Apple Silicon Not ARM!

[Randy B. Singer]

It turns out that Apple's new "Apple Silicon" processors for the Macintosh can't properly be referred to as "ARM processors".

https://www.imore.com/mac-moving-apple-silicon-not-arm

 

[ferrarr]

Great article, definitely worth the read. Thanks.

 

[Slydude]

That might be the first thing I've seen that talks about advantages other than the potential speed increases and better thermal handling.

I'm more interested though in what possibilities the modularity of these SoCs opens up. In theory, if I understand correctly, that could lead to some really creative/specialized designs but go too far down that path and you end up with a wildly fractured product line at the very least.

 

[lclev]

This will be an interesting ride. I plan to watch closely and see. If the Apple Silicons work out to be as awesome as Apple is claiming and the SoC's really prove to open up app potential, then I will be looking hard at second generation laptops.

Lisa

 

[chscag]

If the Apple Silicons work out to be as awesome as Apple is claiming and the SoC's really prove to open up app potential, then I will be looking hard at second generation laptops.

Same here. According to the Apple rumor mill, we should see the first generation of an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro and iMac maybe late this year or early next year.

I still need to run at least one Windows program which I now run with CrossOver but that's not going to work with the new architecture. I guess I can always invest in an inexpensive Windows box. Yuck!

 

[lclev]

I just took my 2011 15" MBP that is running High Sierra and loaded Windows 10 into a Bootcamp setup.

I had been using it to run Adobe CS6 but with adding HD capacity at church we now do not need the 2011 to capture video so I had retired her. I checked out what I could get if I sold her and it was something like $150. That was not worth it to me.

Previously I had put in an SSD and a new battery plus she has an I7 and 16gb of memory so she runs great. And now I have a W10 laptop that will probably last several more years.

Lisa

 

[BigD]

It turns out that Apple's new "Apple Silicon" processors for the Macintosh can't properly be referred to as "ARM processors".

https://www.imore.com/mac-moving-apple-silicon-not-arm

Thank you for sharing that article and I'm nearly a believer now. It is a necessary move to push forward more exciting feature driven CPU development and will hopefully shake up the competition. Shame about backwards compatibility and compatibility issues with discrete graphics cards but this seems less about the Mac per say and more about rising above the constraints Apple feel are holding back their general 'vision'. I am interested just as long as they have more exciting things planned for the platform than battery life increases and thinner products with less thermal design needed, as that wouldn't be using the opportunity in exciting new ways.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

...It is a necessary move to push forward more exciting feature driven CPU development ...

If nothing else, it's about "headroom." Apple's own CPU's have room to grown. Intel processors are stuck at 11nm, Apple Silicon is already at 7, and reportedly 5 and 3 are very close on the horizon. Plus, the first Apple CPU's are already reported to have 12 cores, have an entire system on the chip, and to be tiny and very low power. It sounds like Apple is going to jump out and have a huge lead in the CPU field right out of the gate.