Thinking about moving to ARM
Jobs' Mob has decided that it does not have enough control over Chipzilla and is apparently thinking of moving to its own chips based on ARM designs.
The news comes from Bloomberg which claims that Apple is exploring ways to replace Intel in the Mac with technologies used in its iPhone and iPads. The question is if ARM chips are quite ready to match Intel's x86 in PCs. If Apple manage it, it should be easier to put the beasts into ordinary PCs and do Intel some real damage.
While the Tame Apple Press thinks this might be a good idea because it would give Intel a good kicking and ARM would be a real winner, there are some major weaknesses to the scenario. ARM chips are slower and are a long way behind Intel in terms of speed. Power efficiency is less of a problem to be conquered in the PC. If Apple beefs up ARM designs it could find itself on a development treadmill and have to spend a lot of dosh to come up with some innovation to match Intel and AMD.
While this all strikes us as a pointless exercise which does not do much for Apple, God or man, Jobs' Mob is just control freakish enough to think it is a good idea.
Published in
Processors
Latest from Nick Farrell