“Word has reached SemiAccurate that Apple is going to show Intel the door, at least as far as laptops are concerned. It won’t be really soon, but we are told it is a done deal,” Charlie Demerjian reports for SemiAccurate.
“Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible,” Demerjian reports. “Think mid-2013. At that point, Apple can move to ARM without worrying about obsoleting code with an ISA that is on the verge of changing, and no memory overhead worries either. Basically, it looks like the perfect time. Ironically, SemiAccurate’s moles tell us that the boys on infinite loop are planning to move laptops to ARM at about that time.”
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Demerjian reports, “So short story, x86 is history on Apple laptops, or will be in 2-3 years. In any case, it is a done deal, Intel is out, and Apple chips are in. The only question left is if they will use their own core, a Samsung core, or the generic ARM black box. My bet is on generic for the first round, with a custom uncore, and moving to progressively more proprietary features with each successive generation.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As anyone with an iPad 2 can tell you, Apple’s A5 is quite an extraordinary performer. Imagine an Apple A6 (or even an A5) with access to much more than the 512MB RAM found in iPad 2 and coupled with high-performance SSDs. It’s easy to imagine a setup like that running a full-blown Mac OS X very well.
UPDATE: 11:11am EDT: As per concerns about Boot Camp / Windows Virtualization: Microsoft has already announced that their next version of Windows will support SoC architectures from ARM, as well and Intel and AMD. So, provided Microsoft follows through and ships, Boot Camp and Windows Virtualization on Macs could still be possible of Apple ARM-based Macs. See related articles below for more info.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
IDC: ARM chips to own 13% of PC market by 2015 – May 6, 2011
Mysteries abound in analysis of Apple’s bold new iPad-powering A5 – April 14, 2011
Apple’s big, bad A5 whips Nvidia Tegra 2 handsomely in independent tests – April 8, 2011
Apple A5 chip production drives $3.6-billion Samsung fab expansion – March 30, 2011
Apple has become a formidable chip company – March 26, 2011
Teardown of iPad 2 WiFi shows recently-minted Apple A5 SoC, 512 MB RAM – March 13, 2011
RUMOR: Apple inks deal with TSMC foundry for A5 processor; possible setback for Samsung – March 9, 2011
ARM co-founder: Wintel faces obliteration – January 7, 2011
Microsoft to support SoC architectures from Intel, AMD, and ARM for next Windows version – January 5, 2011
A move to AMD is a more credible story.
AMD have some interesting GPGPU/CPU hybrid tech in the pipeline and that would suit Open CL very well.
So I suppose you could say Apple will be well-ARMed.
Steve did say in his “transitions” keynote a few years back that the “designs for OS X must be processor independent.” Perhaps OS X has been leading a new “double life” with versions for Intel and ARM…just in case!
isn’t Apple trying to be too many things at once ?
Apple competes with Microsoft on OS, with HP/Dell on computers, with Google/Samsung/HTC on phones/tables, with Adobe on software and philosophy, with brick-n-mortar stores on iTunes, soon with netflix/pandora/amazon on cloud, and now even wants to compete with Intel/AMD on chip design ?
How is Apple doing “too many things” when they are so obviously doing all of them with such great success?
Some people just love to find a problem; and if they can’t find one, they’ll make one up.
not a chance. period.
Totally bogus. There is a big difference between iOS and Macos. The amount of processing power for all the services in Macos will kill an ARM processor.
Maybe in five years they will be powerful enough and be able to manage all the I/o.
Apple could come out with a superlight laptop running iOS but that really sounds cheesy and will compete with both iPad and the MacBook air.
To extend battery life it is possible to use a dual dynamic system that will allow the use of the arm processor for normal email and iPad, iPhone, and OSX lion apps. Intel processors for more demanding programs such as Photoshop.
Do not over look the advantages in heat abatement. Apple could slim down a tablet like laptop with high end Netbook power and when needed desktop class power. Allowing the use of a docking system similar to the iMac. Thus allowing multiple Tablet/Laptop to dock into one multiple tablet supporting desktop dock. Taking an edge to edge display as with the iPhone 5 and you can create a wide screen display with multiple arm/intel processors and a dock with the latest desktop Intel processors. All working together.
Maybe this is an assembly of the past patents into one modular hybrid system that is tablet, laptop, and desktop.
Ummm, just a thought.
It means the iPad will get bigger screen options/form factors, not that the MBP will leave Intel.
Anyone who believes this hasn’t spent the time reading through Intel’s road map.
If anything, I’d see Intel replacing ARM architecture and replacing Samsung for production.
The two actually go hand in hand. Intel has technologies coming online that nobody else has and can leverage this with core design resulting in chips that are a generation ahead of everyone else.
So a better question would be whether architecture can be (or should be) consolidated such that one fabbed chip could be used on everything from iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini and iMac, and if so, can Apple leverage this into a custom order at significant savings, early delivery, an efficiency from Intel.
Given other custom supply from Intel as well as the Thunderbolt development, it sure seems like this would make a lot of sense.
Do expect the A6 or maybe A7/A8 to be based on Intel CPU architecture instead of ARM, exclusive to Apple, and supplied by Intel as they’d be the only ones who could technically fab it.
Exactly. This article assumes Intel is just going to fall over and not innovate. 24-36 months from now, Intel will likely have an x86 chip that waxes arm the floor in battery life and power which is acceptable in power.
It also doesn’t take into account battery technology 2-3 years from now that can handle faster chips. So at the very least, you get a faster chip but the same if not improved battery life now.
In general I agree with MrEd.
Where I differ is Parallel computing OS design and ownership of intellectual property.
Does Intel remain Wintel or make its own OS? Why buy McAfee?
CPU design was connected to OS design Why? Who directs the future? Hardware? Software?
And finally WHO gets the Money? 50/50 49/51 60/40?
This is not going to happen. Not for awhile, anyway. The switch momentum is fueled by the fact that the faint of heart can feel reassured by the fact they can still run their legacy programs if they need to. In a while, when Mac hits 50% of consumers, a switch might be a good idea.
Intel/AMD both have a problem Microsoft Windows. If Windows is going to ARM CPUs then what use is Intel CPUs?
Apple twice before made new CPUs – 1 with IBM/Motorola 2 with Acorn for ARM. WHY? Because the others were BAD.
Apple has bought two CPU design companies -Why?
I think because the software patents are difficult to enforce but hardware patients are easier to enforce and make different to the rest of the breed.
So the choice is 1 partnership with Intel or 2 go it alone.
Apple already has a “partnership” with Intel over LightPeak – I believe poorly thought out. It is the internal integration of LightPeak with CPU/GPU design that is the future of computing.
Till Apple’s “partnership” with Intel it was Apples (?) idea.
So Apple’s independence of Intel’s CPU has messy ramification with LightPeak advance. The only way should be a partnership with Intel for specific “Apple CPU” to maintain cooperation in both spheres – LightPeak and CPU/GPU design!
It has a side effect that is useful to Apple and Intel in that they are not made by third parties. The IP remains American! And USA made!
Sounds like a new version of the old RISC v SISC debates. Oh well, I suppose we got a break from it for a while.
Maybe for a lower end laptop focused on portability and battery life. No way this happens on the MBP and if it does, I will not be getting one.
Its all about power usage. Ipad can run for 8 hours, imagine a laptop PC that can run for 1-2 days, only charging because you want to instead of because you have to. Couple that with SSD storage that does not look like a standard 2.5 laptop drive and you can offer entire laptops that are the thickness of today’s laptop screen part… very ipad like.
Yes, not being able to run windows code at full speed may hurt some sales, but in three years the shift could be on full force, and the need to run windows programs within the mac community may be very low.
I’m sure that os x already runs on ARM chips, it’s just unix code back in the lab. It wasn’t surprising when apple forked os x to run on both intel and power pc chips. Can’t wait to buy one. I hope they make one with a 15 inch screen and sell it with a connectionless induction charger.
Steve Jobs make a very clear statement, what they think about Netbooks. So what should be the difference if you change a low performance ARM chip for a low performance INTEL Atom? The basic problem would be the same. Even if future ARM Chips will do better compared to todays INTEL Core iX, but INTEL wont stop the development for X86 chips now.
My prediction is that Apple will be creating ARM, Intel Hybrid machines, and the user will be able to either manually switch between the two architectures, or the OS will dynamically switch between the two on an As needed basis, similar to what Apple has done with the graphics cards.
So when an user is doing non cpu intensive tasks, the OS will be on the ARM chip and the lower end video card, saving power, and dramatically extending battery life.
When a user fired up a pro application that demands more CPU, the OS will switch to the higher performing Intel Chip and the higher end graphics card.
Does no one else see this trend?
I also believe that the Macbook, Macbook Pro names with change. There will be only be Macbook Air ( ARM Only ) and The new Macbook Hybrid.