Apple will switch to ARM processors: what does it mean for plugin developers?

[quikquak]

Considering how fast the latest iPad's are, I'm sure we'll see ARMS in the consumer laptops and desktops soon enough. Not sure about the Pro models, if they'll continue to go Intel, but I'm sure Apple wants to divest themselves of dependence upon any chip maker since they were let down by Motorola.

AFAIK, ARM is not owned by Apple

No, but their A-series ARM processors are by their own design. I think they farm out the actual manufacture still, but they'll probably have their own fab at some point.

Yeah, I think you buy the ARM licence and then you can make your own designs from there.

[FarleyCZ]

I'm not worried that the code wouldn't be portable to ARM platform. I'm worried what does that mean for the actual user in terms of interface and stuff. The option to code it once and run the same thing on mobile and on desktop will be too sweet to ignore, so a lot of plugins will have either two GUIs or ridiculously big controls on desktop, or too small controls on mobile. Each dev will handle that their heir own way and consistency of the workflow will suffer. UX design is the scary part. Yeah, Garageband will do it right. But what about the rest?

[quikquak]

I'm not worried that the code wouldn't be portable to ARM platform. I'm worried what does that mean for the actual user in terms of interface and stuff. The option to code it once and run the same thing on mobile and on desktop will be too sweet to ignore, so a lot of plugins will have either two GUIs or ridiculously big controls on desktop, or too small controls on mobile. Each dev will handle that their heir own way and consistency of the workflow will suffer. UX design is the scary part. Yeah, Garageband will do it right. But what about the rest?

Interface design for mobile devices is always a pain - All the different Android platforms out there, not to mention Apple screen sizes.
I don't really see this as an extra hurdle, just more of the same TBH.

[BlueprintInc]

Audiodevs are sheeps too. Besides some few which would discontinue their products, most will complain some time and then of course bend the knee. Apple knows that too. Doesn't matter how many changes have to be done to the products.

[tony10000]

Considering how fast the latest iPad's are, I'm sure we'll see ARMS in the consumer laptops and desktops soon enough. Not sure about the Pro models, if they'll continue to go Intel, but I'm sure Apple wants to divest themselves of dependence upon any chip maker since they were let down by Motorola.

AFAIK, ARM is not owned by Apple

No, but their A-series ARM processors are by their own design. I think they farm out the actual manufacture still, but they'll probably have their own fab at some point.

Yeah, I think you buy the ARM licence and then you can make your own designs from there.

Apple is an ARM licensee. Has been since 2008:

"Apple has had an architecture license from March 2008.[70] Their A6, A6X, and S4, all subsequent Apple processors (used in iPhone 5, iPad (4th generation) and Apple Watch Series 4).[71]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_Holdings

[david.beholder]

Considering how fast the latest iPad's are, I'm sure we'll see ARMS in the consumer laptops and desktops soon enough.

Not going to happen any time soon. Modern ARMs are not fast enough for Diva or "do what you want" OS.

[Widowsky]

Considering how fast the latest iPad's are, I'm sure we'll see ARMS in the consumer laptops and desktops soon enough.

Not going to happen any time soon. Modern ARMs are not fast enough for Diva or "do what you want" OS.

Apple latest iPhones already best Apple latest MacBook Pros in single-core CPU performance (source: https://daringfireball.net/2020/04/the_2020_iphone_se).

They are definitely coming soon:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04 ... s-in-2021/

[Haptix]

Considering how fast the latest iPad's are, I'm sure we'll see ARMS in the consumer laptops and desktops soon enough.

Not going to happen any time soon. Modern ARMs are not fast enough for Diva or "do what you want" OS.

Apple latest iPhones already best Apple latest MacBook Pros in single-core CPU performance (source: https://daringfireball.net/2020/04/the_2020_iphone_se).

They are definitely coming soon:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04 ... s-in-2021/

No wonder the macbook "pros" are so shit...

[Forgotten]

They are definitely coming soon:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04 ... s-in-2021/

"A new report from Bloomberg cites sources close to Apple"

Every single one of these articles over the past decade follows this format. It's not an official announcement, so I don't think there's any "definite" or "soon" about it.

[Widowsky]

Considering how fast the latest iPad's are, I'm sure we'll see ARMS in the consumer laptops and desktops soon enough.

Not going to happen any time soon. Modern ARMs are not fast enough for Diva or "do what you want" OS.

Apple latest iPhones already best Apple latest MacBook Pros in single-core CPU performance (source: https://daringfireball.net/2020/04/the_2020_iphone_se).

They are definitely coming soon:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04 ... s-in-2021/

No wonder the macbook "pros" are so shit...

To the point of not being able to run Diva?

[Markus Krause]

As long as Apple doesn't annonce anything official nothing will happen for sure. Some guy writes something in a blog? Just ignore it. It is what we call a click-bait. A simple fake-article to create traffic on the website. More likely Apple will use AMD CPUs in future systems. Why? Because they don't have to rewrite the complete OS and because these processors work very well

[Widowsky]

As long as Apple doesn't annonce anything official nothing will happen for sure. Some guy writes something in a blog? Just ignore it. It is what we call a click-bait. A simple fake-article to create traffic on the website. More likely Apple will use AMD CPUs in future systems. Why? Because they don't have to rewrite the complete OS and because these processors work very well

I think that was true until yesterday. Bloomberg, Ars Technica and Daring Fireball are far from being random blogs. Ars Technica and Daring Fireball in particular wouldn't relay such information about Apple without some kind of unofficial confirmation via their multiple contacts in the company.

To be perfectly clear, as a user I'm not happy about this.

[Markus Krause]

The ARM based risc- CPUs would make sense in notebooks, which have to be energy-efficient. But they don't make sense at all for desktop computers because they are pretty weak for professional tasks - especially for audio-stuff

[Vokbuz]

Where this idea that ARMs can't be fast enough for bigger systems came from? Mobile intel processors are also slower than the top ones.

[medienhexer]

Several generations back, floating point performance and SIMD (single instruction multiple data) may have been weak. And with intel adding in these areas with every generation, it may look like the ARM reference design can’t compete in multi media production, but they have focussed on these areas a lot, too.

And from what I gather, Apple‘s design adds a lot to the ARM reference. Not just number of general duty CPU and GPU cores and task-specific custom co-processors for image processing and AI/big data/Machine Learning tasks, but apparently optimisations of the actual ARM reference, which is the reason why Apple’s A processors offer higher performance than the same generation reference design.

For desktop use, they will have to increase the clock speed from 2.something GHz to over 4 GHz and increase the number of cores, both of which will increase power consumption and thermal requirements. They do have an interesting starting point, though. The ARM design has a way superior speed to power consumption rate, which is why they’re used in basically all phones and tablets. When you start from competitive performance at 5W or lower power requirements and you’re willing to go up to 100W, it is likely you can outperform intel‘s CPUs.

There are several companies who offer web servers based on custom ARM designs already. I think it would be wrong to ignore that.