I would imagine apple's new processor would eventually apply to their whole mac lineup. Wondering if that means Mac Pro 7,1 will be phased out sooner or later? Perhaps my concerns don't make sense, but I wanted to ask the board their thoughts around the future of the Mac Pro with apple's own ARM processor.
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It's not going to get phased out anytime soon. Though, I suppose it depends on what you mean by "phased out".
My guess:
Today, you have the T2 chip on every Mac except the non-Pro iMac (and realistically, that will change over as soon as they're comfortable ditching hard drive and Fusion Drive configurations, since the T2 can only function with non-removable SSD storage). The T2 is an ARM chip! ARM chips ARE CURRENTLY IN MACS. However, with the T2, you have a set number of functions that used to be discrete components on a Mac logic board that are now centralized in that T2. And the list of things that are in the T2 is longer than the things that the original T1 took over for. Still left out of that list are the functions provided by the CPU (which currently include the memory controller and, on lower end models, the IGP) and the discrete GPU (on 16" MacBook Pros, retina iMacs, iMac Pros, and Mac Pros). Apple could, very easily, put out a T3 chip that includes CPU function. Perhaps, for a time, the T3 could have hardware emulation for 64-bit x86, emulating a U-series Core i5 or Core i7 for x86-64 apps. Or maybe Apple releases a Rosetta-like software component that runs x86-64 software natively. Who knows? But, it could also very well be that, if Apple's T3 becomes the first ARM CPU in a Mac, Apple may opt to relegate the Intel CPU to the higher end to work in tandem with it in cases (and on Macs) where users would want ARM and Intel working in tandem. So, you might have iMac Pros and 16" MacBook Pros that have the ARM SOC AND a Core i7 or Core i9 in tow, while having Mac minis, standard iMacs, 13" MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs with just the ARM SoC because, at that point, only the high-end would need x86 at all. Then, once it is safe, they'd ditch x86 entirely.
But again, that's just my guess. I think they do have the flexibility to not make this as rough of a transition as the PowerPC to Intel transition was originally. But even then, that transition wasn't as rough as it could've been. Plus, it's not like Apple hasn't been making derivatives of macOS (iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS) for the ARM architecture since 2007.
To give some historical context, the Mac Pro's predecessor was the Power Mac G5.
Apple first announced the Intel processor architecture transition on June 6, 2005.
The last Power Mac G5 A1117, PowerMac11,2, was released October 19, 2005.
It was discontinued after the release of the first Mac Pro in August 2006.
The last full OS release, 10.5 Leopard, to support the G5 was was released on October 26, 2007
The first full OS that did
not support the G5, 10.6 Snow Leopard, was released June 8, 2009
The final security update for Leopard on PowerPC was Security Update 2011-004 released June 23, 2011.
The Power Mac G5 became "vintage" per
Apple's rules five years after final sale -- August 2011
I would say that five years after last sale is about as long as you can expect any sort of support to persist. If you figure that Apple will take about a year or so to replace the Macintel Pro with an ARMed Mac Pro -- say, mid 2021 -- then you can expect Macintel products to be supported until about mid 2026.
The Power Mac G5 was sold for a good while after the MacPro1,1 came out. As was the iBook G4. They weren't front and center in the online store (and you wouldn't find them at all at the retail stores), but they were still there. They had to keep selling them for schools (iBook G4) and businesses (Power Mac G5) that still needed PowerPC and couldn't rely on Rosetta to make up the difference.
Paying more for a computer doesn't mean it will last longer. I mean, unless you buy $100 laptop at Walmart or something.
Generally any computer at any price stays current for about 4-5 years. Someone who dropped $40k on a computer is probably spending $40k every 5 years anyway. Why pay top dollar if you're going to be ok with 5 year old performance? Doesn't make sense.
That's not true. Workstation class systems (non server Xeon-based systems) are typically rated to last a decade. Manufacturers will provide software support (read: driver support) for around that time. Apple treats Workstation class systems a little better than the rest of the industry does with their non-workstation systems, but still worse than the rest of the industry does with their Workstation class systems. Similarly, if you buy a Core i3 or Pentium based system, it is not expected to have the same level of longevity (quality+support) that you would from a Core i7 system. Similarly, no one selling you a Celeron-based system outside of the context of maybe a Chromebook, is expecting you to still be using that machine five years later without headaches.
Interesting posts. I am using my 7,1 for music production and am heavily invested in 100s of plug ins. Moving to ARM, these would all have to be recompiled which is a massive amount of work for the companies involved some of which are only very small set ups. Added to the other issues mentioned above, I don't think this is going to happen in a hurry.
The PowerPC to Intel transition was first announced in June of 2005; the first Intel Macs came out in January of 2006, and the first version of Mac OS X to not support PowerPC machines came out in August of 2009. The ability to run PowerPC apps went away that next release of Mac OS X in July 2011. So, from 2005 to 2011 was your transition period. And really, so long as whatever Rosetta-like emulation layer they use isn't garbage, you may have six years before you have to worry about your mom and pop developer plug-ins not being updated (and, you never know, maybe they will be updated well before then.)
and the opposite if mac os does become adjusted to arm in the future what would this mean for hackintosh users like myself
Your Hackintosh will continue to work, you just won't be able to run any version of macOS past the inevitable last one that still has support for x86-64 hardware. Apple is very likely going to have much tighter control of macOS on ARM than they did with macOS on Intel, so I wouldn't expect Hackintoshing to be something that sticks around thereafter.
