Apple Confirms Their Future Desktops + Laptops Will Use In-House CPUs

[wizard69]

High instructions per clock, but relatively low clock speed.

So? Every thing they have made so far has been i a phone or tablet with passive cooling. We have no idea how fast these chips can be clocked given active cooling. Beyond that we can be pretty sure that whatever actually ships will be better than what is in the Mini test rig they are sending developers.

[shmerl]

Not at all. This is actually a move to secure their future.

Nope, they have no future on the desktop. They want to dummify everything to become like their mobile koolaid. Good riddance I'd say. There is no reason to use them for any desktop user, which is good for us - more Apple refugees will come to Linux.

[torsionbar28]

I can say with absolute certainty that I will be looking closely at the new processors when they come out.

Too bad for you, that won't be an option. Tis the nature of a closed proprietary system. You can spend $2500 on one of their overpriced laptops, of course. That's an expensive way to get a look at a processor though.

[Paradigm Shifter]

I've often wondered why Apple hasn't fallen foul of the monopoly commissions of various countries more often. The lock-in to their ecosystem is ridiculous. Not that others aren't trying to do the same thing, it's just that Apple has been doing it longer and better.

I'm curious, but only for what this might mean for memory, storage and GPU acceleration for ARM in general. I had a brief stint a while ago where I was thinking about switching away from Android and getting an iPad Pro, but the utterly horrific price (when essential accessories are factored in) made me baulk. In the end I gave up.

Off topic I know, but anyone know any 12" Android tablets which actually run an up-to-date Android?

[boxie]

Don't fell into this. It's not about you getting better stuff. It's about more profit. ARM is a significantly cheaper architecture.

and now add the cost of hiring hundreds of people to design your CPUs - I would say that it may be cheaper in the long run.

keep in mind that the decision to do this would have been 3-4 years ago before AMD brought competition back and made Intel actually do good things.

[vladpetric]

I've often wondered why Apple hasn't fallen foul of the monopoly commissions of various countries more often. The lock-in to their ecosystem is ridiculous. Not that others aren't trying to do the same thing, it's just that Apple has been doing it longer and better.

I'm curious, but only for what this might mean for memory, storage and GPU acceleration for ARM in general. I had a brief stint a while ago where I was thinking about switching away from Android and getting an iPad Pro, but the utterly horrific price (when essential accessories are factored in) made me baulk. In the end I gave up.

Off topic I know, but anyone know any 12" Android tablets which actually run an up-to-date Android?

To fall foul of a monopoly commission you have to first be, ummm, a monopoly. Having 50% of the market or less doesn't constitute a monopoly.

[PublicNuisance]

I don't even begin to understand why anyone would want to even care about what Apple does?

I am someone who stops to look at a gruesome car crash.

[Guest]

There is nothing "eco" about the Apple company or its products. Let us count the ways... planned product obsolescence, non replaceable batteries, poor repairability, lack of support for 3rd party or DIY repair, frivolous fancy packaging, economic support of oppressive communist regimes with abysmal human rights records (China), sweatshop slave labor conditions in their offshore factories. Did I miss any? I'd wager that Apple is responsible for an outsize portion of global e-waste and human suffering.

True, the few W difference in idle consumption ain't gonna save it,... Anyway, it's interesting to have low idle consumption for long on-battery time. However, ARM doesn't have any BIOS/EFI, so it's lock-in product.

[shadowLord]

Maybe they don't care, one thing for sure though is that they don't understand it. The Mac Pro being a perfect example.

They didn't refuse to support Vulkan, they basically ended up on two different tracks that came from the same general code base.

OpenGL is an issue though, but they may have gotten feed up with the people and organizations running the OpenGL standards process. Apparently they where not adult enough to mend what ever fences got knocked down. I really don't know what the right answer is there, OpenGL is still widely used in some of the areas Apple wants to play in so yeah the move looks stupid.

Excellent points made.

Regarding Vulkan, I believe Apple was ahead of Vulkan and released it earlier, by around 2 years.

[SkyWarrior]

Apple made things easier for their engineers.

1 - single arch for all. Single development team for all aspects of their ecosystem since their next ultimate macbook pro will be a glorified iphone.

2 - good riddance of intel and its ridiculous cpu release cycles . I am not even counting the vulnerabilities that riddled even earliest line of products. Apple does not have to make product refreshes infrequently anymore

3 - ultimate power to lock in all userbase. Imagine your favorite java app does not work as expected due to lack of openjdk being not supported or sandboxing requirements could not be met.

Apple has done the expected move and their fanbase is already getting their wallets chewed-up. Apple will become a closed cult again and life goes on.

I am hopeful for the future of linux since there has been an awakening among many that feel the power of opensource.