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Looks like Apple may go with ARM processors in 2021

Rod


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Oh gosh, I hope my 2015 MBP can last till then. I was just coming round to accepting the idea of the next generation of Intel chip.


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chscag

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LOL, from Motorola to PPC to Intel to ARM. Anyone who has plans to buy a new Mac this year might want to hang on for a bit longer.... :wink
 

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I saw something recently which also hinted that the AMD Ryzen chip was also being considered. I guess we'll find out whenever an official announcement is made.

To me the ARM processor change is probably more likely. That would seem to make even tighter integration between the iPone and Mac possible. Sidecar seems to already be hinting in that direction.

×
 

Rod


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Agreed, it seems not only logical but beneficial for Apple to with ARM if they're going to change.
 
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It looks like they plan phase the ARM processors in. This will allow them to bring iOS and MacOS together to make one OS version. Also the ARM processors are reputed to be much faster and more efficient. Plus Apple can control and manufacture ARM processors themselves thus no need for outside supplies like Intel or AMD.

My biggest concerns are will the app developers make the switch and how much will it cost me to upgrade my current apps. Also looks like there might not be a way to run Windows? A lot of questions. We shall see.

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I saw something recently which also hinted that the AMD Ryzen chip was also being considered. I guess we'll find out whenever an official announcement is made.

To me the ARM processor change is probably more likely. That would seem to make even tighter integration between the iPone and Mac possible.

I've been following this closely for a while now.

It seem likely that Apple will move to ARM for most of their laptop computers and minis at least, but they may move to AMD processors for their professional level computers.

There are already excellent Intel emulators for ARM, so the transition should be mostly seamless.

The most interesting thing is that Intel charges Apple hundreds of dollars for each one of their processors. Apple can cut that to just a fraction of the price using their own processors. So the question in my mind is, once Apple starts saving a ton of money on each computer they sell whether Apple will decide to lower consumer prices to choke their competition, or will they keep their prices steady and just rake in more money?

Time will tell.

Apple will almost certainly make it so that Mac apps run on iOS devices and vice versa. That's part of what the move to 64-bit was all about.
 

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Right at the moment with the global supply chain somewhat disrupted and the probability that things will get worse before they get better with the Novel Corona Virus I think it may be a bit presumptious to predict anything much at the moment.
 

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I saw something recently which also hinted that the AMD Ryzen chip was also being considered. I guess we'll find out whenever an official announcement is made.

To me the ARM processor change is probably more likely. That would seem to make even tighter integration between the iPone and Mac possible. Sidecar seems to already be hinting in that direction.

×

Sly, what bugs me about all this is Apple has lied many times and said they would NEVER combine the two (IOS and Mac OS). "IF" they do I am disappointed. That is one reason I really do not like windows 10. It's Tablet and computer in one OS.

I would wish they would go AMD Ryzen for their desktop systems and the Mac Pro as the top end Ryzen dusts Intel and has so many cores. Very good and fast CPU. BUT I doubt they will at least with the Laptops as they want to keep it all In House. I guess time will tell what they are doing.
 
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So, then there will be "one OS to rule them all"
 

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@Dennis You right. Users have been hinting for some time now that Apple's goal was to produce one OS for both computers IOS devices.

To me the question is going to boil down to one thing: Can the ARM processor be made to work well in macOS (without Win 10 type issues)? I haven't followed this too closely but I'd bet yjat there are some things / tasks where the ARM processor will work well and other tasks where the Ryzen processor would be best.

If my iMac holds out as long as my MB Pro has the dust will be well settled before I have to buy a new machine.
 
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...what bugs me about all this is Apple has lied many times and said they would NEVER combine the two (IOS and Mac OS)...That is one reason I really do not like windows 10. It's Tablet and computer in one OS.

There have been no rumors whatsoever about Apple merging the Mac OS with iOS.

Apple allowing some Mac apps to run in iOS, and some iOS apps to run in Mac OS is not a merging of the operating systems.

And Apple has never "lied" about the above. They have said that the Mac OS is optimized for computers with keyboards and mice, and that iOS is optimized for touchscreen devices. Near as I can tell, that will continue to be an advantage that Apple has over Windows; they will use an OS appropriate for the type of device it is running on.
 
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Good morning all, All this is way above my head!!! I am very pleased that I will not be purchasing a new machine in the near future (if at all at my age) there seems to be too many ifs and buts involved on this one. The pc's I have now will outlast my lifetime thank goodness. My old Mac mini still resides on my desk ready to be unboxed and powered up, it is six years old now and was working when I put it away due to being presented with my iMac as a birthday present from the family. Please excuse this diversion from the High Tech stuff in the post!

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
 

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There have been no rumors whatsoever about Apple merging the Mac OS with iOS.

Apple allowing some Mac apps to run in iOS, and some iOS apps to run in Mac OS is not a merging of the operating systems.

And Apple has never "lied" about the above. They have said that the Mac OS is optimized for computers with keyboards and mice, and that iOS is optimized for touchscreen devices. Near as I can tell, that will continue to be an advantage that Apple has over Windows; they will use an OS appropriate for the type of device it is running on.

one of our members posted before you and I did saying Apple was merging IOS and Mac OS into ONE os. Thus my post commenting on that. Only time will tell exactly what Apple will do.

Also I said IF they do. Rumors are just that, Rumors.
 
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Even if they do merge the two OS into one, so what? Whatever they do will still have to work well with keyboard, trackpad and mouse, as well as touch screens. Now if they get really stupid and dumb down macOS to limit it to what iOS can do, that would be bad but on the other hand, if they can get iOS doing some of what macOS can do, now that would be nice. Multitasking, multiple windows stacked, apps running well in the background, yeah, give me some of that, please!
 
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Unless they have an absolutely killer x86 and x64 interpreter, then the last Intel Macbook might be the last Macbook I buy.

There is just soooooooo much great software available for x86/x64 that is designed for traditional desktops and laptops that a switch away from x86/x64 would be giving up. Don't get me wrong, ARM is great but then might as well just have an iPad.
 
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From the beginning, I thought Apple's ARM architecture was more for security than performance or compatibility?
 

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Unless they have an absolutely killer x86 and x64 interpreter, then the last Intel Macbook might be the last Macbook I buy.

There is just soooooooo much great software available for x86/x64 that is designed for traditional desktops and laptops that a switch away from x86/x64 would be giving up. Don't get me wrong, ARM is great but then might as well just have an iPad.

It literally is a SINGLE recompile to get all that software to work on ARM. There is absolutely NOTHING any developer is doing that is X86 specific. They are all using the Apple and other vendor provided frameworks that will deal with the architectural change. Also, assuming Apple was going down this route, they've been prepping the vendors and software makers for a long time to ensure that the ecosystem "transfers" over on Day One when an ARM-based Mac is available.

To a normal Mac user, you will not notice any change from your access to software, etc.

What you might see if you were careful enough to compare is the benefits of the ARM processor (lower heat output, better sustained performance and much better battery life).
 
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From the beginning, I thought Apple's ARM architecture was more for security than performance or compatibility?

No, the ARM processor is a RISC (reduced instruction set) processor much as the PowerPC processor was. In other words it's a general CPU. Apple has been using it from the beginning in it's iOS (iPhone and iPad) devices.

Only recently Apple has been using ARM processors as a co-processor in some of their Mac laptops. There it is used to offload some functionality away from the main Intel CPU, such as security.

The fascinating thing about this is that Apple's ARM processor is so inexpensive that Apple can afford to do this. What this means is that when Apple moves to using ARM with no Intel, that each and every Macintosh will cost Apple literally hundreds of dollars less to make. So that begs the question of what Apple is going to do with that savings?

How the Mac will go ARM | iMore
How the Mac will go ARM | iMore
 

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Thanks to all for what's turning out to be a very informative thread. I'm learning a few things I didn't know.

My guess is that no matter what Apple's final decision turns out to be there will be tuns of misinformations and misconceptions floating around the the net.
 

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