iMac Pro to feature A10 Fusion coprocessor, possibly for low power tasks

[RedRound2]

So according to a series of tweets from BridgeOS there seems to be a A10 processor hidden within the iMac for ‘Hey Siri’ operation.

 

But in all honesty, A10 is overkill for such a feature and BridgeOS says it can be used by Apple for better security and tighter control without nuking today's x86 apps.

 

He also says it can run even when the computer is switched off making things like downloading updates a much more passive tasks

 

Quote

Separately, Bloomberg reported at the beginning of the year that Apple was developing a new ARM-based chip destined for the MacBook Pro. The chip would be responsible for handling low-power tasks that currently rely on Intel’s processor

 

It certainly a very interesting move and I believe ARM will start taking a role on computers very soon with even Microsoft seeminly very interested. I think this was the end goal for the MacBook 2015. 

 

Since its already been implemented on the iMac Pros, I'm pretty sure we’ll see this trickle down into all of next years Mac Products like their laptops where this would make a ton of sense for battery consumption 

 

Source: https://9to5mac.com/2017/11/18/imac-pro-a10-fusion-chip/

[ClientDigital]

2 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

It's one thing to have computers running black box code, being unaware of what it's doing, or who it's talking to.

 

To have that same dangerous functionality lacking a kill switch is dangerous beyond comprehension. Hackers will have a field day with things like this, because they're the only ones besides Apple who would know how it works.

The 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros already have arm coprocessors and nothing bad has happened

 

[D13H4RD]

Don't NVIDIA Maxwell GPUs beginning with GM2xx also have an ARM co-processor?

[RedRound2]

1 minute ago, Nicholatian said:

It's one thing to have computers running black box code, being unaware of what it's doing, or who it's talking to.

 

To have that same dangerous functionality lacking a kill switch is dangerous beyond comprehension. Hackers will have a field day with things like this, because they're the only ones besides Apple who would know how it works.

I really doubt that. If anything it makes the Mac much more secure.

[RedRound2]

1 minute ago, ClientDigital said:

The 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros already have arm coprocessors and nothing bad has happened

 

But they have one for Touch ID, specifically called T1 though. Not a fully fledged one. Just saying, not disapproving your point

[ClientDigital]

Just now, RedRound2 said:

But they have one for Touch ID, specifically called T1 though. Not a fully fledged one. Just saying, not disapproving your point

True, the one in the MacBook pro is from the series 2 Apple Watch not an iPhone 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Going to be interesting to see how this would affect battery life if the MacBook Pro rumors are true. 

[ClientDigital]

4 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

That's a good one. You have cashews in that peanut gallery of yours?

"If anything" is a pretty bold if. Assuming it's going to be secure is pretty silly considering the countless times we've seen things coming up totally fucking broken beyond repair. Equifax hack, Target's data breach, all of the other CC data breaches on a list longer than my leg, and even a few government data breaches on top of everything else, and that's just honest business. Need I mention all of the nefarious types who are looking for security holes in things to do everything from jailbreaking to building botnets?

How is this different from a regular PC that relies only on its main processor?

[RedRound2]

4 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

That's a good one. You have cashews in that peanut gallery of yours?

"If anything" is a pretty bold if. Assuming it's going to be secure is pretty silly considering the countless times we've seen things coming up totally fucking broken beyond repair. Equifax hack, Target's data breach, all of the other CC data breaches on a list longer than my leg, and even a few government data breaches on top of everything else, and that's just honest business. Need I mention all of the nefarious types who are looking for security holes in things to do everything from jailbreaking to building botnets?

What I am saying is, this cant be worse than what's already there today. It's not like Apple is opening a new security whole, but rather the opposite. Of course, nothing really is hackproof, but atleast from the tweets, it looks like boots will be much secure

[ClientDigital]

1 minute ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Going to be interesting to see how this would affect battery life if the MacBook Pro rumors are true. 

The MacBook Pro already has one, we're talking about the iMac Pro. https://www.apple.com/ca/imac-pro/

 

[D13H4RD]

I don't know about you guys.

 

But I wonder whether people here know that a modern smartphone also has a co-processor for lower-power tasks.

[RedRound2]

Just now, ClientDigital said:

The MacBook Pro already has one, we're talking about the iMac Pro. https://www.apple.com/ca/imac-pro/

 

It has a T1 chip which is to only save the fingerprint data onto the Secure Enclave, not for running tasks

[RedRound2]

Just now, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

I don't know about you guys.

 

But I wonder whether people here know that a modern smartphone also has a co-processor for lower-power tasks.

Yeah Apple has been coupling a motion co processor ever since 5s I believe for low power tasks, like 'hey siri' (but the latter was only enabled from 6s onwards)

[ClientDigital]

Just now, Nicholatian said:

I don't know what old PCs you're using, but pretty much every x86 PCs these days don't solely rely on the main CPU package to do everything. SoCs are pretty standard on motherboards of all kinds. It seems to me that the pretenses of this question aren't true, so I don't know how you expect me to answer this.

What I meant was, a regular PC can only uses its main processor for OS based tasks even low power tasks like Cortana.

[ClientDigital]

I wish they used the A11 Bionic as the coprocessor and gave it a much bigger role daily tasks like internet browsing

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, ClientDigital said:

I wish they used the A11 Bionic as the coprocessor and gave it a much bigger role daily tasks like internet browsing

At this point, just have an iPhone embedded in the system, running in the background. That would be pretty neat, especially for app developers. 

[79wjd]

6 minutes ago, ClientDigital said:

I wish they used the A11 Bionic as the coprocessor and gave it a much bigger role daily tasks like internet browsing

I was thinking something like that would be great, but I wonder how intrusive the handoff from x86 chrome/safar to ARM chrome/safari would be. I assume it's more difficult then the switch between an igpu and dgpu since the entire instruction set has to change. But an A10 is still pretty powerful.

[DrMacintosh]

I wonder if they might be able to run iOS apps with it without having to do any virtualization and just plop an iPhone in macOS as a floating window. 

 

Otherwise this can only be used for Bio metrics, and Hey Siri though it would be very overkill. 

 

If true I think Apple has something in store for the industry that we don't know about.  

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

I wonder if they might be able to run iOS apps with it without having to do any virtualization and just plop an iPhone in macOS as a floating window. 

 

Otherwise this can only be used for Bio metrics, and Hey Siri though it would be very overkill. 

 

If true I think Apple has something in store for the industry that we don't know about.  

What I was thinking. That'll be pretty interesting. 

[ClientDigital]

4 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I wonder if they might be able to run iOS apps with it without having to do any virtualization and just plop an iPhone in macOS as a floating window. 

 

Otherwise this can only be used for Bio metrics, and Hey Siri though it would be very overkill. 

 

If true I think Apple has something in store for the industry that we don't know about.  

I feel like it would be great in the new MacBook Pro 2018 for things like final cut pro as a powerful video processor or for light tasks 

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, ClientDigital said:

I feel like it would be great in the new MacBook Pro 2018 for things like final cut pro as a powerful video processor 

But does Final Cut really need to put multi thousand dollar Video Editing PCs to shame even more? 

[ClientDigital]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

But does Final Cut really need to put multi thousand dollar Video Editing PCs to shame even more? 

Yes, yes it does

[captain_to_fire]

Next... Face ID coming to the 2018 MacBook Pros and they include A11 Bionic SoC + 8th generation ULV Intel processors

 

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

but I wonder how intrusive the handoff from x86 chrome/safar to ARM chrome/safari would be.

Maybe if the browser uses more threads it will switch from ARM to x86. I'm guessing macOS will become a universal binary OS just like when Apple ditched the PowerPC in favor of Intel and developers who wrote their apps for PowerPC have to rewrite it to make it compatible to both PowerPC and Intel. Since iOS is just the forked version of macOS with touch support, I'm thinking it won't be so hard for them and developers have only to implement small changes to the code. For resource intensive apps like FCP X and Premiere CC, that will keep running with Intel processors.

4 minutes ago, ClientDigital said:

I feel like it would be great in the new MacBook Pro 2018 for things like final cut pro as a powerful video processor or for light tasks 

For simple tasks like iMessage, FaceTime, Safari or Notes I'm guessing it will be using the ARM SoC but for more resource intensive applications like FCP X or Premiere, it will be using the Intel processor.

[ClientDigital]

Just now, hey_yo_ said:

Next... Face ID coming to the 2018 MacBook Pros and they include A11 Bionic SoC + 8th generation ULV Intel processors

 

Maybe if the browser uses more threads it will switch from ARM to x86. I'm guessing macOS will become a universal binary OS just like when Apple ditched the PowerPC in favor of Intel and developers who wrote their apps for PowerPC have to rewrite it to make it compatible to both PowerPC and Intel. Since iOS is just the forked version of macOS with touch support, I'm thinking it won't be so hard for them and developers have only to implement small changes to the code. For resource intensive apps like FCP X and Premiere CC, that will keep running with Intel processors.

For simple tasks like iMessage, FaceTime, Safari or Notes I'm guessing it will be using the ARM SoC but for more resource intensive applications like FCP X or Premiere, it will be using the Intel processor.

That would be the "perfect" laptop.

 

 

[D13H4RD]

8 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

But does Final Cut really need to put multi thousand dollar Video Editing PCs to shame even more? 

Yes, because let's face it.

 

FCPX puts Premiere Pro to utter shame in terms of performance.