Apple has announced that they intend to begin using their own cpus in Macs sometime around 2020 and that they want to unify development under iOS and MacOS.
So...I would assume that it is Apples intention to make a fourth ISA shift to ARM, as that is the only type of cpu they have any real experience designing.

So, what do you all think?

Apple appears to be migrating to ARM, Microsoft has ported Windows to ARM, and virtually all phones (and most tablets) are ARM based.

How will these shifts affect the two primary X64 manufacturers (Intel and AMD)?

AND, since we have announced a shift to X64 (remembering that a few of us, myself included stated a preference for ARM), will this industry trend negatively impact the variety of hardware available for MorphOS?

In about 2020, barring any surprises, the Vampire ASIC SoC should be ready also. What a coincidence! (Hyperbole only. Don't quote me.)

I don't think they will leave the x86 range of processors.
The ARM might be powerful enough for the small MacBooks.
But ARM cannot replace the high powered iCore and Xeon processors in the Pro line (like the just introduced iMac Pro) and not even the MacBook Pros and iMacs.

I also don't think they will completely merge iOS and macOS into just one OS.
They will certainly try to make as much common as possible. But some things should just stay as they are, because a desktop is not a phone or tablet.


Manfred

[ Edited by asrael22 03.04.2018 - 09:11 ]

Quote:

FAKE NEWS!!!

Bloomberg claims (without naming sources) that Apple would be working on such a transition.

EVEN if that was Apple's plan, it would still take several years both on the SW and HW side in preparations and Apple wouldn't announce it until 2 weeks before they have the chips ready to replace Intel in every Mac category.



My guess:

Slow news day + someone at Bloomberg trying to play the markets

Quote:

Indeed not an announcement. Could be fake news as well, but I wouldn't be so quick to label it as such. As I wrote in the "ARM for the Future" thread, everything Apple has done regarding CPU development for the last couple of years already, suggest a persistent move in this direction.

Quote:

Again, they could have been working towards this for several years already. Many things suggest this. They have put over-the-top desktop design class CPU's in phones and ipads for half a decade now, each core generation introducing vast performance improvements. These cores are pretty much underclocked desktop cores per design, packaged in an undersized chip. Make a full size chip with a few more of these cores, some more cache memory and buses, design the chip for high temperatures with proper heat dissipation using workstation class heatsinks with fans, clock it at 3-4GHz, and you are there. IMHO they could have done this years ago already, had they wanted to.

And what we have seen is only the consumer ready CPU's used in actual products. Who knows what they have had in their labs for the last half decade? They have proven to have the competence, they sure as hell have the means. And looking at what else they do, their developments points in this direction...

Which would still leave the SW side open.

An iOS based hybrid like the Surface might work but there are still cases where staring at your own fingerprints on a tiny screen ain't an option.


Just recompiling OSX for ARM would be an disaster cos in contrary to 2005:

- it would not mean a jump in RAW/native performance in every class of device

- it would not bring in new user over the the fact that Windows could be run at (near) native speeds it would turn those users away


So yeah maybe in the long run, just not in 2020.

Not really speculating here, but the Mac OS X transition to intel was leaked by a small advert, somewhere hidden that said: buy Mac OS X 10.xx for intel followed by a strange number. Strange because it looked realistic.

Realistic as in: someone put down a number in that could be reasonable if you had say 20 developers, for 2 years, writing code for $60.