Computer Hope
Software => Apple => Topic started by: Geek-9pm on January 10, 2019, 09:08:51 PM
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Do you?
Have you read this thing in MacWorld ?
Apple should drop Intel for AMD (https://www.macworld.com/article/3331849/macs/apple-should-drop-intel-for-amd.html)
Rumor has it that Apple is planning to produce its own CPUs and GPUs for Macs. Those T2 processors we have today are just a tiny first step—the big leap is to take something like the A12X and build a MacBook around it. It makes sense from the perspective of both power-to-performance ratio and a cost-to-performance ratio. Perhaps more importantly, it puts Apple fully in control of its whole platform, and allows the company to innovate in ways it can’t when it cedes the very heart of its computers to other companies.
Myself, It is hard to believe. :-\
What do you think?
But fist look at this:
Apple is actively working on Macs that replace Intel CPUs (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/apple-is-exploring-macs-running-its-own-cpus-but-that-dream-is-a-long-way-off/)
A new Bloomberg report claims Apple is working on its own CPUs for the Mac, with the intent to ultimately replace the Intel chips in its computers with those it designs in-house.
According to Bloomberg's sources, the project (which is internally called Kalamata) is in the very early planning stages, but it has been approved by executives at the company. The report says that Apple could ship computers based on its own processors as early as 2020, but the report also says this would be part of a "multi-step transition" in a larger effort to make iOS devices and Macs "work more similarly and seamlessly together." Apple could still change or drop these plans in the future.
;D
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I can't see any reason to move to AMD, nor does that article particularly give any compelling reasons for them to do it. I can definitely see the moving to ARM in the future which is what most articles about "Apple dropping Intel" are about and given the current year on year performance gains on ARM vs on x86 along with Apple already having experience of switching CPU architecture multiple times in the past, I wouldn't see this as a particularly bad thing either.
As for the move to AMD, I cannot see this happening (for the CPUs anyway, they already use AMD for GPUs) - Out of the reasons in the article, literally the only one that's remotely valid is price to performance ratio. The fact that one of the points is that the AMD subreddit has more members than the Intel one (clearly forgetting that AMD both make CPUs and GPUs) clearly shows the author was clutching at straws.
For Apple to move to AMD, it means they would have to support both Intel and AMD with their software whereas currently they only need to support Intel. Intel also tend to be ahead of AMD when it comes to mobile chips (which is a fairly large part of Apple's market) and Intel also supports technologies such as Quick Sync which massively accelerates video encoding. This is likely why my MacBook Pro can render H.264 video almost twice as fast as my Ryzen 7 1700x desktop!
Then let's not forget that AMD don't currently have any sort of official support for ThunderBolt 3 which is one of the key features of the new Macs - having used it on my MacBook Pro with a ThunderBolt 3 docking station, I can't see myself getting a machine without it in the future. Apple even now have official eGPU support over ThunderBolt 3.
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Thunderbolt 3 ???
Your remark about ThunderBolt 3 got me. I plead ignorance. :-[
So I am now trying to get up-to-date on ThunderBolt 3 stuff. 8)
This will take awhile. :||
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It's essentially a new port co developed by Intel and Apple (although it's also available on PCs too) which uses a single USB C connector to carry power, USB, DisplayPort and, most importantly, PCI-E over a single cable. This allows connection of regular USB peripherals and monitors all the way thorough to PCI Express devices such as full graphics cards. With my system I use a ThunderBolt 3 docking station (CalDigit TS3 Plus) connected to all my devices so with a single cable into my laptop I can connect power, a pair of monitors, keyboard, mouse, audio interface connected to my speakers and a gigabit wired network. If I wanted to I could even daisy chain a GPU off of the dock and still have a single cable to the laptop. It's also fully backwards compatible so you can still connect regular USB and displayport devices. It's by far the most flexible interface available on the market.
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Let's see if I have this right.
It is not just a smaller connector and higher speed.
It is also a more complex protocol.
It requires new design back into the CPU and GPU.
That last thing is hard for me to grasp. It would suggest only devices with the best CPU/GPU could offer the full range of new features of Thunderbolt 3.
So then,if AMD is not into this new stuff, they can not come to the party.
Is that right? :-\
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Yeah, the connector carries PCI Express and is pretty tightly tied to the chipset (and GPU on some machines). As far as I'm aware it's now royalty free but would still require CPU and chipset support which AMD don't currently offer.