ARM Processor | Mobiles365

The 12-inch MacBook with Intel processors was discontinued just more than a year ago, but it seems that it was all part of Apple’s strategy to make way for its new ARM-powered MacBooks. Earlier this year, Apple announced that it was going to stop using Intel processors in its Macs to give way to a new wave ARM-powered products. This transition will take Apple around two years, but it seems that the first model to embrace the change will be the 12-inch MacBook by the end of this year.

“Industry sources pointed out that the first A14X processor designed by Apple has been finalized and will begin mass production using TSMC’s 5nm process before the end of the year.
“Apple’s supply chain industry pointed out that by the end of this year, Apple is expected to launch a Macbook with a 12-inch Retina Display, using a self-developed and designed A14X processor. The processor is codenamed Tonga and supports a USB Type-C interface. It will weigh less than 1 kilogram.
“Because of the low power consumption of the Arm architecture processor, the battery life of the new Macbook can reach 15 to 20 hours.”

The new 12-inch MacBook is also expected to deliver up to 20 hours of battery life, and changes don’t stop there. Apple may also be working in developing its own GPUs, and these could even arrive in the second half of 2021, inside an iMac.

“In the past, Apple introduced Mac personal computers with Intel CPUs, equipped with Huida or AMD GPUs, but industry insiders pointed out that Apple has cancelled support for AMD GPUs in the macOS Arm 64-bit operating system, indicating that Apple will be adopted in the future. Silicon’s Mac personal computers may use a GPU developed and designed by Apple. Recently, the industry has reported that in addition to Apple Silicon processors, Apple’s iMac desktops launched next year will also be equipped with self-developed and designed Apple GPUs.

“According to relevant sources, Apple’s self-developed GPU is progressing smoothly. The research and development code is Lifuka. Like the upcoming A14X processor, it is produced using TSMC’s 5nm process. Apple has designed a series of processors for Mac personal computers. The new GPU will provide better performance per watt and higher computing performance. It has tile-based deferred rendering technology that allows application developers to write More powerful professional application software and game software.”

However, these possible changes have also affected other companies, as Apple could’ve asked TSMC to stop making chips for Huawei, as Cupertino wants to make sure the chipmaker has enough capacity to supply its needs. Of course, the US ban on Huawei makes this an easy decision for TSMC, leaving MediaTek as the only possible supplier for Huawei Silicon in the near future. These last details suggest that the report’s source may be TSMC employees or consultants, which would make this report from China Times more reliable.

Source MacRumors

Via 9to5Mac

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It seems that Apple may go back to making 12-inch MacBook laptops. However, these new devices would arrive with Apple’s new Arm-based processors. Now, @choco_bit has shared his ideas on twitter on these new laptops.

Rumors suggest that Apple will soon stop using Intel processors in its future Macs and that these will be replaced by new Arm-based chips. Some are already expecting these changes to be announced on the next WWDC. Leaker @choco_bit believes that Apple will revive its 12-inch MacBook to introduce these new Arm-based chips. He also mentions that it may even arrive with a butterfly keyboard.

“There are rumors that Apple is still working internally to perfect the infamous Butterfly keyboard, and there are also signs that Apple is developing an A14x based processors with 8-12 cores designed specifically for use as the primary processor in a Mac. It makes sense that this model could see the return of the Butterfly keyboard, considering how thin and light it is intended to be, and using an A14x processor would make it will be a very capable, very portable machine, and should give customers a good taste of what is to come.”

He also mentions some of the advantages that these new processors may have over the ones from Intel. First of all, it would allow Apple to cut ties with Intel. They would also feature faster performance, reduced power consumption, and significant gains in graphics performance and apps using AI. But he also mentions the difficulties that Apple may have to endure when it transitions to these new Arm-based chips.

“- Developer will need to build both x86_64 and ARM version of their app – App Bundles have supported multiple-architecture binaries since the dawn of OS X and the PowerPC transition

– Move to apps being distributed in an architecture-independent manner, as they are on the App Store. There is some software changes that are suggestive of this, such as the new architecture in dyld3.

– An x86_64 instruction decoder in silicon – very unlikely due to the significant overhead this would create in the silicon design, and potential licensing issues. (ARM, being a RISC, “reduced instruction set”, has very few instructions; x86_64 has thousands)

– Server-side ahead-of-time transpilation (converting x86 code to equivalent ARM code) using Notarization submissions – Apple certainly has the compiler chops in the LLVM team to do something like this

– Outright emulation, similar to the approach that was taken in ARM releases of Windows, but received extremely poorly (limited to 32-bit apps, and very very slow)There could be other solutions in the works to fix this but I am not aware of any. This is just me speculating about some of the possibilities.”

Source MacRumors

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