I went to bed in the morning, and I was swiped by news from Apple Events again. This is already Apple’s fourth online event this year. Apple is already familiar with this, and it seems to be a little bit of fun. In summary of these several activities this year, the common features are fast pace, high information density, and cool scenes. It feels like watching an Apple movie every time.
▲ “One more thing” Apple Events invitation
Regarding this event, the protagonist is naturally Apple Silicon mentioned on WWDC, and the corresponding product is ARM Mac. A very noteworthy detail is that the theme of the English invitation letter for this event is “One more thing”. You must know that this sentence has a lot of weight in historical Apple conferences. During the Jobs period, whenever this classic line appeared At the time, there must be exciting new products debut, so will this ARM Mac really be so amazing?
The battle between x86 and ARM is a battle between the past and the future
Among x86 and ARM, Apple firmly chose ARM.
After so many years of development, ARM has not only won the mobile phone, the IoT, and the AR/VR/XR. Now, ARM also wants to counteract the home of x86-the desktop.
ARM chips are based on a reduced instruction set (RISC), with flexible and changeable architectures, which can adopt different architectures for different devices, and also have the characteristics of high iteration efficiency, low power consumption, and high energy efficiency. It is present in all kinds of mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, wearables, and IoT. With the development of 5G and IoT, there is still huge room for the demand for ARM chips.
The x86 chip based on the complex instruction set (CISC) has dominated desktop computers for decades. Due to historical problems, the x86 chip is quite troublesome to design, and its power consumption, energy efficiency and iteration efficiency are far less than ARM chips. The x86 chip has to and can only be tied to the desktop computer, it is destined to miss the future.
▲ WWDC 2020 Cook announced Apple Silicon
In this case, the advantage of ARM is getting bigger and bigger, so Apple intends to develop its own ARM chip, that is, to replace the traditional x86 chip with Apple Silicon. This plan was first announced on the WWDC some time ago. Cook said: The migration process of the entire chip platform will last about two years, and the first Mac computer based on Apple Silicon will also be unveiled at the end of the year. Now that it has arrived, there may not be much time left for x86.
Apple is not the first manufacturer to deploy ARM
Microsoft may be more active in the layout of ARM.
Commercially speaking, the biggest beneficiary behind the x86 architecture is the top supplier of desktop computers-the Wintel business alliance formed by Intel and Microsoft. Intel is responsible for providing the core hardware of desktop computers and Microsoft is responsible for Windows system authorization. For more than 20 years If things go on like this, they continue to capture huge profits from the development of personal computers.
▲Wintel alliance that monopolizes the PC industry
However, the essence of business is always the pursuit of maximization. Changes occur in the era of mobile Internet. With the rise of mobile devices, Microsoft and Intel have gradually realized the sense of crisis of the times. They knew that they could not hang on the x86 tree, so they Start to develop a new track.
In 2012, there was a crack in the Wintel business alliance. Microsoft separated from Intel and released the Surface RT. This is a two-in-one tablet built entirely on the ARM platform. It abandoned Intel and adopted the NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30 processor. To this end, a customized Windows RT operating system focused on the ARM platform is customized, which does not support any software under the x86 architecture at all.
▲Surface RT released in 2012
But as the saying goes, “The ship is difficult to turn around.” Although Microsoft launched a complete set of hardware and software solutions based on the ARM platform, it ended in a bleak ending. The main reason is that Microsoft’s ecological construction on the ARM platform is too weak. Up.
Rome was not built in a day. Microsoft, which drove the ducks on the shelves, exposed too many problems. The Windows RT system is more like a castrated version of Windows rather than a newly designed system, although Microsoft has customized a Modern UI that is more suitable for touch. However, Windows itself is still “unacceptable” on touch.
In addition, the most fatal problem lies in the disconnection of third-party software. Users who leave x86 applications are like chefs without ingredients. They cannot install and use commonly used exe software, but can only purchase a few applications in the Microsoft Store. This makes it almost impossible for most users to use Surface RT for office work, and the experience is very poor… This was a mistake made by Microsoft itself, but ultimately let users pay the bill, so the failure of Surface RT in the end may be the best destiny.
All in ARM, maybe only Apple can do it
Microsoft’s story tells us that All in ARM is not just a simple replacement of ARM chips, the most important thing is the construction of the software ecosystem.
Obviously, Apple is the most powerful in this regard. In the past few years, Apple has launched a lot of excellent chips on the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, especially the A12X and A12Z on the iPad Pro. These two chips have performance comparable to desktop processors and both Excellent power consumption control level.
According to the latest news, the ARM Mac released in a few days will use the A14X developed based on the A14. This 5nm process chip is undoubtedly a “silent second full” level. Of course, in addition to performance, Apple’s self-developed ARM chip has strong graphics performance and long battery life, and it has more advantages in machine learning and neural networks.
▲ Schematic diagram of Apple Silicon
When Apple turns to the ARM camp, it also means abandoning Intel. Although on the surface this seems to be just a replacement of the processor platform, it can even be understood as a lower cost option in business, but in fact it is a good thing for both Apple and users.
In the past few years, Intel chips were almost in a state of “toothpaste squeezing” and constantly bounced tickets, which seriously affected the product planning and update rhythm of MacBook. After replacing the ARM Mac, Apple can completely control the product rhythm and reduce the Mac computer’s pace. cost. If Apple wants, it can even launch a cheap version of the Mac in exchange for more market share.
In terms of software ecology, the WWDC some time ago has given us the answer. In that press conference, Craig, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, showed a Mac computer running on the A12Z chip, which was installed with the latest The macOS BigSur system, Craig used it to smoothly demonstrate many native apps in macOS, and also demonstrated many well-known professional software, such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Final Cut Pro, Microsoft Office, etc., and even Maya 3D modeling software.
▲Photoshop running on the ARM Mac demo machine
At the same time, in the adaptation of third-party software, in order to help developers better “migrate” to the new platform, Apple has launched a complete set of solutions such as Universal, Rosetta, and virtualization technology, which can efficiently apply existing Mac applications. Quickly and seamlessly transplant to the ARM architecture compatible system, and this solution also supports both Intel and ARM platforms.
Even more surprising is that Apple wants to integrate the iOS ecosystem into it through the ARM Mac. Because the ARM Mac uses the same chip as the iPhone and iPad, the applications on the iPhone and iPad can run on the ARM Mac without any modification.
At WWDC, Apple engineers showed us to run the iPhone game “Monument Valley 2” on the ARM Mac. It can be seen that the iPhone application will be presented in a windowed form on the ARM Mac. To some extent, this has been a breakthrough. The boundary of “multi-screen collaboration” completely connects the desktop and mobile terminals and integrates them completely.
▲ “Monument Valley 2” running on the ARM Mac demo machine
Apple holds the three trump cards of software ecology, operating system, and hardware chips. Compared to Microsoft, the switch to ARM is more likely to succeed and can only be done by Apple.
In the past ten years, Apple has made many top chips on the mobile terminal and built an extremely prosperous iOS system ecosystem. Now Apple wants to use the same method to innovate Mac computers and establish a “unity” Apple ecosystem. The first ARM Mac in a few days is the first step. How amazing it is, let’s witness it in a few days!
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