AMD is beating intel on price and performance and they have a fraction of the resources of Apple.
Intel is behind on process and has been for a couple of generations right as everyone hits a process wall.
For the first time since I got into computers in the late 80s Intel looks vulnerable.
As to whether Apple would go ARM on a MacBook who knows, I’d guess they wouldn’t but they could straight buy AMD in cash so it’s not beyond the realm they could tool up for desktop class ARM.
AMD is making a bigger dent in Intel than Apple ever will. Apple doesn't even have 10% of laptop marketshare whereas AMD are currently at 20% for laptops and on a steady climb. Not to mention both the desktop and server markets where AMD is doing even better. So unless you think the whole PC world is going to switch to macOS or there exists another company capable of competing with AMD using ARM, we're not going to see a whole lot of change.
Apple, like all big vendors, is trapped by the mobile processors. There is still no way around Intel there. Until they are willing to get rid of Intel Chips in their whole lineup, they can't offer AMD chips in their desktop machines. For the same reason, AMD didn't gain dominance in the times the Opteron ran circles around the Intel chips.
Because this type of things are a +10 year commitment and Apple wants stability, they can't risk their whole Mac product line if AMD makes another Bulldozer dud.
AMD is clearly better now, but Apple just needs the CPUs not to suck, so Intel it is.
Intel is lagging behind AMD. If anything, Apple should jump ship for AMD and not have to screw-over their entire install-base and everyone's software and hardware investments. Going to ARM would be extremely stupid... an iPad isn't a laptop and vice-versa, and trying to force them to merge prematurely doesn't speak to any sense of product life or support.
You made a strawman regarding titanium. For as much as the recent Apple computers cost, a MacBook Pro should have ECC memory and plenty of ports, while a MacBook should not.
The idea here must be that somehow Apple or AMD have figured out the magic sauce to making faster processors, while Intel of all companies is oblivious to it and won't be able to catch up.
In reality, there is nothing that Apple or AMD are doing that Intel could not also do, isn't already doing, or isn't in a hurry to also do.
Consider that at 14nm+++++, Intel still manages to outpace AMD with its 7nm CPUs and latest architecture. AMD competes mainly on price, which is not a great position to be in. Intel's profit margins are massively better.
It's possible that x86 will become less relevant in the future, but in that case Intel will still be one of the be best chip designers in the industry. They will once again produce ARM chips, perhaps borrow one or two insights from Apple's architecture. They will continue to outsource manufacturing to other fabs, perhaps even become fabless.
Well Apple is certainly an interesting choice, and maybe if this happened like 2 years ago, they might've done it, too. However, I think they are too far along building their ARM SoC for Macs right now, and it would take them more than 2 years to put AMD's chips on the right track. Plus, if Apple bought them, would they even be allowed to keep them for themselves? Wouldn't that mean Intel would remain the only competitor in x86 for Windows devices?
I believe AMD has an incentive to give Apple a good deal. They got a lot of attention from some areas for their new processors but most non technical users are still Intel first. If Apple starts selling with AMD it could boost their image and help them massively in other areas (e.g. servers, workstations) as well.
I'm puzzled why you think that. Apple doesn't compete with Intel and AMD. If those companies produced a better ARM chip they'd be happy to sell it to Apple. Even a non ARM chip, Apple has shown they'll switch.
What would make Apple sweat at this point? Google must have when it seemed like they were going to produce high end consumer versions of ChromeOS laptops and Android phones. That's the kind of integrated experience that would compete with enough money behind it to get somewhere. Google blew that one though.
I'm not like pro Apple, I just don't think they care that much what Intel does.
Funny... A move to AMD would be less disruptive to the macOS ecosystem and would solve the roadmap issues. It seems AMD will have the lead for a good couple years right now.
Intel must be creating a lot of problems for Apple to warrant this move. Or maybe AMD is not willing to give Apple the same sweet deal Intel gave Apple to get the transition.
It's kind of the same situation with Tesla vs. the big car companies. They were always going to catch up, and they made huge progress in the last few years. AMD and Intel have spent decades trading places, sometimes with unethical practices that would make 2000s Microsoft blush. I'm not sure Apple is prepared for what happens when AMD and Intel both come for them.
Maybe this is 2005 Me talking, but I simply don't trust AMD to do anything well. To be fair, both Intel and them have had high profile failures where the product either didn't work at all or didn't perform adequately (Itanium and Bulldozer).
The AMD I remember also had a tendency to over estimate performance and underclock parts, (1800+, anyone?) even if they could sell them for less.
It's this part that makes me think Apple wouldn't want to deal with them. For all of Intel's missteps, Apple choosing AMD because they are the cheaper alternative smells weird to me.
Does Apple actually invests into laptop/desktop development? They are usually couple of years behind competition (DDR3, Sky Lake chips). While their ARM chips are heavily developed.
I think they decided long time ago that ARM is good enough, and are waiting for train to stop to change the engine. It is not about Intel quality, but about saving money and independence. AMD is not even considered as an alternative...
I think amd may be on the verge of fixing a lot of the problems that intel has run into in their inability to move forward quickly - the 10nm switch is potentially devestating intel (intel's slow pace of advancement is kind of what the article eventually gets to). If apple said they were going to focus on amd chips at this point, the market would be excited. Are those apple arms going to be able to really handle the cpu load and scale over time like large market intel and amd design teams are scaling investments over billions of devices? I'd just be afraid apple isn't quite big enough. It's very exciting when a change like this comes along in any case. Will they run x86 'legacy' mac programs at a reasonable speed?
AMD does just fine competing with Apple, they had chips competing with the M1 on 7nm silicon, 18 months before the M1 hit shelves. Intel is shaken, but their roadmap is starting to look competitive again for the first time since Skylake. Apple's only defense was their control over the 5nm node, which is gone now. We have 4nm GPUs that make Apple's offerings look like toys, and the 5nm AMD APUs are highly competitive with even Apple's highest-end chip.
Apple made the right choice abandoning Intel on the 10nm node, but they don't have a roadmap from here besides "get better silicon". The competition is hot, and I don't think either my next laptop or desktop will be ARM based (unless someone out-performs Apple).
Apple has been screwed by CPU manufacturers 3 times already, or do you think they changed architectures because they were having great fun doing that?
In the past 3 years I've seen more and more people asking not for an Arm Mac, but for an AMD Mac. Because AMD is again cheaper and faster than Intel.
But it appears Apple can now afford to build their own CPUs that are better and lower power than either AMD or Intel. Not to mention PowerPC, which is still around in some form at IBM :)
It's a no brainer for them. No one can screw them over now except themselves.
I would guess that Apple always had plans to switch to their own arm cpus. Perhaps what happened is that their experience with Intel was so bad that they chose to accelerate those plans, rather than have to deal with AMD.
Most likely Apple has a contract with Intel for some kind of deal on the price, so switching to AMD would incur a round of lawyers and negotiations to get a similar price. That doesn't come for free, so if they had other plans in the works, it would make sense to move faster rather than try and do something for a short period of time.
Intel is behind on process and has been for a couple of generations right as everyone hits a process wall.
For the first time since I got into computers in the late 80s Intel looks vulnerable.
As to whether Apple would go ARM on a MacBook who knows, I’d guess they wouldn’t but they could straight buy AMD in cash so it’s not beyond the realm they could tool up for desktop class ARM.
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