CPU - ARM versus x86

My next mobile device is likely to be the iPad Pro.
A12x is killing laptops Mac or Windows using Intel chips.

So you get better performance with less heat and no power brick.

Is this the beginning of the end for Intel, as Mac will move to its own chips in the near future? Does Windows need to get in the chip business to survive? What happened to Intel?

On the hiring front, I hear that Intel isn't paying for the best talent so it shouldn't expect to maintain its dominance.

 

You can't compare the A12X to an Intel CPU, they are apples and oranges. One is an ARM processor, the other is x86 - one uses RISC and the other uses CISC. You cannot run x86 applications on ARM hardware without emulation, which kills performance.

 

It isn't killing but giving a good run for the money. In time though Intel could be in trouble, just not yet.

 

They will need to sit up and take notice if Apple is able to get a full-fat version of MacOS running on its ARM processors. As of right now, iOS is still trash for productivity.

 

There is no professional workflow that also focuses on productivity that the fruity company excels at today. Maybe for a painter/artist? But even then, Surface Pro is a great alternative with a better ecosystem. But they can both do their art with non-digital devices just as easily too. So the hardware is really not as important as you seem to think it is.

Great hardware does not make for great experiences, on its own.

The way the fruity company is going, I'm worried (and have been for a while) that it will become old news before Intel, AMD or any of the real O/S options becomes so.

MS would benefit immensely by having their own chips. But that is not their focus today. It may never be. What they have is the most productive O/S in the world. That is their focus and they're doing it more than just well.

And interesting that Intel keeps you updated on their hiring plans and you are capable of evaluating their level of talent too? Okay...

Intel, for all their setback in the last few years, is still the top productivity player in the world with their processors. When (not if) they kick things into high gear again, soon, this comparison you're trying to make will seem even sillier.

I'll give the fruity company the kudos for making very fluid feeling devices. But that is all for naught when their 'vision' and o/s takes control away from users in idiotic ways.

Every single person I've known that swore by them has switched to Windows. That tells you something.

Are you an artist? I wish you all the best with your new device.

 

This is incomplete thinking, even in CPU design courses, which I have taken.
If you are the user, it is not apples to oranges.
It is "how much time it took to do X on this device vs that device".
It does not matter what the devices are doing underneath.

Common user applications are optimized for each platform. But even if they're not, it does not matter to the user.

 

Which is exactly the plan, MacOS on ARM chips. The biggest threat to its success is more likely the devastating "butterfly" keyboards rather than Intel. I like Windows better than MacOS but MacOS isn't bad enough for me to forgo performance.

Coding on iOS isn't a thing but for other productivity, I think it's sufficient.
I was going to say it also lacks a bittorrent client but it seems they do exist. Haven't used one though as I have a good working setup elsewhere.

I know folks/orgs that write custom apps (not released to app store) that do video processing on iOS, even on the iPhone, because it outperforms their desktops/laptops. Not a technically precise statement but it still speaks volumes.

 

How much time does it take to copy a particular phrase from one text document and paste it to a particular part of another text document on iPad, compared to Windows/Linus/MacOS device? How much time does it take to copy a folder from iPad to external hard drive, compared to a Windows device? Oh, and while one can ink proficiently in CSP on iPad, Apple Pencil being on par with most active pen implementations on Windows devices - when the need arises to export file(s), iPad user is pretty much screwed.

To add an insult to injury, iPad doesn't support mouse input at all, thus requiring inefficient touch-oriented UIs with giant controls occupying valuable screen estate, further hampering productivity.

 

Yeah, the end is here. Not for Intel though.

Optane DIMM's+3TB persistent RAM going up to 448Threads+24TB Optane (Lenovo), 100GB NIC's and whatever else will be announced over the coming days/weeks... I think the eulogy is coming soon.

Yeah, I know, I know... the stuff dream centers are made of. Ehm... Data Centers, sorry.

But this shows what is coming for the desktop and soon enough to mere notebooks too.

The chances of not getting 1TB of Optane DIMM's in a handheld device in the not too distant future just became slim to none vs. having that reality happen now, almost as a certainty.

Fruity company and the world; your move. Hope to see the 'magic' fly!

2019 is turning out to be quite a year.

 

Intel is going to get its clock cleaned by AMD Epyc Rome.

 

Yeah? Let the games begin!

 

I do not think this is what AMD wants. AMD is not in a position if their CPU's are so much faster than the other offerings they could become the worlds predominant supplier. If all of a sudden they were the 90% supplier there would most likely soon be shortages from demand and supply.

This could also be a reason too where AMD does not want to issue out its top skews at first release. A gradual takeover of market share is a better outcome than an unsustainable flood.

 

Even if Rome is everything it's shaping up to be and Intel's new Xeons are not, AMD is not going to end up the dominant player overnight. I think more businesses will end up holding on to what they have rather than upgrading, so the transition would still be gradual.

 

Good luck getting any actual work done with an iPad. If your work consists of drawing, word processing with an external keyboard, or showing nice graphic presentations (built on an actual computer), Facebook, video chatting, etc, then yes an iPad will exceed all your needs. By the time you equip an iPad with necessary horsepower and peripherals, you might as well have bought an ultrabook. The rest of us that have work that requires actual computing wouldn’t consider they toy that is the iPad. Nearly everything Apple makes is catered towards media consumption and personal entertainment, not actual professional grade workstations. They make some of the best Facebook machines in the world I’ll give them that.

 

All fluff with nothing to back it up.

Yea, hopefully 1 of them can match a 2018 Apple ARM device at the same price point.
Not holding my breath though.

Do you also use a "feature" phone?

I agree a mouse is needed at times. In any case, mouse support is trivial when the laptops start using ARM chips.

It's common for Macbook users to not have a mouse at all though. Their trackpad is still ahead of the curve.

 

Why would I, and do you?

What you're promoting here is similar to promoting the usage of fancy feature phone instead of smartphone, by the way - with leading argument that it excels at doing what it can, completely disregarding its limitations and the fact that smartphone can do so much more!

Yes, in this case the limitations are mostly software, not hardware. But it's comparing apples to oranges nevertheless - we have no idea how would Apple's ARM chips perform with a proper fully-featured OS.

Tell that to Apple.

So what? I don't use a mouse either unless in first-person shooters, because my Thinkpad has a wonderful trackpoint.

iPad does not support trackpad, be it Apple trackpad or any other trackpad. It doesn't support trackpoint or mouse or trackball or any cursor pointing device for that matter either - unless you jailbreak the device to add mouse support via Cydia (and then get screwed every iOS update) - which is beyond most iPad users. And that is a huge problem for productivity.

To elaborate, I'd love the iPad to be a productive device. I love the form-factor, and 4:3 high res displays, and can't live without both pen&touch, at least on my main device. But when it comes to actually using one for work, oh my God is it an exercise in frustration! It's simply one big fat limitation on top of the other. Yes, some of those can be addressed by Cydia - but why should one be subjected to hacking the hell out of pretty expensive device, risking bricking it and suffering whenever an OS update (with security fixes!) is available, to get the basic functionality that is available on any other device and inherent to productivity tasks?!

 

I agree with @Arrrrbol in that you really can't compare the two. Everything I do runs on x86 and not on ARM aside from office type applications. For me the ipad pro is a cool toy but nothing more. I wouldn't pay the $800 for an ipad pro when my $30 fire tablet does everything I need from an ARM system.

 

Are we going to go now to price-point? Lol...

Performance always has its price. You pay and you play. Simple. Or, you can put racing stripes on an arm device to make it be more productive too... Oh, wait, that has already been proven wrong from the '90s.

Mac-book users don't do anything precise enough to need a mouse though. I don't want to be told how precise to be from a fruity or other company. A trackpad is just precise enough to watch the next youtube video. I was born past that stage.