
Why Are Apple and Microsoft Using Such Old Processors in Their New Computers? - robertwalsh0
http://gizmodo.com/why-are-apple-and-microsoft-using-such-old-processors-i-1788302547
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dahart
What kind of bizarre thinking is this? There is surprise that a laptop
released at the end of October is not built with a chip released in
September?? WTF? Even _if_ the chip is fully 100% slot compatible, neither MS
nor Apple would or could take that at face value. The power requirements are
different, that alone is cause for a redesign of the board.

The author seems to be living in a fantasy land, it takes time to test,
purchase the processors, build the laptops, ship the laptops, and I'm sure I'm
missing about 10 other bottlenecks in the process. The Pascal GPU was only
released in May, and that is still too soon to have been designed around.

Missing are examples of computers that have shipped in high volume using 1-4
months old components. Missing is some realization that if both MS & Apple are
doing the same thing, there's probably a good reason.

~~~
itsdrewmiller
The author says all the same things in the article - are you sure you disagree
with it?

~~~
mrweasel
Well yes, but the question posed in the article is stupid. Apple and Microsoft
aren't using "such old processors". They are using the previous generation,
because that's what was available to them.

Both companies, according to the article, where in fact using the very latest
GPUs and CPU on the market, had Intel and Nvidia not released new chips just
as Apple and Microsoft where beginning production.

------
epberry
Is this article seriously asking why Apple didn't put a processor that was
publicly announced in September in laptops that consumers could buy one month
later? How about asking the author why they didn't write this article on the
day of the mac event? I get people's disappointment in the new macs, even
though I think it's mostly unwarranted, but this is taking it to an extreme.

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VLM
Its a form of clickbait in that I assumed the article would explain why the
lead time has increased continuously since 1985 or so.

Instead there isn't really a story at all.

For utter noobs to modern technology: If the pipeline from daydream to press
day is X months and a new widget was released Y months ago then if X > Y you
don't see the widget on press day. Don't matter if its a jet plane or a
nuclear reactor or a laptop.

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IanDrake
When the new skylake hardware came out all the drivers where crap. People with
new Surface Pro 4s, Surface Books, Dell XPS 13s, etc... where having all kinds
of problems.

All these machines work great now, but I wouldn't want to go through that pain
again just for the sake of getting a little more performance (for average
use).

~~~
jerf
Also, I personally get nervous when asked to buy a crap hardware+drivers combo
on the promise that the drivers will be fixed later and the hardware's full
power will be released... what guarantee do I have that there won't be a
fundamental hardware issue that drivers can't hack around?

I've got a machine that has a wireless card with the draft version of the
wireless N standard, and presumably some promise that updates could fix it
when the real thing came out. The real thing came out, and the card's N
support has never worked. Fortunately there's a somewhat-deeply-buried setting
for both Linux and Windows that lets you turn it off entirely and have the
card degrade into a perfectly-functional b/g card, because once real N
networks came out it tries really hard to connect to them. And it _almost_
works. You can get about a megabyte or so over the N network before the
connection somehow fails. Then another couple hundred kilobytes about 10
seconds later, and so on. Terrible.

How much more concerned about that I would be if I intended to ship a few
million such units out. The "fixed drivers in the future" promise isn't that
reliable.

------
crb
Many have questioned whether or not Apple could have made a MBP with more than
16GB of RAM given Intel's current CPUs. Gruber's discussion with Apple and
subsequent analysis was that Intel don't have a part that they can use (e.g.
one that supports 32GB of RAM), which get into the power and weight envelope
they considered acceptable, and that envelope trumps all else at Apple.

Hitting that power and weight envelope is a hell of a lot easier when you make
your own CPUs.

([http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/10/31/intel-mbp-
ram](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/10/31/intel-mbp-ram))

~~~
mhomde
Yeah... so maybe not keep pushing an weight/thinness envelope that few seem to
want if they could trade if for performance & battery... at least that's what
I'm guessing, maybe the mainstream consumer care about showing mm's of their
laptop but I kinda doubt it, at least battery performance seem more important

~~~
rz2k
I don't understand the thinness, especially for the iMac, but I suspect
they've researched how people respond to seeing them in person in stores. I
definitely want light though, and I highly doubt a large number of users using
a laptop will notice the difference between 16GB and 32GB compared to the
storage now being twice as fast.

Other complaints include a loss of magsafe? I highly prefer being able to
purchase numerous non-proprietary chargers for home, work, car, airplane
rather than carrying a brick in my bag. Plus, anyone who wants the power
connection to be breakaway can get whatever USB C equivalent there is or will
be to ZNAPS[1].

[1] [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041610927/znaps-
the-9-...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041610927/znaps-
the-9-magnetic-adapter-for-your-mobile-devic)

------
leecarraher
alt. title -- "apple and microsoft choose not to rush products to market"
Processors will march forward getting better each year, the tick-tock of
intel's design process is a staple in the tech industry, so today's best is
tomorrows garbage. but unless the plan was to dump your computer after 6
months usage, this shouldn't bother you much. And instead you get a system
that is thoroughly tested and thoughtfully designed. I'd take a well designed
2 year old laptop over a flimsy garbage box with the freshest processor any
day.

------
JamesMcMinn
tldr; Apple and Microsoft want to use the high-powered variants, which have
yet to be released, whilst other manufactures are happy to use the low powered
variants.

Sticking with the more powerful, but power hungry CPUs is one of the few
things that allow the MacBook Pro to keep the "Pro".

~~~
Tempest1981
High-powered meaning power consumption? Or speed? The new chips use less
power, right? Guess I need to read the article. :-)

Edit: the new CPUs use less power, but the new GPUs use... more?

~~~
my123
Only 15W Kaby Lake SKUs were released.

------
danjoc
I hear the excuse that the chips are too new, but the Razer Stealth has 7th
gen Intel. There once was a time when Apple literally purchased the entire
world's supply of a part, and everyone else had to wait for more. Apple just
doesn't care anymore.

~~~
thoughtsimple
Then the Razer Stealth has a chip that doesn't do Iris Graphics making it
inappropriate for the 13" MacBook Pro. And it is a 4.5W or 15W dual core part
so it isn't appropriate for the 15" MacBook Pro. Just because one or two 7th
gen parts are shipping doesn't mean they all are.

~~~
danjoc
>Then the Razer Stealth has a chip that doesn't do Iris Graphics making it
inappropriate for the 13" MacBook Pro.

Razer uses it to drive a 4K 100% Adobe RGB display. Seems appropriate enough
to power the lower res Macbook 13" displays.

