Will Apple Notebook Use Self-developed ARM Processor?

This article is first written by Video Converter for Mac Club.

Gus Richard, a senior analyst for Piper Jaffray reported that Apple is developing a self-developed processor notebook in a research on Friday, which is working on an ARM-based notebook whether Apple is actually manufacture or not. It will have a great impact to Intel.

Richard said: “a number of data we get indicate that Apple's processor design group is developing a product based on the ARM architecture, the future will be used for notebook and it is unclear whether this processor is put into operation, but ARM enter to the PC market, Intel is facing the greatest risk.” “While the smartphone market is important to Intel, its core franchise of PCs and servers are where of the company's profits emanate from,” Richard wrote. "We believe the PC market remains weak in part due to the shortage of hard disk drives, and while we expect an increase in demand with improving disk drive supply, we do not expect it to be robust. We also see the cannibalization of the PC market by tablets." At present, the processor of the ARM architecture is widely used in smart phones and tablets. Apple iPad and the iPhone 4S uses the A5 processor, which is also based on the ARM architecture. Apple will soon release the next generation iPad which also be upgraded A Series processor.

An ARM-based notebook would technically fall under the category of a “smartbook” a product that Qualcomm started showing off in the middle of 2009. Ironically, the concept died in part, then, because of the lack of Windows. Fast forward three years, however, and Windows on ARM is one of the more intriguing aspects of Windows 8. For his part, Richard called Windows 8 “late”, but also a “likely Dud on Arrival.” Relative to Intel processors, ARM processors consume less power, but the computational performance is weak. In last May, it is reported that Apple will be the future of the MacBook Air products using self-developed A - series processors.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple iPad product line will continue to expand this week, to meet the needs of the users of similar notebooks. Apple, of course, exists in a separate ecosystem, and the company's A4 and follow-on architectures are based on the ARM processor technology. Richard did not say what OS he believed an ARM-based processor would run, but the iPad/iPhone's iOS would be a likely choice. Apple has also successfully ported its Mac OS from the PowerPC to the Intel X 86 platforms.

While Apple's A - series processor performance continues to improve, but the Intel processor is continuous improvement in energy consumption. For example, the further Haswell processor of Intel is expected to adopt the architecture of the system on a chip, to provide a better balance in terms of both power and performance. This can meet the needs of Apple to notebook processor.