If you think along the lines of a Mini type machine then obviously Atom doesnt make sense.
Yes, this is what I'm saying.
Quote:
Atom can't deliver a full desktop experience even against some of intels older hardware. Measured that way I don't ever see Atom being successful against regular desktop PC implementation.
This is is easy to see and the pieces keep falling together.
1. Apple's been sneaking in more support for ARM in Xcode
2. Apple has even more engineers working on LLVM and CLANG 6 Engineers to be exact. Future development on GCC will be mostly maintainance
3. Apple buys 8.2k shares in Imagination and secures license for PowerVR tech.
4. Apple buys P.A Semi and gains the intellect of Dan Dobberpuhl who's worked extensively with PPC and ARM based IP.
So we have improving ARM support in the development IDE on the precipice of ARM's rollout of their nextgen Coretex A8 and PowerVR license for OpenGL ES 2.0 and video support.
These are not the actions of a company that's suddenly going to deliver an Atom based product. The binary compatability doesn't mean much when you're working full steam on heavily optimized JIT targets for different platforms which is LLVM r'aison d'etre.
Stevie Wonder can see that Apple has no interest in Atom based products.
ARM based iPhone? If it gets great battery life and remains highly functional, sure why not?
ARM based AppleTV? Maybe. It could shave a few dollars off the cost, which on cheaper items is important. Since they don't need to port much over, that could save them a lot even after the cost of porting the software.
ARM based MacMini? Not likely. Changing the platform of the AppleTV is one thing, but porting the entire MacOS over? That is a much bigger feat and would only make sense if they were moving all their computers over to ARM, which is unlikely.
ARM based iPhone? If it gets great battery life and remains highly functional, sure why not?
ARM based AppleTV? Maybe. It could shave a few dollars off the cost, which on cheaper items is important. Since they don't need to port much over, that could save them a lot even after the cost of porting the software.
ARM based MacMini? Not likely. Changing the platform of the AppleTV is one thing, but porting the entire MacOS over? That is a much bigger feat and would only make sense if they were moving all their computers over to ARM, which is unlikely.
No doubt. The Apple TV needs to be certainly under $200 and most likely $149 to take off. With consumers purchasing DVD players for $60 anything over $200 appears to be an extravagant purchase for the typical consumer according to many consumer electronic analysts. Sub two benjamins is one of the first target prices for high volume products. I to think Apple will be looking for a SoC setup that scales from iPhone to MID to AppleTV. Which is why I think they're looking beyond Atom.
Yup looks like the mini will stay in good ole X86 land.
Is it likely that Apple would use the Atom or ARM processors in a new Mini? I think not, simply because that would be a step back in performance. The Mini as it is today (2.0Ghz model) is as powerful as dual processor G4 PowerMac if not more. Especially in areas like internet, iTunes and video encoding. The Atom is used in many of the windows powered net books and they are not anything to write home about when it comes to raw power.
Comments
If you think along the lines of a Mini type machine then obviously Atom doesnt make sense.
Yes, this is what I'm saying.
Atom can't deliver a full desktop experience even against some of intels older hardware. Measured that way I don't ever see Atom being successful against regular desktop PC implementation.
Right
This is is easy to see and the pieces keep falling together.
1. Apple's been sneaking in more support for ARM in Xcode
2. Apple has even more engineers working on LLVM and CLANG 6 Engineers to be exact. Future development on GCC will be mostly maintainance
3. Apple buys 8.2k shares in Imagination and secures license for PowerVR tech.
4. Apple buys P.A Semi and gains the intellect of Dan Dobberpuhl who's worked extensively with PPC and ARM based IP.
So we have improving ARM support in the development IDE on the precipice of ARM's rollout of their nextgen Coretex A8 and PowerVR license for OpenGL ES 2.0 and video support.
These are not the actions of a company that's suddenly going to deliver an Atom based product. The binary compatability doesn't mean much when you're working full steam on heavily optimized JIT targets for different platforms which is LLVM r'aison d'etre.
Stevie Wonder can see that Apple has no interest in Atom based products.
ARM based iPhone? If it gets great battery life and remains highly functional, sure why not?
ARM based AppleTV? Maybe. It could shave a few dollars off the cost, which on cheaper items is important. Since they don't need to port much over, that could save them a lot even after the cost of porting the software.
ARM based MacMini? Not likely. Changing the platform of the AppleTV is one thing, but porting the entire MacOS over? That is a much bigger feat and would only make sense if they were moving all their computers over to ARM, which is unlikely.
ARM based iPhone? If it gets great battery life and remains highly functional, sure why not?
ARM based AppleTV? Maybe. It could shave a few dollars off the cost, which on cheaper items is important. Since they don't need to port much over, that could save them a lot even after the cost of porting the software.
ARM based MacMini? Not likely. Changing the platform of the AppleTV is one thing, but porting the entire MacOS over? That is a much bigger feat and would only make sense if they were moving all their computers over to ARM, which is unlikely.
No doubt. The Apple TV needs to be certainly under $200 and most likely $149 to take off. With consumers purchasing DVD players for $60 anything over $200 appears to be an extravagant purchase for the typical consumer according to many consumer electronic analysts. Sub two benjamins is one of the first target prices for high volume products. I to think Apple will be looking for a SoC setup that scales from iPhone to MID to AppleTV. Which is why I think they're looking beyond Atom.
Yup looks like the mini will stay in good ole X86 land.
Yup looks like the mini will stay in good ole X86 land.
The mini needs to run x86 OSX apps.
The ATV doesn't have this requirement. It needs a cheap, cool (IMO), cpu and graphics unit. ARM or Atom would work.
The thing that worries me about the current ATV is how hot the unit gets. Go to an Apple store and touch the demo unit if you don't believe me.
Moving to Atom or ARM would help a lot here.
Mac Mini
2.133 GHz Quad Core
1066 MHz Frontside
4-8 GB RAM (1066)
HDMI Output
Keep Firewire (but if they must they must)
Keep Optical Jacks/if not incorporated into HDMI
320 HD 7200
Blu-Ray? Nah
just the other parts
That's the funky right there...
oh almost forgot $999
Laters...