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[Tom's Hardware] Apple Considering Moving Macs Away From Intel Chips

post #1 of 278
10/4/12 at 4:28pm
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Quote:
Apple has supposedly "deliberated" moving its series of Mac systems away from Intel processors.
However, the move apparently isn't "imminent." The details stem from a profile of Apple's CEO Tim Cook by Businessweek that cite two unnamed sources who are familiar with Apple's internal discussions.

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Apple-Macs-Intel-Chips-AMD,18140.html

 

I don't think this change will happen any time soon; however, with the supposed increase in price of Haswell processors, who knows?

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post #2 of 278
10/4/12 at 4:40pm
Back to PowerPC?

Better yet. ARM?

Moving to AMD would definitely be a nail in the coffin for Apple.
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post #3 of 278
10/4/12 at 4:41pm
Kinda of makes sense, the iMac lineup isn't exactly the most cooling friendly computer ever made. If they move to AMD's APU's for the entry level iMacs, they would retain passable graphical power and processing power, but would eliminate the additional cost and heat of a discrete GPU.

They can then label it as revolutionary and charge even more for less.
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post #4 of 278
10/4/12 at 4:44pm
They will probably move toward AMD and then proceed to charge more for lesser hardware, citing that their new chips are better than intel.
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post #5 of 278
10/4/12 at 4:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kand View Post

Back to PowerPC?
Better yet. ARM?
Moving to AMD would definitely be a nail in the coffin for Apple.

I doubt they will be going Power PC seeing as they got rid of all Power PC support with Lion.
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post #6 of 278
10/4/12 at 4:50pm
Do it Apple, go for it!
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post #7 of 278
10/4/12 at 5:04pm
I read this as a move away from x86, not a move to another x86 maker (AMD). Picking up AMD x86 parts would make virtually no sense at all.

IBM/PowerPC doesn't make much sense either, as they have no current software that's designed to run on it, and it's hard to imagine what most Apple products do that PowerPC would be better for.

ARM would be my guess as to what they are considering. This way they could consolidate their phone, tablet, and Mac brands.
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post #8 of 278
10/4/12 at 5:08pm
an ARM laptop? It's not completely insane, knowing how focused they are in putting all their efforts into the iphone and ipad. Would be tricky to code all other software that Apple usually touts for it's macbook lineup.
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post #9 of 278
10/4/12 at 5:09pm
It would be pretty funny to see them tout an AMD CPU as being faster. Bear in mind I am talking purely the CPU, not any onboard GPU or anything.
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post #10 of 278
10/4/12 at 5:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kand View Post

Back to PowerPC?
Better yet. ARM?
Moving to AMD would definitely be a nail in the coffin for Apple.

I dunno. Most apple users are clueless on technical stuff.

That said, AMD would have to close the performance gap somewhat most likely. Then again, AMD has much better iGPU performance so who knows.
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