Apple dumps Intel from laptop lines (Not Confirmed, Rumor)

[x303]

The short story is that Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible. With A15/Eagle allowing more than 32-bit memory access, things look up, but it seems silly to do so before the full 64 bit cores come in the following generation. Nvidia is directly telling certain favored analysts that they will have Denver out in Q4 of 2012, maybe Q1/2013, and that uses the full on 64-bit ARM instruction set. It won’t be out by then, but that gives you a good estimation of when that ISA will break cover from one vendor or other. Think mid-2013.

You can read the full story here: http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/05/apple-dumps-intel-from-laptop-lines/

[nicholas]

@the_leander

Ask and ye shall recieve!

You wanted to see NVidia ARM chipsets in machines Alan.

[commodorejohn]

Well, feh, I'm none too fond of Apple, but I guess I can't look too harshly on anything that helps move computing away from its decades of x86 lock-in stagnation.

[jorkany]

Well, feh, I'm none too fond of Apple, but I guess I can't look too harshly on anything that helps move computing away from its decades of x86 lock-in stagnation.

Like the iPhone for example?

[Gulliver]

I fail to see what is relevant in this news item to the "Amiga News and Community Anouncememnts" section.

Otherwise, a valid news topic for OSnews or MacRumors.

[commodorejohn]

Like the iPhone for example?

I dunno, that's more or less irrelevant to the personal-computer market. Phone hardware has always been a completely different animal (hell, a lot of 'em were 68k-based not so very long ago.)

And no, I'm not enamored of the iPhone either - even if I were the sort of person who wanted or needed a smartphone, software lock-in direct from the manufacturer is not something that impresses me.

I fail to see what is relevant in this news item to the "Amiga News and Community Anouncememnts" section.

Yeah, it seems like this is the favorite dumping ground for anything computer-related :/

[TheBilgeRat]

Well, the difference is stabbing Motorola and IBM in the back killed off PPC on the desk/laptop (well, that and some technical reasons).  I'm not too sure that stabbing Intel in the back is going to result in the same outcome...

[Steady]

Well, the difference is stabbing Motorola and IBM in the back killed off PPC on the desk/laptop (well, that and some technical reasons).  I'm not too sure that stabbing Intel in the back is going to result in the same outcome...

I'm not sure that qualifies as stabbing them in the back. The PowerPC wasn't producing promised performance and Apple smartly had a contingency plan just in case this happened. What's wrong with them doing what they felt they needed to do to protect their business.

[TheBilgeRat]

I'm not sure that qualifies as stabbing them in the back. The PowerPC wasn't producing promised performance and Apple smartly had a contingency plan just in case this happened. What's wrong with them doing what they felt they needed to do to protect their business.

I think that perhaps the people who invested in PPC gear from Apple would think differently.  I wasn't under the impression that PowerPC wasn't producing, rather, that PPC was too expensive (both chipwise and to code for) as Apple was playing Motorola and IBM against each other for chips.  If you think backstab is too harsh, how about inconstant partner?  or Succubus?  Yeah - Apple: It's a G**D*** Succubus!

[Matt_H]

So we're posting rumors as news now?

EDIT: Thanks to whoever added the "rumor" qualifier to the article title

[NovaCoder]

Very clever stuff by Apple (if true!), helps to differentiate themselves from the Windows mob.

[Iggy]

So Windows 8 AND OSX are going to run on ARM? How original.
Now I think I'll stick with PPCs.

[Argo]

Oh, come on. We had topics here a few weeks about talking about Amiga on ARM.  I think AROS has ARM support, right?

[RepoOne]

I really hope this is true. I would love to see something other than x86 take off in the desktop and laptop realm, although I would prefer it to be PowerPC.

[takemehomegrandma]

The short story is that Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible. With A15/Eagle allowing more than 32-bit memory access, things look up, but it seems silly to do so before the full 64 bit cores come in the following generation. Nvidia is directly telling certain favored analysts that they will have Denver out in Q4 of 2012, maybe Q1/2013, and that uses the full on 64-bit ARM instruction set. It won’t be out by then, but that gives you a good estimation of when that ISA will break cover from one vendor or other. Think mid-2013.

You can read the full story here: http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/05/apple-dumps-intel-from-laptop-lines/

Got to love the name of the source for this one: "Semi Accurate"!

Anyway, I won't read too much into this, although I'm not saying it won't happen. Feels a bit unlikely, they "just" jumped architecture afterall...

But I have said it many times before - ARM will scale upwards a lot easier than x86 will scale downwards. ARM will, backed by at least nVidia (who is making a "x86 killer" to use their own words) and Microsoft (who *already* have a complete Windows and Office running on ARM), compete with x86 at its own traditional arenas (desktop, server and workstation), but no x86 on horizon is really capable of competing with ARM in a similar manner.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next Xbox (720 or whatever it will be called) will be based on ARM.