News Report: Apple Unleashing Arm-Based Macs In 2021, USB 4 Integration in 2022

[Admin]

It looks like Apple is considering a transition to Arm, but there are still some obstacles.

Report: Apple Unleashing Arm-Based Macs In 2021, USB 4 Integration in 2022 : Read more

 

[TechLurker]

They've made this same rumor so many times and yet it doesn't seem to be happening. Maybe I'm just jaded from one too many cries of "wolf".

I'm half-expecting Apple to jump ship to AMD first before ARM, at least on desktop, partly because AMD's semi-custom solutions is better established vs Intel and could get Apple an exclusive TR or EPYC variant with some missing features like AVX-512 and Registered ECC RAM, and partly because Apple has already been doing business with AMD as far as GPUs go.

As well, AMD is already in a unique position to work in their IF/Infinity Architecture to further blend CPU and GPU as one single, giant APU and being able to share memory to further improve workloads. There's also the fact that Thunderbolt 3 is now royalty-free and included in the USB4 spec, so one less reason to keep Intel.

Apple can still save on costs, while charging the same excessive premiums and banking the difference. AMD would also benefit with Apple funding a bit of the improvements and refinements too to bring even more workstation value to TR/EPYC.

 

[velocityg4]

If anything for ARM. I'd expect some custom solution with it acting as a coprocessor. Something energy efficient for running system background tasks and an improved Power Nap. Perhaps running iOS apps natively in a windowed mode. While the x86 CPU remains the main processor. They could even make a processor module for the existing Mac Pro like the old DOS Card days or even older IIe card days. Anyone remember Orange Micro cards?🆒

They've made this same rumor so many times and yet it doesn't seem to be happening. Maybe I'm just jaded from one too many cries of "wolf".

I'm half-expecting Apple to jump ship to AMD first before ARM, at least on desktop, partly because AMD's semi-custom solutions is better established vs Intel and could get Apple an exclusive TR or EPYC variant with some missing features like AVX-512 and Registered ECC RAM, and partly because Apple has already been doing business with AMD as far as GPUs go.

As well, AMD is already in a unique position to work in their IF/Infinity Architecture to further blend CPU and GPU as one single, giant APU and being able to share memory to further improve workloads. There's also the fact that Thunderbolt 3 is now royalty-free and included in the USB4 spec, so one less reason to keep Intel.

Apple can still save on costs, while charging the same excessive premiums and banking the difference. AMD would also benefit with Apple funding a bit of the improvements and refinements too to bring even more workstation value to TR/EPYC.

EPYC certainly would have made way more sense for the Mac Pro. What with the additional PCIe lanes, PCIe 4.0, lower price and more cores. It also looks as though it can support more RAM.

Threadripper would be a better solution for the iMac Pro. Given many of the same reasons. Same for the Ryzen and the rest of the Mac lineup. Although I'm not aware of how Zen 2 holds up in the mobile space against current Intel offerings. Early teaser benchmarks look compelling.