As you may already know, Apple uses Intel’s silicon on its Mac line of products, however, in 2016 it added an ARM chip for the new MacBook Pro models which had the new Touch Bar. The ARM processor which has been designed and developed by Apple’s in-house chipset team led by John Srouji who leads the hardware technologies division at Apple is said to be called T310 internally.
Apple released its first Mac SoC the T1 which powers the operating system behind the touch bar user interface and also houses a secure enclave for the Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the current MacBook Pro models.
What’s Power Nap?
With the T310, Apple is looking at augmenting the power nap capability of MacBooks. Power Nap is a feature which enables the notebook to update calendars, pull emails and download software updates while even its screen is off. Currently, Macs use Intel’s chips for this function, and they sip minute levels of power during power nap.
As ARM chips are known for their power efficiency and better thermal signatures, if Apple augments its MacBooks with them, power nap could be even more power efficient and theoretically contribute towards a significant boost in battery life.
Apple software and hardware might
Apple is known for end-to-end control which has delivered it incredible success in the hardware space. Be it the iPhone, the iPad, Apple TV or even the iPods — its products have always been an interplay of software and hardware which are tuned to death so that they can work in concert with each other.
Since 2010 and the A4 chip on the iPhone 4, Apple’s team has built a capability like no-other hardware maker in the world. With the iPhone 5s in 2013, Apple even managed to usurp Qualcomm and beat to releasing a 64-bit A7 ARM based processor.
It showcases this continued might with the new iPhone 7 models and the A10 SoC and even managed to deliver class leading graphics performance with the A9X processor powered iPad Pro models.
On Macs, it doesn’t have this kind of end-to-end control as it depends on Intel for the processors. In the past few years, as the impact of Moore’s Law has diminished, Apple’s laptop offering have also suffered as a by product as Intel has been unable to deliver a groundbreaking solution for Apple’s notebooks.
Is a shift to ARM possible for Apple?
An customised ARM based chip for the Mac could go a long-way towards doing that however that would also involve completely rearchitecting macOS so that its apps work on ARM based processors. Even if that happens, Apple will need help from developers who’d need to port their existing apps to ARM or perhaps it would need to create an emulation tool of sorts which would enable existing apps to work with an ARM based Mac.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is taking a measured approach and bit by bit parsing some workloads on to the ARM chip. With the T1 chip on the 2016 Mac, it only deals with the OS for the Touch Bar and the fingerprint scanner. On the T310 which Bloomberg is reporting about it would start connecting with the storage and wireless systems of the notebook which means some apps could be adapted on some granular level for ARM.
Is Apple transitioning away from Intel?
In the long term, a move away from Intel’s processor could be a possibility as Apple has a proven capability in-house with cutting edge ARM processors. Over the years, Johny Srouji’s team has whipped out custom silicon based on ARMs designs which have ensured Apple’s iOS powered devices have had a significant performance advantage over competitor’s suing Qualcomm’s chipsets and Google’s Android operating system.
However, Apple isn’t likely to move away from Intel anytime soon at least on the MacBooks. Intel is still by far the most technologically advanced maker of PC chipsets and even if Apple adds an ARM based chip on the Macs, it isn’t likely to talk it up.
Even when the company announced the 2016 line of MacBook Pro models with the Touch Bar it didn't reveal that it had added its own custom silicon into the mix. To keep Intel happy, it is likely to not make any mention of this chip.
Should Intel be worried?
While Apple’s Mac line of notebooks only contribute 7.5 percent of global notebook shipments as per IDC, Intel should be worried. It has missed the bus in mobile and now ARM chips are the most widely used ones as opposed to its x86 processors.
Apple’s MacBook have set the standard for the industry for what can be achieved on a pro-grade notebook. They also push the limits when it comes down to design and thermal dynamics of a modern laptop. If Apple doesn’t use Intel’s silicon perhaps Intel wouldn’t be pushed to innovate so fast.
If one dials back to 2008 when Steve Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air, it was only made possible with Intel’s collaboration which highlights how Apple has impacted Intel’s chipset roadmap.
Foundries like Taiwan Semi Conductor and Global Foundries have caught up to Intel. Samsung is also breathing down its neck. Qualcomm has already announced a 10nm Snapdragon 835 processor right at the same time as Intel.
Intel has also been forced to open its foundries to fabricate ARM based chips which shows that gone are the days of Intel’s dominance in the chipset business
No comments:
Post a Comment