By: dmcq (dmcq.delete@this.fano.co.uk), August 6, 2014 5:01 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Alberto (git.delete@this.git.it) on August 6, 2014 3:51 am wrote:
> Yuhong Bao (yuhongbao_386.delete@this.hotmail.com) on August 3, 2014 2:24 pm wrote:
> > http://www.mondaynote.com/2014/08/03/macintel-the-end-is-nigh
>
> http://www.extremetech.com/computing/187513-why-apple-wont-dump-intel-x86-for-its-own-arm-chips-in-macbooks-and-the-mac-pro
>
>
They're a bit out of date is what I think. I believe now that what their figures showed was that if you have a lot more money and experience you can just about match a RISC with a x86 CISC at the mid performance level. The more recent 64 bit ARM architecture seems to be quite a bit more efficient than the ARM 32 bit architecture and they now have much better design tools. Intel's process advantage is being wasted away by its ISA so it is getting uncompetitive except at the Haswell level.
However as far as Apple is concerned I think that is a bit irrelevant. There's no need for them to annoy people by changing processor overnight. If they really do want to do anything like that they'll just develop iPads and make it easy to port programs until one day people just start thinking - hey I could use an iPad instead. They have to provide as good or better an experience as well as reducing the price. The Microsoft way with Windows RT was just wrong and a mess so why should Apple copy anything like it?
> Yuhong Bao (yuhongbao_386.delete@this.hotmail.com) on August 3, 2014 2:24 pm wrote:
> > http://www.mondaynote.com/2014/08/03/macintel-the-end-is-nigh
>
> http://www.extremetech.com/computing/187513-why-apple-wont-dump-intel-x86-for-its-own-arm-chips-in-macbooks-and-the-mac-pro
>
>
They're a bit out of date is what I think. I believe now that what their figures showed was that if you have a lot more money and experience you can just about match a RISC with a x86 CISC at the mid performance level. The more recent 64 bit ARM architecture seems to be quite a bit more efficient than the ARM 32 bit architecture and they now have much better design tools. Intel's process advantage is being wasted away by its ISA so it is getting uncompetitive except at the Haswell level.
However as far as Apple is concerned I think that is a bit irrelevant. There's no need for them to annoy people by changing processor overnight. If they really do want to do anything like that they'll just develop iPads and make it easy to port programs until one day people just start thinking - hey I could use an iPad instead. They have to provide as good or better an experience as well as reducing the price. The Microsoft way with Windows RT was just wrong and a mess so why should Apple copy anything like it?