Apple Considering Switch Away From Intel For Macs 530
concealment sends this quote from Bloomberg:
"Apple Inc. is exploring ways to replace Intel processors in its Mac personal computers with a version of the chip technology it uses in the iPhone and iPad, according to people familiar with the company's research. Apple engineers have grown confident that the chip designs used for its mobile devices will one day be powerful enough to run its desktops and laptops, said three people with knowledge of the work, who asked to remain anonymous because the plans are confidential. Apple began using Intel chips for Macs in 2005."
Pretty sleazy of Apple employees... (Score:0, Informative)
To be blabbing about so-called "confidential" work @ Apple.
I'm no Apple fan at all but that's just rude to disclose competitive secrets like that.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Apple dumped MacOS in about 2001 when they introduced OS X. OS X is not MacOS.
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:5, Informative)
Just like project "Marklar", for those with longer memories...
Remember history. When Apple shifts, it is dramatic and FAST. (64000, PPC, x86).
Re:Why? (Score:2, Informative)
OS X applications are still single threaded, like 99% of all applications. You ever tried writing code for multi-core?
It's pretty easy. I took our Molecular dynamics simulation and ported it to use Grand Central Dispatch. It's a think of beauty when it's using 1599% cpu running on my Mac Pro with dual quadcore xeons with hyper threading.
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:5, Informative)
> at lower power usage
That's just a nice way of saying that x86 parts will mop the floor with ARM in terms of performance when it's actually time to do some work.
You fixate on power usage because it's the only area where ARM doesn't look laughable and pathetic.
x86 is what you use when an ARM solution can't do the job.
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Cryptographic lockout (Score:4, Informative)
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:5, Informative)
Yes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryEngine#CryENGINE_3_2 [wikipedia.org]
Re:Efficiency Performance (Score:5, Informative)
It is a generation old now, and has been for many months. Also, the parent said 'no real beefy GPU' - GPU, not CPU. Both are true, though, and the fact the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in a long time now underscores Apple's apparent move away from performance computing.
Re:Now that people are trained not to "compute"... (Score:3, Informative)
Ah, Stallman. He's full of wisdom but continually misses the most important thing about trying to get your message across - appearances matter.
He seems to believe that his message is sufficiently important such that he does not not need to dress, groom and act in an appropriate manner. But humans are visual and social creatures - the best orators and presenters know this. His audience is generally the same types of folks - free/open-source fans and/or curious techies. But even they can be repulsed when your presenter is eating stuff off his toes.
Re:Efficiency Performance (Score:4, Informative)
The problem is the graphics GPU, not the CPU. The Mac Pro desktop has a ATI Radeon HD 5770 card. If you look at ATI's 5000 series list [amd.com], you'll see that's right in the middle of the product line. Considering how much the system as a whole costs, some people feel that's not good enough.
The "Retina" MacBook pros have an even worse problem. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M is also nowhere near the top of their mobile line [geforce.com]. But the resolution being driven is one of the highest available. A fair number of people pushing it hard have discovered it's really not capable of keeping up with that system's 2880 x 1800 display very well.