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."
Efficiency Performance (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple for a while now has been moving away from performance parts. No real beefy GPU in the Mac Pro. The best GPU in a MBP is an upper-mid tier card. Their server is gone. Its not surprising to see them move more and more away from HPC parts. I'm just a little curious how this will affect people dependent on 'pro-tools' (in the future that is).
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Efficiency Performance (Score:5, Insightful)
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: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.
Re:Efficiency Performance (Score:5, Interesting)
They'll migrate back to Windows just like they did when Apple ruined Final Cut Pro. The mass exodus to Adobe Premiere running on Windows left FCP as pretty much a non-player at this point for serious video editing.
Word. I've seen them migrate with other Adobe products too, just because they have to use windows for one purpose, so they start using it for others.
Thankfully the Xserve debacle caused some higher ups to realize that Linux on cheaper servers is a better option anyway.
64-way, on 1-die (Score:2)
Using Mac power-level, vs iP* voltages.
Then you also get alternative/thin boot of iOS.
Doable. Quickly. See you in 2014.
Banning self-signed software (Score:5, Interesting)
Then you also get alternative/thin boot of iOS.
That or Apple will follow Microsoft's lead with Windows RT's lack of sideloading and use the transition to ARM ISA as a chance to remove the option to run software that's not signed with an Apple Developer ID. This means Apple would get to charge owners of ARM Macs $99 per year to rent the ability to run Xcode or any other compiler on their own hardware, just as Apple presently does with iOS.
Re:Banning self-signed software (Score:4, Insightful)
I really should write a simple Slashdot reply app, sideload it to my* Surface RT, and use it just so I can truthfully say "written on a sideloaded app on Surface RT" in the posts. It's completely possible to sideload on the RT. I don't know why people keep parroting this BS claim that it's not; that's trivially disprovable if you actually try using one for the minute or so that it takes to enable sideloading plus install a sideloaded app.
* Purchased by my company for research and training purposes. We're a computer security firm, and are expected to keep on top of new systems. They also recently bought iPads, Nexus 7 tablets, and various smartphones; I imagine other Android tablets will follow soon probably including Kindle Fire.
100-seat sideloading license for $3000 (Score:5, Interesting)
that's trivially disprovable if you actually try using one for the minute or so that it takes to enable sideloading
I was under the impression that sideloading using a developer certificate would disable itself after a month, and Microsoft had ways to detect "fraudulent use of a developer license" as a sideloading method. What other method of sideloading were you talking about? The one that involves buying a 100-seat sideloading license for $3000 [zdnet.com]?
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Until the day your MBP breaks (Score:3)
Given the defaults on Mountain Lion, I absolutely expect this... And it'll be the day my MBP is running Linux
Until the day your MBP breaks, and all Apple sells are ARM-based products without any concept of Boot Camp. These won't boot Linux because Linux isn't signed by Apple.
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:5, Insightful)
Even that probably would not be enough to win if floating point performance was needed.
You would also be a huge disadvantage for anything that is difficult or plain impossible to to parralelize.
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember numeric co-processors?
That's now why you have a GPU.
Float away, baby.
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:5, Informative)
Yes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryEngine#CryENGINE_3_2 [wikipedia.org]
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:64-way, on 1-die (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, Macs have always been associated with graphical artists. I personally love working on my Cintiq on Windows/Linux and wouldn't touch a Mac with a 10-foot pole (Something big needs to happen before I give any money to something so anti-freedom as Apple), but... yeah. Most people using advanced drawing programs or 3D rendering/sculpting software will need a lot of CPU and GPU power. Some apps lean on one more than the other, but I don't think any 3D artist these days will look at his rendertimes and say "welp, that'll forever be fast enough for me!"
Programmers are traditionally more Unix/Linux folks, and a lot of programmers use compilers that write bytecode rather than actual executables, so I don't think they will be of much concern to Apple.. but this does mean that multi-OS support will fall behind again. And given that Windows (about 80%?) and Linux (maybe another 5%?) serve a huge share of the desktop users, that probably means that the Mac will be left behind. Beside that, a large share of FOSS software seems to be mostly developed on Linux anyway, so..
I don't think this'll affect non-Mac users much. It may hurt Apple's bottom line a bit, but the forced upgrades will compensate and probably cause a bit of a jump in profits even. It'll just further segregation between Mac and non-Mac.
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:4, Funny)
It could get weird and cool. Like Plan9 in a box...
You surely meant Plan 9 from Cubic Space. :-)
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And how many parallel memory buses will you need to keep that fed? The more cores you throw behind a single chip, the more bottleneck pressure is on the edge of the chip.
This is one of the reasons why GPGPU only really shows benefit for certain types of problems; the memory throughput is optimized only for particular configurations.
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:64-way, on 1-die (Score:4, Insightful)
I meant "68040". :-)
Re:64-way, on 1-die (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course it's already compiled; they've had the OSX kernel and most of the userspace running on ARM since 2007 with the iPhone.
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Uhhh... well of course it has, iOS and Mac OS use the same kernel (and for the most part, the same userland). The only significant difference is the installed apps, and AppKit being replaced with UIKit.
One Day? (Score:2, Insightful)
So <insert company name here> is doing research that may or may not ever see the light of day to keep its options open and avoid single-source lock-ins. This is news?
Re:One Day? (Score:5, Insightful)
Taking a break from all your worries (Score:5, Insightful)
Where you see a walled garden, I see a prison.
Where you see a prison, I see an zombie-proof enclave.
Re:Taking a break from all your worries (Score:4, Insightful)
considering the number of windows zombies out there as a percentage of overall machines compared to OSX zombies out there to their number of machines
your quite right.
iphone has more visibility, more overall users and has been out longer than android, yet less viruses.
Sometimes just preventing people from sticking their head in the flames to see if their hair burns is a good idea.
Re:Taking a break from all your worries (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Taking a break from all your worries (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Taking a break from all your worries (Score:5, Funny)
Where you see a prison, I see an zombie-proof enclave.
Since the zombies are only after eating braaaaains, Apple fanbois are naturally not at great risk.
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And it does a fine job keeping those zombies inside.
Re:Taking a break from all your worries (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can see the switch from PowerPC as IBM and Motorola could not keep up with supplies or advances. To switch from Intel to ARM on PC's will be suicide as performance in PC's far outweigh any negligible benefits in power savings. People using Macs are designers, programmers and heavy users. For those advocating unifying the mobile experience with the desktop, please STOP. I produce content on my desktop. I consume it on my iPad.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
For the tasks most people want a computer for (or think they want a computer for) an ARM-based solution could work just as well as an x86 based one. Keep in mind that even if Apple made the switch, they wouldn't be making it to the same silicon they're producing today, because they wouldn't need all of the power saving mechanisms that they've had to use for the mobile device markets they're in now. Instead, envision something along the lines of a hybrid machine with one high-end mobile core designed for lower-power usage, and then additional cores that can be brought online as needed with the associated power draw. There are dozens of ways this kind of arrangement could be managed, and people seem to be quick to forget that Apple made some of the big early strides when it came to getting multiprocessor development under control. (Grand Central, for example)
Additionally, who's to say that they won't have a 16+ core ARM chip running at 3GHz in the next couple years? If die size and power management are less of a premium, that's a lot of raw power that could be thrown at things.
I think they'll start with something like the MBA, and move up the line from there.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
Nintendo did this on the Wii - there's a primary PPC processor, and an ARM core on the northbridge that is used for running updates while the console is "off". Worked fairly well by all reports.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
> For the tasks most people want a computer for (or think they want a computer for) an ARM-based solution could work just as well as an x86 based one.
No, not really. Not at all. This isn't apparent with things like the iPad because it's a tightly controlled and heavily curated experience. You don't realize you're running on a throwback from the 90s because you aren't allowed to do anything that might make that obvious.
Thinking you can depend on multiple cores has it's own problems and inherent engineering challenges even if you assume that all Mac software has already been modified to accommodate this (which isn't even true).
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's see, what do most users do with computers? Browse the web, read and reply to email, shop, manage photos and maybe videos if they've got kids, and maybe do some light office and bookkeeping work.
Okay, tell me how the iPad isn't enough for that.
Yes, it's a controlled and curated experience. But Apple has sold more of those controlled, curated, locked down experiences in just the last 4 years than they have ever sold in Macintosh computers. Don't forget that you are not the market Apple is aiming for. You're the market that WISHES Apple was aiming for it, because if they were, then we'd see some pretty astounding products on the shelf. Instead, we get products priced to move by the tens of millions to the people who don't know RAM from storage space. And they are _selling_.
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Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
You can get 64 quad-core A9s for less power than a single Intel. 256 cores at over 1GHz will be much more processing power than the Intel solution.
sure, if you have a compute job that perfectly parallelizes across 256 cores ... such a job doesn't exist in end user computing. the average PC struggles to find a way to use 4 cores let alone 256.
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By every single benchmark I have ever seen, watt for watt Intel absolutely slaughters ARM in terms of the work it gets done. ARM runs at lower power, but it is most certainly not more efficient.
If you have benchmarks showing me wrong, Id be most interested to see them.
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Most designers use Win machines?
You live in bizarro world.
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Maya? Really?
I remember Alias Wavefront, my child. Maya dropped MIPS/SGI, but OSX is definitely supported.
Adobe isn't in the business of supporting any sizable market outside of design-oriented content creators. They still veer HARD to OSX. That is where the market (high end) is.
All Mac developers writing for multi-core now (Score:5, Insightful)
OS X applications are still single threaded, like 99% of all applications. You ever tried writing code for multi-core? Thought not.
Between GCD and blocks and various graphics frameworks, any modern Mac (or iOS) developer has been writing for multiple cores for years now. It's just that most of the tricky work is hidden away.
Developers? What OS X developers!?
Well first of all there are the 500k+ iOS developers, who run on Macs. And then there are hordes of Ruby/UNIX/Java developers, who often use Macs to develop on.
Perhaps you just meant "what developers are writing apps for OS X". I guess someone is, since there are thousands of apps on the OS X App Store now...
Re:All Mac developers writing for multi-core now (Score:5, Insightful)
The vast majority of Ruby, Unix and Java developers work on non-Apple hardware
All I can say is, you go to no technical conferences and you have obviously never met a Ruby developer.
Ruby Mac use is so pervasive in fact, that the Ruby guys built extensions to program mac (and iOS) apps in Ruby...
Unix developers in particular have almost completely abandoned Mac because Apple have made it too difficult to get Linux running on there.
On the other hand most UNIX users have moved to the Mac because they do not NEED to get Linux running on it. You already have a solid UNIX base, it's not like Cygwin or some other faux substitute.
Good luck with those delusions, which match not at all with easily observable fact or laptop sales figures (which is what most developers use these days, not that you would no that either).
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When you have a build server, you code on entry level laptops which aren't Mac as OSX tends not to play well with code repositories like Subversion.
SVN works fine for me on OS X as a Wireshark core developer. (And Git works fine for me on OS X as a libpcap/tcpdump core developer.) What problems are people seeing with SVN on OS X? (Then again, I don't use a build server, as my 4-core doubly-threaded 16GB machine is pretty much fast enough; faster would be nice, but....)
Coders doing local builds are also falling off Mac because it's too hard to get an off the shelf SSD working in one.
It works fine for me, but the Mac I bought comes standard with one.
Unix developers in particular have almost completely abandoned Mac because Apple have made it too difficult to get Linux running on there.
To which sort of "Unix developer" are you referring?
If you mean "people primarily developing Linux or for Linux", to
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so you found embarrassingly parallel problems have a way of being easy to parallelize.
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While true, the difference between 1 ghz and 3 ghz per core (all other factors being equal) means that those tasks would be slowed by only 1/3rd. I find it somewhat difficult to come up with anything that needs to be done in realtime but can't be parallelized. Non-casual games come up, but they haven't really been CPU-constrained until fairly recently. A cascaded model (each frame's state is passed down between threads in turn) would give a tiny bit of lag, but make it possible to use 3 cores for the graphi
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple wants to dump MacOS.
There is FAR more money to be made from a locked-down OS like iOS that guarantees they get a cut of every app sold. The profits from iOS devices DWARF the profits from MacOS.
MacOS will be gone in ten years. Less, probably. You'll still be able to buy a Mac, but it will run iOS, and only run "approved" apps. Unless you pay a couple thousand bucks for their "developer" license, in which case you will get a copy of XCode. And a yearly fee on top of that, of course. And probably a limit on the number of apps you can develop before you have to pay more money.
Apple is NOT about making cool technology anymore. They are about selling content. They're a media company.
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Apple dumped MacOS in about 2001 when they introduced OS X. OS X is not MacOS.
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Apple would be dumb to not have OS/X running on ARM. Just as Microsoft now as Windows running on ARM. The X86 did beat everyone by being the fastest cpu you could buy. It was the good enough CPU. As the X86 got better and better it came up replacing first minicomputers and then even pushing into the mainframe and super computer space. ARM is also moving up the same way and it too will someday may be good enough. Today it really is good enough for most of what people are buying Celerons, Pentiums, and i3s fo
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Note the "will one day be powerful enough". I read that as "in 2-5 years we may have something that can compete with laptop or desktop-grade Intel products". From what I understand, and IANACE (I am not a Computer Engineer), there's nothing inherently holding the ARM architecture back from being able to scale up to the sorts of computational performance we see out of Intel's processors, albeit, at the cost of its energy efficiency (of course, it's not there now, but it could be in a few years). Similarly, an Intel exec said a few weeks back that there's nothing technological holding Intel back from being able to scale down to where we see ARM's processors.
That said, Intel doesn't want to do that, since the profit margins are much lower for mobile processors than they are for desktop-grade processors. Yet the danger for them is that the ARM architecture will be scaled up, allowing it to expand into the much more lucrative end of the market, thus pushing them out. That'd be the end for Intel if that sort of thing was allowed to happen. And Apple is in a good position to try something like that.
More importantly and more relevantly to these rumors, I read this whole report as leverage in negotiations with Intel. Credibly scaring the seller into thinking they'll lose your business is a great way to get better prices or other concessions (e.g. early or exclusive access) out of them. Apple is probably content to stay with Intel for as long as Intel is supplying chips that meet Apple's expectations and can do so at reasonable prices. But Apple also wants to hedge its bets in case Intel folds at some point or they're not keeping up with the pace of development that Apple would like to see. Having the ability to run OS X on ARM may very well just be a safety measure in that vein.
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Presuming that someone scales up ARM to a high-performance desktop/server chip, and presuming that they establish a lucrative market for said processors, Intel will simply license ARM and use their world leading fabrication processes to take over the ARM server/desktop processor market, crushing all competitors, just like they did in the x86 processor market.
If Apple goes it alone, producing their own ARM desktop CPUs for their own computers, they will never be able to compete with Intel's fabs. No matter
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
I can see the switch from PowerPC as IBM and Motorola could not keep up with supplies or advances. To switch from Intel to ARM on PC's will be suicide as performance in PC's far outweigh any negligible benefits in power savings.
It wont be suicide for Apple, their customers will keep buying Apple products because they are finacially and psycologically locked in. No matter what Apple does to them to screw them over they'll keep coming back. Hell, they'll even defend the abuse.
People using Macs are designers, programmers and heavy users.
Hahahahahaha,
No.
A lot of designers, especially web designers have moved to Windows based PC's. Programmers who use Mac's use Windows on Mac. Mac's are not for heavy use (which is why a $1000 macbook only comes with an Intel IGM).
Hipsters buy Mac's, not heavy users. People buy Mac's because they hate windows, not because Mac's are any better (in fact, given the limited and overpriced hardware choices, they are a lot worse).
I've been predicting that Apple will switch to ARM for laptops for some time now and OSX will be depreciated into IOS. The biggest difference between an Ipad and a Desktop Mac in the future will be the OS feature set. This is to say, they'll run the same OS but you'll pay more for options like an IDE. You wont be able to run it on feature limited version of the OS.
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Hipsters buy Mac's, not heavy users. People buy Mac's because they hate windows, not because Mac's are any better (in fact, given the limited and overpriced hardware choices, they are a lot worse).
You do realize that Apple has the -only- desktop *nix with a decent user interface, right? Lot's of power users use them for that reason alone. My Macbook Pro has an Nvidia chipset in it.
That being said, I am not in the market to buy any more Apple stuff.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Now that people are trained not to "compute"... (Score:5, Interesting)
... It certainly isn't impossible. People already look at iPads and iPhones as "devices" and not what they really are underneath all that glass and aluminum. Just smaller, simpler "computers". I'd say it's a safe bet that 99% of the Slashdot readership at one point had a computer that looks positively ancient compared to last year's iPhone models, but most people simply don't understand the magnitude of what's been accomplished in technology over the last 30 years.
Now that people look at iDevices and their non-Apple kin as devices, it just takes some time to convince them that the idea of a "computer" really isn't what they ever wanted. They've always wanted devices, and with OSX and now Windows drawing more and more from the closed ecosystem models they spawned off for the mobile realm, people will eventually come around.
I give it around two years before Apple comes out with a new line of ARM-based Macbook Airs, though that could change depending on how effectively Intel and AMD (really, just Intel) stave off the situation by getting lower powered x86 options into the marketplace.
Re:Now that people are trained not to "compute"... (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly I think Richard Stallman looks more and more like a prophet every year. (And I doubt Jesus or Moses' personal hygene was especially good, either).
Re: (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
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Frankly I think Richard Stallman looks more and more like a prophet every year. (And I doubt Jesus or Moses' personal hygiene was especially good, either).
They all had long beards.
Coincidence? I think not.
Dear Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
The only reason why I have a Mac Mini is because you are running a modified version of UNIX. This pleases me. But be forewarned: If your future plans include replacing BSD UNIX with your shitass iOS, I am so fucking gone. Your shitty phones are already on my do not buy list, and I have no qualms with dumping your PCs.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
If your future plans include replacing BSD UNIX with your shitass iOS, I am so fucking gone
And nothing of value would be lost.
Also, you might want to look into what iOS actually is. It's running the same fucking kernel as your Mac Mini.
Bloomberg trolling (Score:2)
Apple would be stupid not to explore alternatives that may only become viable years down the road. Every tech company does it. Bloomberg is just trolling.
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Apple would be stupid not to explore alternatives that may only become viable years down the road. Every tech company does it. Bloomberg is just trolling.
What! How can you say Bloomberg is trolling? Didn't you read the article? It's printed right there that "some engineers say" this might happen! How can you doubt the sureness of such a quote and the technical expertise of any engineer?
I bet they'll still get their asses kicked. (Score:2)
...said three people with knowledge of the work...
Cue witch hunt in Apple HQ in 3... 2... 1
Maybe in five-ten years (Score:3)
Right now, Apple's ARM stuff isn't powerful enough for anything above the Air, and even that's a stretch. Sure, long-term they might want to push for it, but it will be a long, long time before they even replace their laptop chips with their own design, let alone their desktops (unless they ditch their desktops completely, which isn't beyond possibility).
However, they'd lose market share doing so. The PPC->Intel transition was fueled by PowerPC being increasingly slow and power-hungry, while Intel was getting their shit together with Core. It was difficult for consumers to survive through the switch, but it was tolerable because you were getting a more powerful system, and the emulation capability was good.
Now, though, Intel is working just fine. And between ARM being less powerful, and x86 being painful to emulate, you'll have an even rougher transition. The only reason for Apple to switch away is for pure profit - they don't want to be giving Intel money. While some customers might go along with The Great Apple, most won't. It'll be especially bad for Apple, as they brand themselves as "the best, regardless of cost" - switching to weaker processors to save money goes completely against that.
Re:Maybe in five-ten years (Score:4, Insightful)
The air has an i5, what ARM chip competes with that?
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Re: (Score:3)
You're right about that, but when you look at the benchmarks being done on the current iPhones and iPads, you'll see that they're starting to meet and exceed some of the early Intel Macs in various benchmarks (and in some cases even exceeding much more recent ones), and they're advancing at a more rapid pace than the current Intel lines have been. Granted, there's a point of diminishing returns that they'll likely hit, but there's no evidence that they're anywhere near that yet.
So, while the ARM processors
Having switched twice already.... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm totally not going to do it again.
68k to PPC was a disaster, applications that didn't need to be just PPC were just PPC. Everyone who had a recent 68k at the time was boned very quickly. If it wasn't for CodeWarrior (I loved the sh*t out of that back in the day) that transition would have been even more disastrous.
PPC to x86 Apple just turned around and spit in everyone's [existing ppc userbase] face. They promised more updates that they never delivered and the patches they pushed out just made the platform slower and slower. My PowerBook would run like greased lightning with a clean OS install, HD videos and the works. Let MacOS update it self and it suddenly grew 10 years older with a few patches. I did try formatting it and starting from scratch but it ended up with the exact same behavior.
I'm not going through another architecture migration because Apple just doesn't care about their existing user base, they already have their money.
My current iMac x86 doesn't have firmware to reinstall the OS, so after the HDD failed I found I was totally screwed. The Apple store I visited told me I would have to purchase apple care to reinstall MacOS since it's now physical media free (I already had a new drive in it). After this attempt to bend me over, I'm not taking another slap to the face.
Re:Having switched twice already.... (Score:4, Insightful)
You'd think they'd have learned their lesson. (Score:3)
I'll bet Apple is exploring all kinds of stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
ARM slower than 2005 PowerPC. (Score:4, Insightful)
ARM chips are still slower than the PowerPC chips Apple moved away from in 2005.
This is rumor is pure BS.
2013 is bringing out an all new OOO execution Intel Atom core on 22nm process. Intel might start dominating Android phones leading to next years rumor that Apple will be moving iOS to Intel.
I don't see either move as likely in the foreseeable future. Beyond that is pure 100% BS.
They Can use Samsung Chips Instead (Score:5, Funny)
Emulate the Past OSes (Score:3)
I wish that Apple would support emulation for all past Macintosh software all the way back to MacOS1.0. Heck, they should go all the way back to the AppleI. There is a tremendous amount of educational software that was created during the 1990's that has never been redone for Intel and MacOSX. It used to run under Classic but Apple abandoned it. They are destroying both cultural heritage and educational resources. There is also a lot of small business and graphic tools that were made then and never released for MacOSX. I need these tools as do many other people I've spoken with. Apple has the money to keep up the emulation and it would vastly expand the media available to run on their machines which would make more people interested in upgrading to the latest and greatest hardware thus promoting more Apple sales and more money for Apple's pocket. Heck, they could even offer full Windows, DOS and CPM emulation and take over the whole market.
Cryptographic lockout (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux works fine on ARM.
Not on a device whose bootloader cryptographically prevents you from installing it.
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Macs have not used BIOS on their intel macs for years. They've used Sun's OpenBoot EFI.
Its pretty easy to install ubuntu on a mac.
From Apple's business perspective, I don't think apple is worried.
With intel macs, they use the same CPUs, Hard disks, RAM, and all other things which you can get off the shelf.
People pay a very large premium over similar retail computers that run windows, so their core audience is buying OSX not for the hardware but for OSX.
The people who will run Ubuntu,
Re:Cryptographic lockout (Score:5, Insightful)
That assumes that there are machines with unlocked bootloaders available. That may not always be the case. If Microsoft decides to apply the same terms to Windows on x86 that it is on ARM, that would pretty much destroy the market for general purpose computers. You'll probably be able to get one, but at a higher price, and you won't be able to run Windows on it.
That's the optimistic scenario. The pessimistic scenario is that once the general public doesn't need general purpose computers, they'll be classified as hacking tools and prohibited for anyone who isn't licensed. Sort of the way that lock pick tools are illegal for those without a locksmithing license.
Re:Cryptographic lockout (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Cryptographic lockout (Score:5, Interesting)
This is right.
It's more than just about creating social and legal controls over a technology that threatens traditional power structures, though personal computing has done that - just look at how social networking has supported political revolts across the world. Governments and their business patrons fear this power shift.
So, how have they responded?
The western national economies have transformed their income streams from production to rent collection, which has been ongoing since the 1970s. This has devalued all forms of manufacturing, where raw materials are converted to useful things through work, thus devaluing those who perform labor in the process. It's not automation that has destroyed manufacturing in the United States. In fact, that claim is ridiculous on its face, since - by definition - automation increases productivity which presumably should lead to long term industry success.
No, instead, free capital flows shifted productive work overseas where for cheap labor - sometimes slave labor - was available. This is called 'globalism'. But we should view the term a misnomer, due to the disparity between how easy it is to transfer capital across national boundaries versus how labor is locked into the nation state by borders and immigration law. It's not 'global free trade', it's arbitrage. This has happened not just in lock-step with deregulating the financial industry - Wall Street - at the expense of labor, but also because of it. For the power shift from government to the financial sector has had the effect of diminishing the political power of citizens - and especially labor - in the process. Because it's pretty damn hard for the poor to exercise real political power. That transformation benefitted both power bases in government and the financial sector.
But how does all this relate to computing lock-down and DRM?
It's the model for how to understand vendor lock-down in computing. For open computing platforms decentralize power by freeing people to use computing in ways never intended by the vendor (or government). This used to be called innovation. Back in the 1970s, every personal computer was open. The Apple II shipped with a manual that included schematics. Bus specifications were open. Computers booted to BASIC, a programming language by default. Now, not everyone wants to program and computing shouldn't be viewed strictly from that mindset. But, consider what happened to the minicomputing market as a result. Digital, for example, went bankrupt trying to maintain their vendor lock-in due to competition from open systems - primarily the IBM-PC and its clones we still use today. Because people like freedom, even when they don't directly use that freedom to tinker and create themselves.
So, I'm arguing that in the same vein that the financial industry gained protected privileges (deregulation) which gave it market advantage over labor, so too are titans of the software and tech industry, IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, etc have bent law and regulation to their benefit, at the expense of small competitors and even their own customers. Like 'deregulation' for Wall Street, the tech industry has it's own legal maneuver, this time through copyrights, patents, and trademarks, all of which are a form of government regulated monopoly protection.
And all this in the Orwellian name of 'freedom'. In the financial industry, they called it 'free trade'. In the tech industry it's, 'freedom to innovate'. But in both cases the freedom isn't to decentralized down to small business or citizens, it's centralized up toward the largest market players. It's a freedom to engage in monopoly control over markets, whether the labor market, the tech market, or any other market where players are big enough to buy protection from legislators and the court system. Protection, not from other big industry players - by and large - but protection from small competitors who might innovate their way into market dominance, and protection from custome
Re:Cryptographic lockout (Score:5, Insightful)
It would destroy Microsoft's position on the market for general purpose computers.
Microsoft doesn't care about general purpose computers, they care about windows boxes.
Wow, you must live in some fucked up country.
It varies from state to state. In some states, mere possession [lockwiki.com] of lockpicks is considered evidence of intent to burglarize .
Re:Cryptographic lockout (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me of this story...
A couple went on vacation to a resort up north. The husband liked to fish, and the wife liked to read. One morning the husband came back from fishing after getting up real early that morning and took a nap.
While he slept, the wife decided to take the boat out. She was not familiar with the lake, so she rowed out and anchored the boat, and started reading her book.
Along comes the Game Warden in his boat, pulls up alongside the woman's boat and asks her what she's doing? She says, "Reading my book."
The Game Warden tells her she is in a restricted fishing area and she explains that she's not fishing. To which he replied, "But you have all this equipment. I will have to take you in and write you up!"
Angry that the warden was being so unreasonable, the lady told the warden, "If you do that, I will charge you with rape."
The warden, shocked by her statement, replied, "But I didn't even touch you."
To which the lady replied, "Yes, but you have all the equipment!"
Re: (Score:3)
In many ways, Apple moving to ARM would comple
Re:Only Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
As critical as I am of Apple on occasion, I see this as a smart idea. Staying limber by making sure your kernel and toolset can compile on multiple platforms only makes sense. It's a wonder that, four decades after Unix lead the path to portability, now commercial outfits like Apple and Microsoft are seeing the value as well (well, to be fair, MS saw the value back in the early 1990s but guys like DEC and MIPS priced their stuff into the stratosphere thus guaranteeing x86's continued dominance).
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At the earliest... maybe. A lot can happen in five years.
Wonder how their processor map is looking ...
Re:Hey Apple, (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hey Apple, (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like a win-win for Apple. They don't have to pay for Intel, and all their users are forced to upgrade to new hardware. And all the OSX software vendors get to sell new versions of their software for the new platform.
Re:Hey Apple, (Score:4, Insightful)
Codename: Alcatraz (Score:5, Funny)
And no dual boot, and they can continue with the plan to make OSX into desktop iOS, complete with walled garden.
With such impressive "features" they might as well name it Alcatraz.
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Dual boot with Windows RT, if MS ever open it up to public sale. Although the way things are going with MS, I wonder if you'll be able to buy any Windows off the shelf in the future- it MS ditch the OEM model, we might see the OS software going the same way as Apple Mac.
But hey, there's always Linux.
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"My guess is it's just to fuck with people"
I'm glad you still categorize Intel as "people". :-)
Re: (Score:3)
basing that on a slashdot posting about an article on what apple MIGHT do in the future? you're a dumb-ass.
hell, you don't know if the standard office desktop will be windows on ARM five or seven years from now....
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