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iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

macrumors.com

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Re: iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

#31

Post by Someone »

pornel wrote: post #15

I wonder if macOS will be able to run userspace code on this. Apple's ARM chips are pretty fast, so this could be extra 50% of computing power for the iMac. From software side they've already done similar things in the past (fat binaries, Rosetta).

This new iMac pro, in its ‘low end’ configuration, has 8 cores (https://www.apple.com/lae/imac-pro/specs/), possibly of the new “Purley” kind (http://bgr.com/2017/07/12/imac-pro-2017-specs-intel-xeon-pur...)

A single A10 will not add 50% of computing power, even ignoring its GPU.

Re: iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

#32

Post by coldtea »

0x0 wrote: post #13
cybermancy wrote: post #2

Will be interesting to see if native iOS apps will be able to run for development or regular use. This is a good sign for the convergence of the Mac and "i" products. For fun here's the "transitions" talk Steve Jobs gave announcing the switch from PowerPC to Intel processors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg

Converging the Mac and the i products sounds like a terrible idea, as long as iOS insists on running non-windowed apps. Serious workloads is very inefficient without a proper windowed desktop environment combined with a Finder and a Terminal that can access files across all apps. Also, having an x86-compatible CPU at the core enables high enough performance for virtualbox/vmware, which is a huge enabler in that it al…

>A converged ARM-based Macbook sounds very much like a toy computer; a facebook+youtube media consumption station with an option for perhaps doing limited creative work such as composing an iMovie or touching up some photos at the most.

What you describe as a "toy computer" is actually an indestructible and hella-great main business computer for a huge majority of people.

Most people aren't designers or videographers or programmers -- including most Mac users. What you dismiss as "Facebook" is actually the browser, which is how most business users do their business day in, day out (plus some office suite and so on).

So what you describe will be more like a Chromebook done right.

Re: iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

#35

Post by Someone »

pjmlp wrote: post #16
userbinator wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guarantee you this is the first step toward Apple getting rid of Intel on the Mac. ...and making Macs even more closed and proprietary, moving away from the (semi-open, but also quickly closing[1]) PC again. This is huge, and scary . [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15730113

It is the return to the roots, just like Apple used to be before OS X happened. They only became more open out of necessity.

Apple’s roots were extremely open. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_I#History:

”After building it for himself and showing it at the Club, he and Steve Jobs gave out schematics (technical designs) for the computer to interested club members and even helped some of them build and test out copies”

Also: the Apple 2 shipped with full schematics and an assembly listing of its ROMs.

The ‘phone book’ edition of Inside Macintosh didn’t document all hardware, but I wouldn’t call it ‘closed’. It explains how OS calls are implemented, details on the floppy disk interface, etc.

Re: iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

#36

Post by JustSomeNobody »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #28
alphabettsy wrote: post #14

Could handle Face ID, etc. Possibly offload video encoding/transcoding? The A10 can handle 4K HEVC. Not sure what the point would be with dedicated graphics doing the same.

Article mentions secure enclave so FaceID is very likely. It doesn’t make much ergonomic sense to put fingerprint reader like you do on macbook.

Right. With Face ID, you sit down in front of your computer and your desktop is already up and available.

Re: iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

#37

Post by erikj »

minimaxir wrote: post #30

Please stop saying that Apple is secretly recording your conversations for nefarious purposes with Hey Siri. It’s been around for 2 years and there has been nothing world-ending found about the feature. A reminder about how Hey Siri privacy works: https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/11/apple-addresses-privacy-qu... > In no case is the device recording what the user says or sending that information to Apple before the feat…

As long as there is an always-on CPU with non-permanent firmware that has access to the microphone in my device, Fort Meade will find a way to hijack it and subvert this security model. I would rather not give them more attack surface.

Re: iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

#38

Post by School-Cotton »

thought_alarm wrote: post #29
cybermancy wrote: post #2

Will be interesting to see if native iOS apps will be able to run for development or regular use. This is a good sign for the convergence of the Mac and "i" products. For fun here's the "transitions" talk Steve Jobs gave announcing the switch from PowerPC to Intel processors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg

Every iOS app already runs natively on Intel. Adding an ARM co-processor to the Mac doesn't change that situation.

It's possible to compile iOS apps for x86 if you have the source, but this x86 version is not included in what's shipped to the app store.

Re: iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

#39

Post by runeks »

pornel wrote: post #15

I wonder if macOS will be able to run userspace code on this. Apple's ARM chips are pretty fast, so this could be extra 50% of computing power for the iMac. From software side they've already done similar things in the past (fat binaries, Rosetta).

If the A10 really is half as fast as an Intel CPU, wouldn't it make more sense for Apple to put four of these chips in an iMac -- delivering double the performance -- and use the savings to fight Intel's x86 emulation patent in court?

One could hope that, due to the negative PR, Intel would give up trying to prevent Apple from delivering 2x the performance at a lower cost. In any case, I think this patent needs to be challenged thoroughly, as it seems to favor only Intel while punishing consumers.

Re: iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On ‘Hey Siri’

#40

Post by rallycarre »

minimaxir wrote: post #30

Please stop saying that Apple is secretly recording your conversations for nefarious purposes with Hey Siri. It’s been around for 2 years and there has been nothing world-ending found about the feature. A reminder about how Hey Siri privacy works: https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/11/apple-addresses-privacy-qu... > In no case is the device recording what the user says or sending that information to Apple before the feat…

It won't be listening to you if they don't care to.

The idea of having a device that listens to everything around in your home is unnerving, for me atleast.

The problem with saying "they would never do something like this" or "I have nothing to hide so why do I care" is that your trusting people thousands of miles away from you who are heavily influenced by the government...

If your not comfortable having a policeman sit on your desk while you work on your computer then I might not be a good idea supporting products like these.

Personally, Siri can screw off. I am more than happy to check the weather myself. :)

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