“Pegatron is likely to land orders from Apple to produce an ARM-based MacBook model, codenamed Star with a series number N84, according to industry sources,” Sammi Huang and Steve Shen report for DigiTimes.
“Having reported recently that its net profits declined nearly 50% on year to NT$2.079 billion (US$69.32 million) in the first quarter of 2018,” Huang and Shen report, “the company said it will be getting back on the growth track in the third quarter in line with the approach of the peak season.
Huang and Shen report, “The performance in the fourth quarter will be likely better than that in the third quarter, company CFO Charles Lin said earlier.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Something wicked this way comes!
SEE ALSO:
Intel 10nm Cannon Lake delays push MacBook Pro with potential 32GB RAM into 2019 – April 27, 2018
Why the next Mac processor transition won’t be like the last two – April 4, 2018
Apple’s ‘Kalamata’ project will move Macs from Intel to Apple A-series processors – April 2, 2018
Apple plans on dumping Intel for its own chips in Macs as early as 2020 – April 2, 2018
Apple is working to unite iOS and macOS; will they standardize their chip platform next? – December 21, 2017
Why Apple would want to unify iOS and Mac apps in 2018 – December 20, 2017
Apple to provide tool for developers build cross-platform apps that run on iOS and macOS in 2018 – December 20, 2017
The once and future OS for Apple – December 8, 2017
Apple ships more microprocessors than Intel – October 2, 2017
Apple embarrasses Intel – June 14, 2017
Apple developing new chip for Macintosh in test of Intel independence – February 1, 2017
Apple’s A10 Fusion chip ‘blows away the competition,’ could easily power MacBook Air – Linley Group – October 21, 2016
Where can I place my order???
Well that took about a week for the guy who wrote here in a patronising reply to another contributor that it would be many years if ever before we see an Arm based Mac due to the A series being nowhere near powerful enough to be made to look a fool. Even I thought it wouldn’t be quite this quick mind. However his reasoning was truly crass then and soon to be proved so now, just sooner than even I predicted.
Nobody said an ARM based Mac is impossible on any time frame. Those people who know what they’re talking about are correct in saying that without direct X86 virtualization, the business case to buy a Mac would evaporate instantly for any customers who use a Mac for more than coffee shop web browsing and email. Mac sales would crater instantly, or alternatively, the kludge of software required to maintain reverse compatibility with legacy Cocoa based Mac software would be significantly more painful than the last major chipset transition from PowerPC chips (RISC) to Intel x86 (CISC).
For those who don’t understand the fundamental difference between ARM Reduced Instruction Set Computing chips and Intel/AMD x86 Complex Instruction Set Computing chips, this is a decent overview: http://www.applegazette.com/mac/whats-difference-x86-arm-processors/
MAKE NO MISTAKE, CISC IS MORE EFFICIENT AT COMPUTATION. Only when the tasks are simple, with very little interface to RAM and no complex operations like video demuxing or heavy math, does an ARM chip become an acceptable option. That is why ARM RISC chips are basically used only on consumption devices like phones and iPads. The old Apple/IBM PowerPC architecture is gone, they could not keep up with the more powerful Intel architecture.
For the same reasons today, it’s just not very economical for a powerful computer to use a reduced instruction set. For Apple ARM chips to replace x86 chips in a Mac would require a significantly revised OS, and the hardware would be more complex, requiring many more Apple chips and more computing operations than x86 chips which perform many mainstream complex functions in fewer steps. That is why you never got a G5 chip in a laptop, and it is why you aren’t likely to get a MacBook Pro with an A12 chipset either. The best you might hope for for a laptop with an A series chipset is a glorified iPad Pro with a built in keyboard. Not a Mac replacement.
Of course, we know that is not going to happen because iPads suck at replacing the Mac for any complex usage cases. If you think ARM chips are good enough for your needs, goody for you. They would be a massive disappointment — like Surface RT — for any current Mac owner who expects full functionality in their personal computers. If you want to live in a thin client world where Big Brother stores and manages all your data for you, then go ahead and cheer for RISC chips to take over the world. It’s a bad idea to me. Apple needs to remain relevant in powerful computing if it wants to be anything more than a phone app distribution company in the next decade.
Oh, yes, it’s getting to be absolutely delicious around here with comments like…
“for any customers who use a Mac for more than coffee shop web browsing and email”
or playing music or editing videos or writing books or enhancing photos or creating illustrations or composing music or messaging friends or revising spreadsheets or giving presentations or FaceTiming their grandparents or updating their calendar or reading books or playing games or approximately 99.9999% of the things that people do with a computer. Yes, without direct X86 virtualization, at LEAST 0.0001% of the Mac sales would crater. Maybe not as much “crater” as “not show any measurable difference at all”.
“Apple needs to remain relevant in powerful computing if it wants to be anything more than a phone app distribution company in the next decade.”
Except they don’t. Heck, they’re not relevant in powerful computing NOW and posted the largest quarter of any quarter ever. And, there’s not a SINGLE company on the face of the earth right now that wouldn’t give their CEO to be this ‘phone app distribution company’. Some folks will never get it… THAT is where computing is headed.
I wonder what they’ll say when “we know that is not going to happen” happens?!
Probably the same thing that MDN said when the Surface RT flopped.
An Apple branded ARM netbook would crash just as hard in the marketplace.
Yes, it’s going to be QUITE delicious around here indeed 🙂 Primarily because the old folks are going to be eating delicious crow.
With the A-12, the time has finally arrived for an ARM-based Mac providing high performance, exceptional battery life, and native iOS compatibility, which is far more enticing to most Apple customers than native Windows compatibility via Boot Camp.
Apple hasn’t announced that it will be abandoning Intel altogether. These rumours are about additional products using ARM processors in devices where Apple might have previously deployed Intel CPUs.
People recognise the advantages systems which can cope with Windows and OS X, well this device makes a similar bridge between IOS and OS X. For those who need Intel, Intel Macs will continue to be available, while for those who only use software written for OS X, these ARM devices will be available. Personally I have never used Boot Camp and have never owned a Wintel PC. Everything I needed to do for nearly thirty years has been possible on my Macs using software written for Mac OS.
I would have no hesitation in buying an ARM powered MacBook or iMac so long as it had the other features which I need in a laptop or desktop, which I’m pretty sure it would.
Remember when Apple first introduced an Intel based Mac OS X. Jobs noted that they had been developing this in parallel to the risc based system since the inception of the os.
I bet the apple have been doing this for the arm chips for years.
It still may be years before it is released but eventually it will happen.
The benefits for Apple will be control over chip design and lower costs for manufacturer. The downside is potential hit on compatibility with windows.
So who’s going to buy a modular 2019-2020 Mac Pro if there’s a painful years long major chip transition looming?
https://architosh.com/2018/04/apple-leaving-intel-on-macs-by-2020-impact-on-new-mac-pro/
I think this product will be used for Universal apps that are coming soon. Powerful laptop that only runs the new iOS apps that have been designed for it as extensions of iPad apps.
Apple’s answer to the Google Chromebook except that Apple’s product won’t be low-priced. I’m not going to say anything critical about a product that almost no one knows anything about. I’ll wait until it hits retail and is properly reviewed. A portable computer with long battery life is always welcome and if it runs apps quickly enough then that’s also a plus. It’s good to know Apple isn’t standing still and may have some worthwhile products in the pipeline.
Clicked expecting to see obligatory Pegatron pic. Disappointed. 🙁