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Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#31

Post by Svexav »

carlesfe wrote: post #13

Apple are paving the way to A-chip laptops, not only by building excellent tech, but also PR-wise. Their last keynote was clearly a gymnastics exercise to ignore Intel CPUs and dismiss laptop performance while later praising their own chips which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed. The fact that one of the most secretive companies executes a PR-stunt by providing an exclusive interview t…

Why does it have to be a laptop? What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad?

I’d love the ability to carry all my software and data around in a phone without lugging around a laptop or having to buy a desktop computer. And I’d love to never concern myself with transferring or syncing data again.

And why not let us connect an iPhone to an eGPU for desktop gaming?

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#32

Post by macintux »

carlesfe wrote: post #13

Apple are paving the way to A-chip laptops, not only by building excellent tech, but also PR-wise. Their last keynote was clearly a gymnastics exercise to ignore Intel CPUs and dismiss laptop performance while later praising their own chips which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed. The fact that one of the most secretive companies executes a PR-stunt by providing an exclusive interview t…

> ...which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "ready" how long the list is, but I'd suggest that Photoshop, console-quality games, AutoCAD, video editing tools like iMovie, all can take advantage of the speed.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#33

Post by camillomiller »

I was briefed personally by Anand after the introduction event in New York. I guess I can say that now, as it's out that Anand is taking care of this side of the business. It was the most compelling, interesting, clear and well informed briefing on a silicon in my entire career as a tech reporter. Anand is a an A+ player, and Apple has made an incredible hire in his case.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#34

Post by AceJohnny2 »

I found Rob Beschizza's thought [1] about the new iPad Pro insightful: "a very powerful machine, handicapped by iOS having no workflow".

Because of the sandboxed nature of iOS, and the current immaturity of the Files app/feature, it's hard and inconsistent how you can exchange files between apps on the iPad. As a result, you're still mostly stuck to using one app to do things in iOS. The workflow is still fragmented.

[1] https://boingboing.net/2018/11/06/ipad-pro-deemed-amazing-fo...

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#35

Post by Shivetya »

theluketaylor wrote: post #28
carlesfe wrote: post #13

Apple are paving the way to A-chip laptops, not only by building excellent tech, but also PR-wise. Their last keynote was clearly a gymnastics exercise to ignore Intel CPUs and dismiss laptop performance while later praising their own chips which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed. The fact that one of the most secretive companies executes a PR-stunt by providing an exclusive interview t…

The near total lack of the word "intel" at the keynote was certainly quite noticeable. The question is how much was that a negotiating ploy for better pricing/stock with intel and how much was positioning for arm macs. I think a bit of both. I went back to remind myself of the details of the switch from powerpc to intel. It was announced at wwdc 2005 (june) when they released a developer transition kit. The announcem…

with the iPad line there is no reason to move the computer line to ARM. They would alienate a lot of the current user base who has software there are no Arm equivalents nor likely to ever be one.

while I have seen many laud the iPad Pro for its power I haven't see any mention of heat or how long it can sustain a workload. Personally I do not want to see the Mac line change processors again for two reasons, like I mentioned prior many of us have a lot invested in software that runs on OSX as well as Windows that these machines can run, second I don't need that wall to go any higher.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#36

Post by gambiting »

Svexav wrote: post #31
carlesfe wrote: post #13

Apple are paving the way to A-chip laptops, not only by building excellent tech, but also PR-wise. Their last keynote was clearly a gymnastics exercise to ignore Intel CPUs and dismiss laptop performance while later praising their own chips which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed. The fact that one of the most secretive companies executes a PR-stunt by providing an exclusive interview t…

Why does it have to be a laptop? What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad? I’d love the ability to carry all my software and data around in a phone without lugging around a laptop or having to buy a desktop computer. And I’d love to never concern myself with transferring or syncing data again. And why not let us connect an iPhone to an eGPU for desktop gaming?

>>What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad?

That sounds like the most un-apple thing I can possibly imagine. Their ethos was always to build a device that does something incredibly well - a phone that can be a phone but also a desktop computer is everything but this.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#37

Post by camillomiller »

Svexav wrote: post #31
carlesfe wrote: post #13

Apple are paving the way to A-chip laptops, not only by building excellent tech, but also PR-wise. Their last keynote was clearly a gymnastics exercise to ignore Intel CPUs and dismiss laptop performance while later praising their own chips which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed. The fact that one of the most secretive companies executes a PR-stunt by providing an exclusive interview t…

Why does it have to be a laptop? What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad? I’d love the ability to carry all my software and data around in a phone without lugging around a laptop or having to buy a desktop computer. And I’d love to never concern myself with transferring or syncing data again. And why not let us connect an iPhone to an eGPU for desktop gaming?

Look up what Tim Cook thinks about convergence. That is not what an iPhone is for. Period. This gimmick is just a pipedream of us nerds. It won't have the slightest chance in the market and it would be a subpar product. Both Huawei and Samsung have implemented such a solution on their flagship smartphones since at least two years. They work as advertised, but nobody could give half a shit about them.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#38

Post by macintux »

tashoecraft wrote: post #14
josephg wrote: post #6

I wonder how long it will be before Apple releases a laptop with an A-X chip. They’re already shipping their custom T2 chips in their laptops. The compiler toolchain can build great binaries for their A chips. They’ve swapped CPU architecture before and the modern Mach binary format can hold versions of the executable built for different architectures. They will probably need a Rosetta equivalent to emulate x86 for a…

I don't think they will. They have already expressed the iPad is their vision of the future of computing. A completely locked down platform allows apple to have full control over the entire computing life cycle and achieve results unparalleled elsewhere, whilst also making their product incredibly sticky.

I think Apple can and will justify it. If you think back to Steve's analogy about cars and trucks, there's still (obviously) a very healthy market for trucks.

Despite their ongoing efforts to make the iPad more capable, I think and hope they'll recognize the value in keeping it simple enough for anyone to use, and thus having a separate macOS experience with more tools/flexibility in a laptop/desktop form factor.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#39

Post by AckSyn »

babypuncher wrote: post #17
josephg wrote: post #6

I wonder how long it will be before Apple releases a laptop with an A-X chip. They’re already shipping their custom T2 chips in their laptops. The compiler toolchain can build great binaries for their A chips. They’ve swapped CPU architecture before and the modern Mach binary format can hold versions of the executable built for different architectures. They will probably need a Rosetta equivalent to emulate x86 for a…

Apple doesn't really care much about backwards compatibility. I'm sure they will have an x86 emulator, but it probably won't be very fast (read: useless for games) and will probably be dropped entirely a few years down the line.

It would be on par with their previous backward compatible layer ala Rosetta from their Classic system to OS X ages ago.

I'm hoping to have an A15X or so processor on my desk by 2020.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#40

Post by aaronblohowiak »

gambiting wrote: post #36
Svexav wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it have to be a laptop? What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad? I’d love the ability to carry all my software and data around in a phone without lugging around a laptop or having to buy a desktop computer. And I’d love to never concern myself with transferring or syncing data again. And why not let us connect an iPhone to an eGPU for desktop gaming?

>>What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad? That sounds like the most un-apple thing I can possibly imagine. Their ethos was always to build a device that does something incredibly well - a phone that can be a phone but also a desktop computer is everything but this.

The iPad is already this but with a bigger screen.
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