Sorry to state the above, but I think Apple should just call it a PowerPC ARM V2.. silicon is too lame and has no significance in the computer industry.. maybe for cellphones, but not for the macs - I plan to update my 2015 Macbook Pro and get an ARM MacBook Pro and on the notebook will place a sticker saying: PowerPC V2 inside.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
name "silicon" is so stupid
- Thread starter Macbookprodude
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You realise that Apple Silicon isn't the name of their line of Mac chips, right? They haven't told anyone the name, this is just a way to refer to them before the actual name is announced.
Also, why on earth would you put a sticker like that on anything?
Also, why on earth would you put a sticker like that on anything?
Feel like they're gonna stick with Apple Silicon. Apple Silicon A14M or whatever.
arn
arn
You think its lame, I personally am fine with it.
It has nothing in common with PowerPC beyond being RISC. Apple calling it PowerPC V2 would be confusing, incorrect, and possibly not legal.
They will probably just refer to it as the “Apple A15” or something like that. Perhaps the Mac line will get a letter of its own, leaving A for iPhone and iPad, but M is already taken.
That term was just used to let people know that it's their own processors in them. I doubt the actual products will be called "Apple Silicon MacBook" and whatnot. It'll probably just be called "MacBook", "iMac", etc like today (with a simple line item in the tech specs indicating which Apple processor is in it) and, instead, they'll probably put an "Intel" qualifier on the ones with Intel processors.
I'm guessing the name for the Mac chipset would start with an M ?
A series = iPhones & iPads
Cause Apple already have S ,U ,T ,W ,H series.
I'm thinking because from marketing perspective it's better to differentiate the positioning, an M series could be the most power performance of Apple Silicon to put on a Mac.
i do think Silicon is a stupid name i dont know what I'd go with...
ARM isnt better so if i could choose it would probably be a completely unrelated cool sounding code name.
ideally i would have done the dorky thing and called it "Core" or "Seeds" or something Apple-y but i understand having Core Processors while intel does would probably not go over well
ARM isnt better so if i could choose it would probably be a completely unrelated cool sounding code name.
ideally i would have done the dorky thing and called it "Core" or "Seeds" or something Apple-y but i understand having Core Processors while intel does would probably not go over well
They already used M for the motion coprocessor chips, the M7 came out in 2013, they're up to M13 now.
Apple motion coprocessors - Wikipedia
They could always rename them but that might get confusing.
They already used M for the motion coprocessor chips, the M7 came out in 2013, they're up to M13 now.
Apple motion coprocessors - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
They could always rename them but that might get confusing.
Ahhh so they already have M series naming, then I don't have any ideas what the Mac processor name would be.
I would leave it to crack Apple marketing team to figure it out ?
Silicon has no significance in the computer industry? What?!!!
Just a name for a place that is credited with the birth of the personal computer industry.
ARM will license their CPU design to anyone, and Apple didn't just take the ARM CPU as is, they are using the ARM Instruction set, as well as design elements from the ARM Cortex CPU. Then then added a whole crapload of other things, such as their Neural Engine, a Storage Controller, Secure Enclave, etc etc... and out came the A4, A5, A6... etc.. etc.. and so the whole thing in it's entirety is what Apple calls "Apple Silicon". It actually would be incorrect to call it an ARM CPU, because it's technically not. I can't say I like the name either, but you can't really call it an ARM CPU either, I think too many people are confused over that part, it's not a pure ARM CPU. It has the Instruction Set, and some Designs taken from the ARM Cortex CPU, but it's Apple's own CPU designed from the ground up.
Unlikely to call it PowerPC V2 because "PowerPC" is a trademark name belonging to IBM. And IBM still produces a line of "Power" processors for the server market (https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/power )
[automerge]1593576978[/automerge]
Well, I think the chemical element Silicon is more generally relevant than Silicon Valley per se....
Power is now open architecture. IBM didn’t want to do anything with it.
www.infoq.com
IBM POWER Instruction Set Architecture Now Open Source
IBM has open sourced the POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), which is used in its Power Series chips and in many embedded devices by other manufacturers. In addition, the OpenPOWER Foundation will become part of The Linux Foundation to further open governance.
Power is now open architecture. IBM didn’t want to do anything with it.
IBM POWER Instruction Set Architecture Now Open Source
IBM has open sourced the POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), which is used in its Power Series chips and in many embedded devices by other manufacturers. In addition, the OpenPOWER Foundation will become part of The Linux Foundation to further open governance.
Interesting....but I still reckon that IBM would object to anyone labelling a potentially competing product "PowerPC"...and it would be very confusing for consumers!
I'm not sure how popular the IBM Power hardware is these days (haven't touched it for almost 10 years), but I expect it will go the same way as Intel Itanium.
The next few years will be very interesting in the CPU architecture world. Will Intel become slowly irrelevant in the face of more efficient designs, or can they re-invent themselves with something brand new? Will ARM become dominant, or does RISC-V or an as yet unknown contender have a chance at the crown?
I’m sorry, but this is an unbelievably silly thread.
Apple used the (appropriate) term ‘silicon’ because they haven’t yet announced any specific ARM chips for the Mac. Silicon is a general term for micro-chips. 'A12', A11' et all are branding terms.
Apple used the (appropriate) term ‘silicon’ because they haven’t yet announced any specific ARM chips for the Mac. Silicon is a general term for micro-chips. 'A12', A11' et all are branding terms.
Last edited:
That doesn't change that the "PowerPC" trademark is still being held by IBM.Power is now open architecture. IBM didn’t want to do anything with it.
IBM POWER Instruction Set Architecture Now Open Source
IBM has open sourced the POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), which is used in its Power Series chips and in many embedded devices by other manufacturers. In addition, the OpenPOWER Foundation will become part of The Linux Foundation to further open governance.
Apple Silicon is just perfect in my opinion. Calling it “Power PC” would be silly, confusing and technically incorrect.
I’m curious to see what is going to be the naming scheme for the actual processors. They are going to migrate every product line eventually, so I’d assume they have to come up with something different for each individual category of product.
For consumer Macs and laptops, I think they might keep the A-series name:
MacBook Air: A14X (same as next iPad Pro)
iMac, Mac Mini & MacBook Pro: A14X Max (more cores, stronger GPU)
For high-end Mac workstations with better cooling capacity, I think they will make a specific processor line to replace the Xeons, mostly differentiated by number of cores:
iMac Pro: X14 16/24/32 cores
Mac Pro: X14 32/64/128 cores
I would expect the X-series of processors to come about one year after the debut of the A14X, so they might be based on the next generation of Apple Silicon and be called X15.
I’m curious to see what is going to be the naming scheme for the actual processors. They are going to migrate every product line eventually, so I’d assume they have to come up with something different for each individual category of product.
For consumer Macs and laptops, I think they might keep the A-series name:
MacBook Air: A14X (same as next iPad Pro)
iMac, Mac Mini & MacBook Pro: A14X Max (more cores, stronger GPU)
For high-end Mac workstations with better cooling capacity, I think they will make a specific processor line to replace the Xeons, mostly differentiated by number of cores:
iMac Pro: X14 16/24/32 cores
Mac Pro: X14 32/64/128 cores
I would expect the X-series of processors to come about one year after the debut of the A14X, so they might be based on the next generation of Apple Silicon and be called X15.
Power is now open architecture. IBM didn’t want to do anything with it.
IBM POWER Instruction Set Architecture Now Open Source
IBM has open sourced the POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), which is used in its Power Series chips and in many embedded devices by other manufacturers. In addition, the OpenPOWER Foundation will become part of The Linux Foundation to further open governance.
Doesn't mean they don't still own the PowerPC trademark.
OP doesn't seem to know much about Silicon if they think its not relevant to CPUs.
[automerge]1593598221[/automerge]
This is probably along the right lines but the differentiation might be more to do with the extra processing units Apple includes in different chips. The Xeon replacements might have bigger neural engines or more cores to encode and decode video files or things like that. We might even find that customising these extra modules in the SoC leads to whole new models intended for different applications. I can see a market for fast, low power data centre boxes which would need great IO for networking and moving large amounts of data, plus backups and encryption maybe. Totally different to a research workhorse crunching huge calculations in epic amounts of RAM or a render farm node.
Last edited:
So, what is a core in a CPU known as in Italy? Seems to me that's not going to work...
Besides, STMicroelectronics might have a few things to say about using Nucleo...
I don't know why lots of people out there keep calling it Apple 'silicone' instead of Silicon, unless they're thinking that Apple is also branching out into breast implant and sealant manufacturing...