Kinda makes being an Apple supplier a crapshoot doesn’t it.
What's a bit surprising is that they gave them 15-24 months lead time. Actually, a pretty stand-up move that could possibly allow Imagination spend the next year or so getting new customers before the revenue dries up.
I doubt it. Apple would hardly have been looking to buy the company in late 2016 if they had a chip ready to go.
All this really says is that GPU tech has plateaued. Apple made their own ARM chips because CPU tech plateaued (yes they got faster, but that is a consequence of die shrinks, nothing else. A CPU you bought in 2007 is the same as one you bought in 2017, only faster due to die shrinks.) And we've reached the end of what can be accomplished with die shinks. Any further die shrinks will come with a much larger increase in per chip costs. So don't expect sub 10nm processes in anything for a while. You'll just see multiple refinements of the previous die process with a larger chip that takes more power.
And yes, pretty much GPU tech has plateaued for mobile designs. If you want more GPU power you need to move up to the iPad/Tablet platform and have a much larger battery. There's probably still some more innovation left in the GPU pipe, but like the CPU tech, they're going to be refinements, not leaps.
Hence, Apple will probably just go with their own IP core for the GPU of the mobile devices. Don't expect to see this in Laptops or Desktops where Apple can just buy CPU and GPU's that are suitable. Apple's end-game appears to be to eliminate the desktop/laptop space entirely by making the iphone/ipad your one-and-only computer, and you just drop the iphone into a docking station to get the full iMac/Mac Pro experience *shudder*
I just don't see how neglecting their professional users has done anything but push Mac Users away from the Apple Ecosystem.
Professional users are morons. They think that they need all the latest and greatest power but in truth it's EXACTLY like you just stated with the CPU and GPUs on the desktop/laptop plane. Apple shouldn't update the desktop and laptop machines simply to plug in a new CPU or GPU that doesn't actually provide any real advantage. The real advantage comes not from the hardware now but from the software and that's what the "pros" SHOULD be looking at not some spec on something that Intel, AMD, or Nvidia are writing which has no bearing on real life anyway.
Pro apps that make use of Metal will outperform the hardware simply because of the way Metal is tied into the OS. This means there is NOTHING that can't potentially be done on a "pro" level that can't be done on an iPad so long as the SOFTWARE is written to allow it. There is no real advancement being done on desktop/laptops at the moment other than speed bumps that you mention so don't ever think Apple has given up on these markets and given up on pro users when in fact it's pro users have given up on Apple simply because a machine hasn't been updated in three years. I mean can the "pros" NOT do what they've been doing for a long time now that their machines are three years old? NO. And they're not going to be better off by getting a machine with the latest and greatest CPUs when you're only getting a 0.1GHz speed bump. So can the "pros" please shut up about Apple not caring about them when it's not even their fault that you're not getting any advancements.
Apple hasn't been neglecting their pro users at all. Apple has done heaps in macOS for pro users the problem is the apps that "pro" users are using aren't being developed to make use of those features of macOS simply because they don't want to lose their Windows users. Compare the speeds that Photoshop has for rendering to the speeds that Pixelmator has for doing the same things and you'll see that Pixelmator often wins hands down. That's not a hardware thing that's a software thing because Pixelmator leverages features of macOS. The problem is pro users felt let down by Final Cut and Logic before they gave it a real chance simply because it did things different to how they used to do things despite the fact they can now do far more powerful things using these apps than the ones they now use. So the problem for pro users isn't that Apple has neglected them with a lack of hardware updates it's that pro users don't understand what is happening in the tech world and have gone off to underpowered software because of some vain ideology that Apple doesn't care about them anymore.
Like I said, "pro" users are morons and masters of their own demise.
You are obviously not a pro user, and so you have no understanding as to what a pro user needs. You really should contain your remarks to what you do know, which is what you want, and need.
to pros, and yes, that was my business for decades, even a 10% increase in productivity means dollars in the pocket. While Metal is nice, it isn't the power increase that Apple hinted it might be. But, even assuming it was, that's pretty much over now. We're back to hardware.
Professional users are morons. They think that they need all the latest and greatest power but in truth it's EXACTLY like you just stated with the CPU and GPUs on the desktop/laptop plane. Apple shouldn't update the desktop and laptop machines simply to plug in a new CPU or GPU that doesn't actually provide any real advantage. The real advantage comes not from the hardware now but from the software and that's what the "pros" SHOULD be looking at not some spec on something that Intel, AMD, or Nvidia are writing which has no bearing on real life anyway.
Pro apps that make use of Metal will outperform the hardware simply because of the way Metal is tied into the OS. This means there is NOTHING that can't potentially be done on a "pro" level that can't be done on an iPad so long as the SOFTWARE is written to allow it.
Apple hasn't been neglecting their pro users at all. Apple has done heaps in macOS for pro users the problem is the apps that "pro" users are using aren't being developed to make use of those features of macOS simply because they don't want to lose their Windows users. Compare the speeds that Photoshop has for rendering to the speeds that Pixelmator has for doing the same things and you'll see that Pixelmator often wins hands down. That's not a hardware thing that's a software thing because Pixelmator leverages features of macOS. The problem is pro users felt let down by Final Cut and Logic before they gave it a real chance simply because it did things different to how they used to do things despite the fact they can now do far more powerful things using these apps than the ones they now use. So the problem for pro users isn't that Apple has neglected them with a lack of hardware updates it's that pro users don't understand what is happening in the tech world and have gone off to underpowered software because of some vain ideology that Apple doesn't care about them anymore.
Like I said, "pro" users are morons and masters of their own demise.
Final Cut, Logic and Photoshop users aren't the main ones who need more performance. It's more for things like this:
The first video simulates around 1 billion voxels, uses 5TB of storage, over 60GB RAM, frame processing time between 3-60 hours. This kind of thing is used in TV commercials, movie effects shots but it's becoming more mainstream in advertising like for iOS games:
The need for more power is valid in some cases but what you're saying is true in that the pressure should be directed more at Intel and the GPU manufacturers. Intel still hasn't doubled the Xeon performance in over 3 years so a 3-60 hour per frame time (24-30 frames per second of footage) isn't going to improve enough to avoid having to use a network of machines. The point about software is valid too because software optimization can improve performance more than double but that optimization usually reaches an end point and you just have to rely more on the hardware.
For these use cases where performance needs go very high, it would be better just having a companion processing box. This is where Apple can leverage their custom hardware to make a really competitive product. Their standard Macs would act as the workstations and they'd offload the heavy processing to the dedicated box and this can have custom GPUs and CPUs in it. Offloading the processing keeps the main workstation free to use.
It wouldn't need to be x86 because the processes that run on them can be compiled for the hardware. They can have rows of slots for ARM chips and you slot in as many as you need or can afford. Apple could probably sell a quad-core ARM for $100 so you could build up a 100-core processor box for $2500 and it would perform similar to the highest-end Xeons ($10k+). GPUs are a bit trickier as they have to be real-time but you can send the data to the box and then control it remotely and see the feedback in real-time. This processing companion could also be shared by multiple users and upgraded without breaking the main workstation. Anybody needing more performance just buys more of them and it wouldn't matter what any other manufacturer does, even if Apple doesn't update their own custom hardware, it's scalable. It's also low-risk, they already make the hardware themselves so don't have to batch order components at a high cost and if people return a high-end model, it can be broken down into smaller parts.
So in the future... Apple designed CPU and Apple designed GPU. Next? Apple designed LTE modem? Any doubts there are Macs running on the A10 right now in the lab?
Now wondering if there's anything to the rumors of apple embedding GPUs in monitors/new mac pros/new monitors/designing own GPUs...
Comments
to pros, and yes, that was my business for decades, even a 10% increase in productivity means dollars in the pocket. While Metal is nice, it isn't the power increase that Apple hinted it might be. But, even assuming it was, that's pretty much over now. We're back to hardware.
https://vimeo.com/jasonslabber
The first video simulates around 1 billion voxels, uses 5TB of storage, over 60GB RAM, frame processing time between 3-60 hours. This kind of thing is used in TV commercials, movie effects shots but it's becoming more mainstream in advertising like for iOS games:
The need for more power is valid in some cases but what you're saying is true in that the pressure should be directed more at Intel and the GPU manufacturers. Intel still hasn't doubled the Xeon performance in over 3 years so a 3-60 hour per frame time (24-30 frames per second of footage) isn't going to improve enough to avoid having to use a network of machines. The point about software is valid too because software optimization can improve performance more than double but that optimization usually reaches an end point and you just have to rely more on the hardware.
For these use cases where performance needs go very high, it would be better just having a companion processing box. This is where Apple can leverage their custom hardware to make a really competitive product. Their standard Macs would act as the workstations and they'd offload the heavy processing to the dedicated box and this can have custom GPUs and CPUs in it. Offloading the processing keeps the main workstation free to use.
It wouldn't need to be x86 because the processes that run on them can be compiled for the hardware. They can have rows of slots for ARM chips and you slot in as many as you need or can afford. Apple could probably sell a quad-core ARM for $100 so you could build up a 100-core processor box for $2500 and it would perform similar to the highest-end Xeons ($10k+). GPUs are a bit trickier as they have to be real-time but you can send the data to the box and then control it remotely and see the feedback in real-time. This processing companion could also be shared by multiple users and upgraded without breaking the main workstation. Anybody needing more performance just buys more of them and it wouldn't matter what any other manufacturer does, even if Apple doesn't update their own custom hardware, it's scalable. It's also low-risk, they already make the hardware themselves so don't have to batch order components at a high cost and if people return a high-end model, it can be broken down into smaller parts.
probably just me dreaming...