Quote:
Originally Posted by
Hiro 
I don't see any forgetting going on. Apples advantage with ARM is irrelevant as an independent thing when it comes to a transition or not decision. Performance must in some way significantly outstrip the shipping at the time MBA hardware before an ARM CPU becomes a viable replacement in that market. That could be outstrip in pure performance, or be like-performance at FAR lower power budgets. Either way Apple won't just chose to take absolute performance appreciably backwards in any niche, even for an MBA. Changing to a fat binary all over again is a traumatic event that won't be done until it is obviously a win to push devs top do it.
The only way that Apple advantage plays is that Apple will have a better understanding than anyone else exactly what the calculus of that tradeoff is.
ARM ain't there yet, there definitely is potential for them to be but there is still a lot of hard work to be done yet to catch a slowing Intel.
Ok, that's a sensible reply.
The point is that above a certain performance level CPU and GPU power is irrelevant.
My opinion is that that point is reached for ARM when PowerVR 6 is combined with a quad core 64 bit A15 (at 2.5 GHz). This performance can be compared with that of a Playstation 3 and is more than enough for almost all computer task on a MacBook Air.
So next year Apple could release an ARM Air and it will be stunning.
My opinion is based on my extensive experience as an (embedded) programmer and a lifetime of experience with computer hardware.
I could be wrong of course but the specs of the new 64bit ARM hardware and PowerVR 6 leave little room for error.
Apple currently has two lines of hardware and will get rid of one in the future (to save cost, to enhance security and to make it near impossible to clone). With ARM Apple has full control and next year ARM is fast enough...
J.
