Apple to build more chip for use in Macs

[beaker]

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/1/14477268/apple-macbook-chip-rumor-sleep-mode

 

Quote

 

pple is developing a new chip for Mac laptops that’s meant to improve their battery life while in sleep mode, according to Bloomberg.

The chip will reportedly handle some basic tasks, like checking for email and installing updates, while the computer is asleep. Apple currently relies on the MacBook’s main processor to handle these tasks, but by building a dedicated low-power processor, Apple could reduce battery consumption even further.

IT COULD LAUNCH IN A MACBOOK PRO LATER THIS YEAR

The chip is supposed to be similar to the Apple-made processor that’s already being used inside MacBook Pros to manage the Touch Bar. That suggests this isn’t some bold initiative — yet, at least — to fully replace the Intel processor at the core of every MacBook with an Apple-designed ARM processor, like the ones used in iPhones and iPads. Instead, it seems like Apple plans to continue augmenting the Mac with ARM processors so it can get the benefits of both types of chip.

Bloomberg says that the chip “may” debut in an upgraded MacBook Pro that’s being planned for later this year. That’d be a good fit: the 13-inch Touch Bar model of the MacBook Pro has been frequently criticized for its poor battery life — I usually got between 5 to 6 hours when testing it out last year. Adding this chip could help to extend things a bit longer.

 

On the other hand, it’s not entirely clear how helpful this will be for anyone who doesn’t regularly leave their MacBook unplugged for hours and hours at a time. The battery benefits may only come into play when the laptop is asleep, so it sounds like Apple could be trying to improve its computers’ standby time — which it currently quotes at “30 days” — more so than how long they lasts during a day’s use.

Bloomberg notes that Apple may not even choose to highlight the existence of this new chip whenever it does get put inside a product, since MacBooks have had a low-power mode like this for several years now. That, too, seems to indicate that this may be more interesting as a step forward in Apple’s hardware story than as a feature inside the next Mac.

 

 

[VerticalDiscussions]

A11X-X2....

 

A11-XXX?

[BingoFishy]

You need a personal opinion.

 

Aside from that, this seems like a really good idea. They could probably make it pretty small too. However, they better put in a bigger battery too.

[tlink]

sounds like a pretty good idea. also sounds like a pain in the butt to write an OS for.

[Guest]

I am just gonna leave it here, hope people don't mind

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

A11X-X2....

 

A11-XXX?

A11-XXX Return of Headphone Port 

[VerticalDiscussions]

4 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

-snip-

Would be very innovative, if they could return the headphone port, use it to replace the current lightning port and when in contact with water it would charge your phone from 0 to 100% in 1 hour! 1 hour in the ocean, wooooohooo and your phone would get charged. You might also end up in the hospital but at least your phone is charged.

 

Yes, it should work with all kinds of water :D.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

Would be very innovative, if they could return the headphone port, use it to replace the current lightning port and when in contact with water it would charge your phone from 0 to 100% in 1 hour! 1 hour in the ocean, wooooohooo and your phone would get charged. You might also end up in the hospital but at least your phone is charged.

 

Yes, it should work with all kinds of water :D.

And they would charge it just $10,000

[VerticalDiscussions]

1 minute ago, deXxterlab97 said:

-snip-

At least you wont need a dongle  (the replacement one will be just 1500$)

 

[HelplmChoking]

14 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

I am just gonna leave it here, hope people don't mind

 

 

 

I don't know what iPhone you use, but I had a 4, a 5s and a 6 and they all lasted easily a day, with the 6 lasting two. By contrast, my G4 could last until 3pm and my 6P barely last until 9pm. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Rangaman42 said:

I don't know what iPhone you use, but I had a 4, a 5s and a 6 and they all lasted easily a day, with the 6 lasting two. By contrast, my G4 could last until 3pm and my 6P barely last until 9pm. 

I used a 5s. Then switched to a Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo. The battery time vastly increased. So that's a plus

[AlTech]

2 hours ago, beaker said:

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/1/14477268/apple-macbook-chip-rumor-sleep-mode

 

 

fix your quote for dark theme users.

[niofalpha]

3 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

I am just gonna leave it here, hope people don't mind

Most useful post ever. 100% Not to farm post counts.

 

Inhouse made chips are always cool. Apple's had a great track record.

 

I just don't think they should make them for desktops since they have no experience in x86.

[atrash]

I once left my macbook pro to sleep for almost 2 months because I thought I have shut it down and continue using my SP4. Battery only dropped like 15% while the laptop still kept updating my mailbox in standby. And that's with the 4th gen Intel cpu. I'm all open for them to improve their laptop battery life as long as they will stop the absurd obsession with going thinner and lighter at the cost of having the same battery life. Maybe let the OS fall back to using the ARM chip when using lightweight software like mail or map etc and put the cpu into standby

[PlayStation 2]

1 hour ago, niofalpha said:

Most useful post ever. 100% Not to farm post counts.

 

Inhouse made chips are always cool. Apple's had a great track record.

 

I just don't think they should make them for desktops since they have no experience in x86.

It's like YouTube, or LTT's channel themselves: make cheap bait to rake in the likes.

[Sniperfox47]

...This seems like nothing more an arbitrary way to more directly lock down their platform with proprietary chips and features that other OSes can't make use of under the guise of "Battery life! Jazzhands~!"

 

Intel chips already have an ULP mode that's designed specifically for what they're describing. Waking the basic kernel and integrated wifi for quick burst data transmission.

 

I get adding dedicated coprocessors for things like deep learning, but if apple continues along this route how long will it be before access to wifi is limited entirely to this coprocessor in the name of more efficient power use? What's next? Webcam? Let's put a low power DSP with a custom driver API between it and the user. Windows and Linux users don't need a webcam do they?

[samiscool51]

kinda hard to implement

unless you have a kernel that works both in ARM and x86 processors then it might be vaporware

not many operating system kernels can do this, the only one that i know of that has both supported currently is Linux and even that took a while to make, it might stand to reason this might be.....

wait for it.....

BULLSHIT.

[JoseGuya]

6 minutes ago, samiscool51 said:

kinda hard to implement

unless you have a kernel that works both in ARM and x86 processors then it might be vaporware

not many operating system kernels can do this, the only one that i know of that has both supported currently is Linux and even that took a while to make, it might stand to reason this might be.....

wait for it.....

BULLSHIT.

The Touchbar's controller is an ARM processor...

[samiscool51]

1 minute ago, JoseGuya said:

The Touchbar's controller is an ARM processor...

yes but that separate to the system,only showing screen info and sending touch info

it's not doing anything else like handling email or running the operating system

[Mira Yurizaki]

On 2/1/2017 at 2:51 PM, tlink said:

sounds like a pretty good idea. also sounds like a pain in the butt to write an OS for.

Consoles do this already. The Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U all use a lower power processor for background tasks (the Wii may have been first to do this though). The first two are especially important because they're both using an ARM processor to do the tasks, which means you can have a heterogeneous system architecture doing this.

 

Anyway, even if this were a thing, I'd still turn it off. Wi-Fi would suck up battery power so badly if the background processor is trying to grab stuff from the internet.