
Do you think Apple will move to their own a chip for their next computer? - debian3
With the A12x being faster then most computer, what do you think will happen and why?
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daxat_staglatz
They have already done it, it is called the T* series chips.

The first version, T1, did the secure enclave thing, and controlled Touch ID,
thermal and power management and a few other things.

The second version, the T2, added storage management, an image signal
processor, an audio controller, and encryption for the SSD.

The next version will probably do even more things.

It seems to me that the most likely scenario is the T* chip being used for
more and more things and the amd64 chip to be used for less and less things
until the amd64 chip is more a "hardware acceleration" chip, like GPUs, here
to handle specific tasks to be offloaded from the (now ARM) CPU.

The shift from amd64 as the _central_ processing unit to the T* chip does not
need to be a clear cut (ditching the intel cpu directly and using the T* chip
for everything) but can (and is) being done progressively (the T chips
becoming more and more capable).

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tony-allan
Apple are good at architecture migrations. They have successfully pulled it
off several times.

For App Store apps, Apple can easily add fat binary support for apps with ARM
and x86 code in the same package. They control Xcode and can force
resubmission of apps for a future version of MacOS.

The thing is, they need to be able to efficiently emulate x86 at current
performance levels for regular software while those developers migrate to the
new architecture. This might require new ARM instructions or changes to the
graphics processors to assist with performance issues.

The end result is that they need to give their hardware and software folk time
and allow developers enough time to get their applications ready. I'm guessing
12+ months from when the new tools become available.

Unless they have been working on it for a while, this suggests 2020 models
might be capable.

I would also like to speculate that if they add a fabric interconnect to
A13/A14 chips, they could have several sockets in each product resulting in
massive performance for the high-end pro models with a very flexible power and
thermal budget.

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pepsi
I think it wouldn't be a stretch to see at least their non-pro computers using
an A-series chip eventually. I'm sure there's at least an internal build of
Mac OS for Arm machines right?

Given their affinity for AMD graphics, I wonder if a desktop A-series
processor could have a built in Vega GPU like the Intel chips? The i7-8809G
has a Vega with 24 compute units which should be decent for light video or
photo work. Notebook Check doesn't have much by way of directly comparable
info for the Vega M GH and the A12X Bionic's GPU.

[https://www.notebookcheck.net/Vega-M-GH-vs-A12X-Bionic-
GPU_8...](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Vega-M-GH-vs-A12X-Bionic-
GPU_8474_9351.247598.0.html)

[https://ark.intel.com/products/130409/Intel-
Core-i7-8809G-Pr...](https://ark.intel.com/products/130409/Intel-
Core-i7-8809G-Processor-with-Radeon-RX-Vega-M-GH-graphics-8M-Cache-up-
to-4-20-GHz-)

~~~
gigatexal
I think on the desktop they’ll go with their own GPU and just release a driver
for it for desktop OSX

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gigatexal
Absolutely. And I hope it happens ASAP. The most interesting team at Apple is
the chip decision. They have done things with their chips I never thought
possible. A full power desktop chip of A12X variety with some SIMD and more
cache could be a powerhouse and still less power hungry than its x86 cohorts.

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lewisflude
Quite a few people have been talking about the MacBook being a good target to
test out their own chip on before moving the entire line away from Intel.

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sigjuice
The iPad is poised to be their next "computer". As iPads get more powerful,
they will just stop making Macs at some point.

~~~
bchip
Tim Cook is so focused on getting rid of the mac line. There is no way iOS can
replace macOS anytime soon. So many features are needed to make iOS even
appealing for everyday “computer” use. I am a developer, I need access to a
full fledge unix system to do everyday work.

[https://reddit.com/r/apple/comments/9w7hzq/it_seems_like_for...](https://reddit.com/r/apple/comments/9w7hzq/it_seems_like_for_years_people_have_been_saying/)

~~~
sigjuice
Developers can be given various (unappealing) options for everyday work. e.g.
"Xcode on iCloud" or an ARM macOS VM on the iPad Pro that is sandboxed and
restricted to the hilt with a 'developer App store' bolted on. The App store
might include things like Xcode plugins, Unix tools, Homebrew etc. The VM
might even even have mouse support :p

