Ok. I’ll wait till then before buying my new Laptop.
Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
171–180 of 1001 posts
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#172I was seriously considering upgrading my 2012 MacBook to the new 16" model soon, but now I wonder what kind of longevity or support I can expect from that hardware...
I think we’ve got some time. I’m on the last leg of a 2012 too. Just like the sibling comment said, since we don’t know if the pro line will get a refresh there could possibly be a longer runway.
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#173I'm surprised we didn't get any performance numbers. Either raw power or at least power efficiency and projected battery life improvements. Seeing as this is a major reason for the transition (according to them), it feels very weird. They're shipping a 'Development Transition Kit' Mac mini with an A12Z this week, so it's not like the numbers are going to stay private for a long time. Even if there's an NDA, someone's…
It doesn't seem weird at all, and the fact that they're sending out devices on the A12Z seems to be intentional sandbagging: they know that people are going to benchmark and the results will likely be simply comparable to current hardware (from a performance perspective...energy efficiency will clearly be much better). When they release the actual devices, where their power and thermal profile is dramatically higher than an iPad Pro, it will actually wow.
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#174I'm surprised we didn't get any performance numbers. Either raw power or at least power efficiency and projected battery life improvements. Seeing as this is a major reason for the transition (according to them), it feels very weird. They're shipping a 'Development Transition Kit' Mac mini with an A12Z this week, so it's not like the numbers are going to stay private for a long time. Even if there's an NDA, someone's…
I don't think they even used the term "ARM" at any point. They're calling it "Apple's silicon," and they acknowledged it's the same as what iPhone and iPad use. But I thought it was interesting how they seemed to avoid the term. It's probably just a matter of avoiding getting too "techy" and marketing.
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#175Tim Cook just said they have new intel macs in the pipeline. Those will go over like a lead balloon.
What is really sad is that I don't think the majority of Apple consumers really understand what this means for the Intel macs in the long run. I fear a number of people will buy them not realizing they have a very limited lifespan.
> […] not realizing they have a very limited lifespan.
It may depend on one's definition of "limited": the Rosetta was first released with Mac OS 10.4 in 2005, [1][2] and was last available in Mac OS 10.6, which first released in 2010, [3] but whose last update was in 2011.
Six years of transitional support is not unreasonable.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software)
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#176So, if I install numpy via conda on a Mac now, it's backed by Intel MKL and is thus amazingly fast. What will it be replaced with? Has anyone at Apple thought about use cases like this?..
PCs are for gaming. PCs are for work. Macs are for... students and middle managers apparently.
And iOS development
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#177Now will Qualcomm feel a little more competition or not? There chips are slow in mobiles and they are slow in PCs, compared to Apple's processors.
Nobody gives a crap about the Qualcomm powered notebooks. They're a joke market segment. As long as Apple doesn't start selling A* chips to Samsung or other Android OEMs Qualcomm isn't going to worry.
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#178My comment from a week ago: "What would keep Apple from shipping machines with both ARM and Intel CPUs in them? The ARM CPU would run the OS and decide when to ship jobs over to the Intel CPU. I can’t imagine that the home-grown ARM CPU would add much to the total price of the computer." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23530084
This level of asymmetric processing is very difficult to achieve, at nearly every possible level, from part sourcing, through hardware design, firmware, software to user experience.
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#179Tim Cook just said they have new intel macs in the pipeline. Those will go over like a lead balloon.
And I reckon those of us who just bought a shiny new Intel Mac in the past few months might be questioning our decision. Should have held on to that 2010 MBP one more year?
Typing this on a 2010 MBP, bought a new MBP this weekend (was later canceled by the seller b/c of inventory issues) and thinking about waiting another year
Re: Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs
#180I'm surprised we didn't get any performance numbers. Either raw power or at least power efficiency and projected battery life improvements. Seeing as this is a major reason for the transition (according to them), it feels very weird. They're shipping a 'Development Transition Kit' Mac mini with an A12Z this week, so it's not like the numbers are going to stay private for a long time. Even if there's an NDA, someone's…
I wonder if they're holding them for the actual hardware release in Fall? They could still be deciding the tradeoff between battery life and raw power.
Possibly. The developer kit is using an A12z chip. It’s possibly more for proof of concept than tech demo of what’s possible.