41:39 AM

Title: Apple Going All ARM
Post by: neXus on June 23, 2020, 04:41:39 AM
Article: https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/22/21295475/apple-mac-processors-arm-silicon-chips-wwdc-2020#:~:text=Apple%20is%20officially%20moving%20to,in%20Macs%20in%20the%20future. (https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/22/21295475/apple-mac-processors-arm-silicon-chips-wwdc-2020#:~:text=Apple%20is%20officially%20moving%20to,in%20Macs%20in%20the%20future.)


As many predicted Apple will have their first mainstream hardware running ARM under their own silicone by the end of the year with a transition phase before eventually ditching Intel.
In a recent thread on Intel I mentioned that this will happen so that will be a big wad of money gone from Intel. Apparently the final nail in the coffin of the relationship came when Intel did the public apology late last year in regards to production issues as well as their progress on shrinking their dye's.


Apple have clearly shown that their chipsets are very powerful for the sizes they create in the mobile devices and the new Ipad Pro's are apparently very quick. Clearly there is work / work done to ensure support for hardware like AMD graphics card they use etc but it is a big change.

The one thing I question on it is the sales they have for PC users. Yes, PC users.
A lot of engineers, developers and/or their companies all buy Macbook Pro's mainly and just run Windows on them as they are the best machines for that. That has been the case for a long time and while the market has changed so I think the Razor laptops are good there for example as well as others... I wonder if the sales here in this regard for Macbook Pro's are still strong.


This will clearly finish off gaming outside the Apple Store apps. Steam already has issues under the latest OS as apps have to be 64bit but pretty much all those games will be gone or have to run under the ARM versions.


Big move. I think hardware wise they will likely kill intel on perfomance for power and heat but what that means software wise is a major one.
Title: Re: Apple Going All ARM
Post by: Clock'd 0Ne on June 23, 2020, 07:49:52 AM
MacBook hardware has been flaky for the past few years with overheating problems, crap keyboards, etc. I think this is a double-edged sword with Apple thinking they are faultless and can do no wrong.

No end-user gives a sh*t what chip is inside really if it performs properly, no one is gaming on them. People don't use MacBooks to be cutting edge, they use them with the expectation - like the iPhones, which I am now a convert to - that they will just work, but that is more frequently now not the case. Enterprise specifically look for this reliability and end-user ease of use as well as the general security you get, this is why the Macs are more popular now.

I work on a 2018 i7 MacBook Pro provided by my employer which I am forced to use as they have a Mac only policy from the IT overlords. 16GB ram, 560X graphics, etc so not under-specced in any sense. Its glitchy, the OS spinning balls me all the time, window management is flaky (the thing MS Windows nails, natch) and I have to kill apps more often than I ever do on Windows machine I leave running 24x7. Not a shining beacon of an experience if you ask me, I honestly would rather have my i7 Dell Latitude back.

Can't help but think running alternate OS on macos is heading towards a dead end and single binary for x86 and arm sounds nuts and will either be massive or x86 will get shafted on performance. They totally glossed over VM performance, Docker on mac is slow as a snail already.


Intel really are not doing well lately, though :lol:
Title: Re: Apple Going All ARM
Post by: neXus on June 24, 2020, 05:09:47 AM
MacBook hardware has been flaky for the past few years with overheating problems, crap keyboards, etc. I think this is a double-edged sword with Apple thinking they are faultless and can do no wrong.

- They reverted the keyboards. Mine is a new macbook pro - awesome keyboard.
- They are not the only ones having issue with the new Intel chip and thermals. Most manfactures have had to go a little thicker in new models to compensate - They all not been happy with that.

[/size]
[/size]No end-user gives a sh*t what chip is inside really if it performs properly, no one is gaming on them. People don't use MacBooks to be cutting edge, they use them with the expectation - like the iPhones, which I am now a convert to - that they will just work, but that is more frequently now not the case. Enterprise specifically look for this reliability and end-user ease of use as well as the general security you get, this is why the Macs are more popular now.

Most people do not care about the chip in their laptop - true. But have to disagree on who buy Macbook Pro's - They care. They want cutting edge. For a Macbook they do care, but not as much but if you are buying a mac with the premium price - you care.

Can't help but think running alternate OS on macos is heading towards a dead end and single binary for x86 and arm sounds nuts and will either be massive or x86 will get shafted on performance. They totally glossed over VM performance, Docker on mac is slow as a snail already.

Apple have some cover layers and doing some voodoo things even more than when they had the migration to x86. For a while you had RISC apps running in X86 with just running a mac tool! In saying that, I think they will loose all the windows people. Windows will likely be able to run their ARM version but it does feel a long way off. Maybe things will change over time.

Intel really are not doing well lately, though :lol:



Are lot of articles and youtube videos now asking - is X86 dead. I do not think so. I think AMD are really driving it forward again with Intel lacking. But it does beg the question still though. The per tick in ARM with the other modern structures and elements in an ARM chip if Apple do a more beefy laptop and imac version that just smashes the numbers....
Someone from Unreal said the build for IOS they made is super refined and runs really well and a more fleshed out solution working with modern graphics cards could be better then X86