Apple could announce move to ARM-based Macs at WWDC this month

[Shawn Knight]

Recap: Early Macintosh computers were powered by Motorola processors but in the mid-90s, Apple switched over to PowerPC. Roughly a decade later, Apple again changed its tune, opting to outfit its computers with hardware from Intel.

Apple may be weeks away from publicly revealing plans to outfit its Mac computers with ARM-based processors. Sources familiar with the matter tell Bloomberg that Apple could make the announcement at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

By announcing the shift early (the first wave of ARM-powered Macs aren’t expected to arrive until 2021), it would give developers ample time to tweak their apps to accommodate the new architecture which is fundamentally different from the Intel chips that current drive its computers.

Sources told the publication that Apple’s chip development group decided to move away from Intel due to concerns that performance gains between generations were diminishing. These sources said Apple was worried that adhering to Intel’s roadmap could be detrimental to future Macs.

Early tests appear promising. Sources say ARM-based chips have shown “sizable improvements” over Intel hardware, especially as it relates to graphics performance and with apps that use artificial intelligence. Apple’s custom hardware is also reportedly more power-efficient than Intel’s, which could result in thinner and lighter, or longer-lasting batteries in MacBooks.

WWDC kicks off on June 22 although due to Covid-19 containment measures, Apple has eliminated the in-person aspect and will be hosting the conference as a virtual event.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85549-apple-could-announce-move-arm-based-macs-wwdc.html

 

[Shadowboxer]

Not surprising, Apples silicon is far superior to anything Intel and AMD are making these days. It’s like those companies have stalled!

 

[gigantor21]

This seems like a FAR better use of their own custom chips than the iPad Pros.

Really interested in seeing how they perform.

 

[CrisisDog]

I’ve been through every processor migration that the Macs have been through. As interesting as this new technology appears, I don’t care to go through another round. I can practically guarantee that brand new $6000+ Mac Pro will be obsolete in four years, which for the price, is just crazy.

 

[Beerfloat]

I’ll reserve judgement until they are actually available. I mean, if they are like twice as fast as anything else out there then that would certainly be something to think about. But for me personally, losing the option to bootcamp into Windows and Linux would be a big blow to any Mac’s utility. And that’s in addition to already being annoyed with not having any Nvidia options in Apple land for some years now.

 

[enemys]

I’ll reserve judgement until they are actually available. I mean, if they are like twice as fast as anything else out there then that would certainly be something to think about. But for me personally, losing the option to bootcamp into Windows and Linux would be a big blow to any Mac’s utility. And that’s in addition to already being annoyed with not having any Nvidia options in Apple land for some years now.

Shifting to ARM doesn't have to result in loosing other OSes support, since both Linux and Windows support ARM. Linux isn't officially supported on Macs anyway (I know older Macs can run it fine, I'm just speaking about what Apple offers OOTB), but Apple could still offer W10 on ARM in Bootcamp. We'll see if they decide to do it.

 

[Beerfloat]

Sure, but it’s not quite that simple. Windows on Apple ARM would require close cooperation between Apple and Microsoft to materialize, as Windows would at the very least need to support the Apple CPUs, GPUs, chipsets, system management controller, T2 security chip (or whatever equivalent of that will be in these systems). It could happen, yes, but let’s be fair here.. Apple isn’t exactly the most open and sharing company around. They’d need to want it to happen.

And then there’s software, particularly performance applications and games. Might sort of work under X86 emulation perhaps. Will that offer a great experience? Going by current Windows on ARM, probably not.

In theory it is all possible. In practice I think it won’t end up anywhere near as useful as current X86 Bootcamp. We’ll have to see.

 

[Cubi Dorf]

I am suspect the real motivation is to get ios and ipad os apps on mac. I am bet this will be first mac that require app store to load apps. apple want to take portion of app sales in mac like they do on ios and ipad. App sale is where they are make the big monies. intel becoming too slow is poor smoke and mirrors attempt.

 

[Irata]

I am most curious what this will mean wrt their dGPU options. You can only get them on the 16in Pro models but I wonder if a dGPU will be available at all.

 

[Jerry in WA]

ARM based CPUs are going to be faster than Intels? I cannot wait to see the benchmarks to validate that statement (or not). Seems like a tall order.