What if Apple decided to release their “M” series processors a desktop CPUs? How would that change the market?

It would also be interesting to see Samsung Foundry release desktop Exynos chips or maybe Qualcomm “X” processors for desktop that are more powerful than the laptop chips.

p.s. I know they would never do anything like that, but it would be interesting to imagine how the market would change with more competitors

  • Rudee@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    The Exynos, M series, and Qualcomm chips are all ARM architecture, as opposed to the AMD and Intel CPUs, which are x86.

    Because of this, the majority of software wouldn’t natively work on them. Apple has obviously developed versions of many programs that function on their laptops, and could extend the same treatment to the hypothetical desktop product. The other chip companies do not have this benefit, and would have to develop supported software from the ground up

    • sbird@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      also, it would be really tricky to get people to buy new, probably expensive ARM motherboards (especially with Apple involved)

      • entwine413@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        It would likely open up the market for arm motherboards, since they’re not the only player in the game. I think it would ultimately be a good thing, but it would probably take a decade or so to truly compete with x86-64.

        Apple opening up the market would definitely give the process a kick in the pants.

  • 🇨🇦 tunetardis@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    I suppose if some sort of critical mass is reached, it could push the world from x86-64 to arm? Every modern OS supports it at this point and emulators have come a long way for older software that needs them.

  • sbird@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 months ago

    I wonder what a motherboard designed by Apple would look like…

    also, given Apple, they would probably try to make everything proprietary (non-standard motherboard shapes, non-standard connecters, etc)

    • IslandLife@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Years ago, I built a hackintosh. So gigabyte mobo with Intel cpu. At that point, I learned you couldn’t legally buy apple software (OS), independently of their hardware.

      Apple has no interest in people screwing with their stuff, and I’ve never looked at them since. I’m an Android , Linux guy. Apple can kick rocks.