The right to bear ARMs: Apple eyeing switch from Intel to ARM in 2013, report claims

By on May 6, 2011 at 7:38 AM
Rumor May 6, 2011

Blog SemiAccurate has published an interesting article stating that Apple intends to move its desktop and laptop computer systems from the Intel x86 architecture to ARM-based architecture in the semi-near future. “The short story is that Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible,” reads the posting. “With A15/Eagle allowing more than 32-bit memory access, things look up, but it seems silly to do so before the full 64 bit cores come in the following generation. [...] Think mid-2013. At that point, Apple can move to ARM without worrying about obsoleting code with an ISA [instruction set architecture] that is on the verge of changing, and no memory overhead worries either.” Apple’s iOS line of products are powered by ARM silicon. The publication cites “moles” as the source of the information — moles that have provided accurate intel (pun intended) about Apple’s manufacturing component choices in the past. Will Apple shift desktop architectures yet again? Will we get to see more commercials featuring barbecued moon men? Time will tell.

[Via Mac Rumors]

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  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

    Doing whatever they can do to try and beat off the anDroid domination.

    • Anonymous

      What Android domination? Apple is still making more than 50% of all the mobile profits.

      • Jesster King

        How could they not with those crazy ass profit margins.

      • iOS/Windows/Android Neutral

        Those “crazy ass profit margins” come by charging customers more than they need to and having a closed (albeit solid) ecosystem. Android is catching on as a result. ARM is evolving faster and with more energy efficiency in the mobile space so if you believe that there is a mobile tsunami then ARM has to be considered in your architecture no? (if you believe what you read).

      • Anonymous

        Those crazy profit margins also come from Apple being able to prepay for their supplies and from economies of scale. When a single manufacturer is able to spit out so much more product (that sells) than competitors, the margins are going to be higher.

    • Anonymous

      Sureee

    • Anonymous

      @Norm_4G_LTE:disqus What does this nonexistent droid domination you speak of? First off arm has been in the iphone for sometime now. And the last time I checked google doesn’t make there own computers. Man you need a woman bad.

  • Anonymous

    I really hope this doesn’t happen. Don’t you remember when Apple constantly claimed the Mac had the most powerful processor in the world when they were using PowerPC processors, despite all benchmarks saying otherwise.

    • Matthew

      I agree i forget if the powerpc processers were IBM. But i remember apple also having processors made by Motorola and think Intel processors were a very good choice with apple computers. I would think Apple would either have stayed with Intel or switched to AMD but not a manufacturer that makes processors for smartphones.

  • Anonymous

    I hope if they do this they will at the very least build in an emulator to ease the pain again.

  • Bullet Tooth Tony

    Everything old is new again? PowerPC redux…

    Seems counter-intuitive to what they were going for when adopting Intel…

    • Anonymous

      Is it written some where that everyone has to use intel. intel has so far been lacking in the mobile space.

    • Anonymous

      agree with assb10yr4.

      They’ve already ported the kernel to ARM, and it’s not like they haven’t cross-compiled onto a few different architectures in their day (68K, Intel (back in 92), HP-RISC, SPARC, then to PowerPC, then back again to Intel, then to ARM for iOS.

      My guess. Ivy Bridge pricing is being quoted at too high, and too long of lead time for Apple’s desire of domination. They float out that they are going to take some 15Million desktop/laptop per annum units and move them to ARM (along with the loss of all the netbook sales), and are hoping Intel will give them most-favored vendor pricing.

      Make Intel compete against a rival. It only improves the product (price) in the end.

  • Anonymous

    This isn’t surprising given that MS revealed that Windows 8 would support ARM. It only makes sense as the ARM computing power increases. Intel better step up their game in this area or be marginalized on the consumer side.

  • Paul

    Take a look at the categories in the semiaccurate article.May 5, 2011 in Channel, Finance, Humor, Microprocessors, Mobile, RumorsSeems someone submitted their april fools article more than a month late.

  • KCRic

    Apple is still using 32 bit processors? Welcome to 1998…

    • KCRic_is_stupid

      Actually all of their computers use 65-bit and have for a number of years now.

      • Dave

        obvious typo on the 65-bit but true none the less.

  • Apple-Fandroid

    Jailbreak + Install Windows 8; Collapse Planet

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=775155491 Marcos Duran

    This is not going to happen. The entire article sounds like an episode of My Little Pony. Intel is delivering great products to Apple, they just launched Thunderbolt, which is amazing, and a rewrite of OSX just when it is maturing would be idiotic. Does anyone see Apple going back to the days of Rosetta and support for multiple platforms? They would avoid that complexity at all costs.

    • Mattsalasrn

      Actually, this is a lot more likely than you suspect. Intel has a very weak, if non-existent showing with respect to mobile processors (don’t even bother mentioning atom, cheap and small won’t cut it). With Lion coming out later this year we will see apple’s first step towards uniting osX and iOS into a single platform, which, don’t fool yourself, is absolutely their ultimate plan. Look at how their line-up is shifting and ask yourself; can I imagine an ARM processor in a MacBook Air? (yup), can I imagine an ARM processor in a Mac mini? (hell yes I can), can I imagine an ARM processor in a MacBook Pro or iMac? (hmmm, not so sure). I can only imagine that Apple is completely aware of the direction ARM is taking with their development, in ways we aren’t. If the goal is to have “iOSX”, or whatever it ends up being called, on everything they sell, from an iPad/iPhone to and iMac, then conformity under the hood, with a single line of processors, not only makes sense, but may be essential. Microsoft sells several versions of Windows with more or less of it’s features either activated for powerful machines, or shut off for weaker ones. Who’s to say that my iPhone will not simply run a basic version of the same OS that my Mac will.

      It goes without saying that I will aggressively hack said basic version to get all the juice, but looking at Apples app store for Mac, and statements regarding the similarities of iOS and Lion, I can only believe that apple is going all the way. They want to see phones and tablets having all the capability of a full computer, and they want computers to enjoy the simplicity of workflow that is enjoyed with a phone.

  • Anonymous

    This move is silly if true. You may think, oh this is fantastic, but it is counter productive, they just moved to Intel chips , now they are moving to another platform? Come on.

    I still get more power out of my desktop processor then any mobile processor. Same will probably be true 5 years from now with the latest desktop processors VS ARM processors.

  • http://philswenson.com Phil Swenson

    Nope. No more Windows via parallels/VM Ware would kill sales. Intel switch is what really launched the current surge in Mac sales.

  • Anonymous

    And what advantage would this gain for Apple? Intel dominates desktop processing and they already get amazing battery life off of laptops (assuming that power consumption is the only thing keeping Intel from dominating mobile computing as well).

  • Anonymous

    Convergence baby.

    iOS on ARM, then OSX on ARM, merge the UI’s then share a kernel and boom, Apple just simplified their world from two in to one platform. OSX was never going to overtake Windows but iOS just might, so merge the two and Apple get a single platform that wins in the handset, tablet, laptop and eventually desktop market.

    They don’t ever have to “kill” OSX, just merge it.

  • http://www.chrisdpratt.com Chris Pratt

    SemiAccurate is a good name for that blog. This is simply not going to happen. Moving to ARM would break compatibility with all sorts of things that are actually giving Macs a foothold in the consumer and enterprise space: Boot Camp, Office:Mac, etc.

    It’s possible we’ll see a line of “laptops” running ARM, like some lovechild of the iPad and the MacBook Air, but there will be Intel MacBooks long into the foreseeable future.

  • Anonymous

    Way to copy msft!

  • Anonymous

    Can we combine this rumor with the one that Intel will soon by making Apple’s ARM chips? Apple isn’t leaving Intel. They just had a love child called ThunderBolt.

  • Anonymous

    very interesting theories abound. i am curious to know exactly what the advantages of moving apple desktops / laptops to the ARM platform would provide. i realize iOS devices run on their hardware already. is it price? is it innovation? is it going for uniformity… all apple devices on ARM? then the merging conspiracy (osx vs. ios) rears its head again. i still don’t see how ios becomes osx. there will be shared features, etc. but desktop and laptop computing environments are different from small mobile handheld computing environments. this idea of one os on everything is fascinating, but is it feasible, or even possible? i guess we just wait and see.

  • http://twitter.com/FrankJL9 Frank lopez

    Funny. Now a days stupid blogs simply slap apple in their titles along with rumors to get hits.

    Is the new maketing craze.

    Regarding this it is simply idiotic if true. Mac os x on intel is just not maturing why would they take steps back again?

  • JP

    Crazy thought: Maybe Apple’s just going to do away with OS X altogether after Lion, and is going all-iOS across all form factors. Lion’s shaping up to be more and more iOS-like anyway. That would certainly support this rumor of the switch from Intel to ARM architecture…

  • Anonymous

    Basically in a few years there will be little demand for local processing power. Everything will be crunched in the cloud and streamed to you in HD. Thus the most important bottleneck on chips moves to power consumption and custom video decoding, hence ARM.

    Of course some pro machines will still need local processing power but Apple will still be able to deliver that by clustering 100+ ARM cores.

  • Anonymous

    If this ends up being as big a deal as the switch from Power PC to Intel I think this will be a bad move. I’m not as familiar with the differences between ARM and x86/x64 so it may not be a big deal at all.

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