The ARM Mac Pro: Small, Light, Cheap, Plausible?

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The ARM Mac Pro: Small, Light, Cheap, Plausible?

25 January 2013 1,915 views 4 Comments

Why not build an ARM Mac Pro? At least one Apple fan with a flair for design and rendering is asking just that.

What is a computer? The dual-core 1.2GHz A6 processor in a $649 iPhone 5 is more powerful than the 1.67GHz G4 in the 2005 PowerBook, which sold for $2,500. So, why not build an ARM Mac Pro? At least one Apple fan is asking just that.

Peter Zigich is a name familiar to Fairer Platform readers — he’s the design mind behind the modular, stackable ultimate Mac Pro featured here in October 2012. He’s now back with a fresh take on the concept and it’s all about Apple’s powerful A series mobile processors

“Some of you have seen my Modular Mac Pro design Concept post,” writes Zigich. “Now, let’s take a look how power-efficient CPU’s will change design of a MacPro.”

Whereas Apple’s ARM-based “A” series processor are small, cheap, highly efficient and powerful, especially if Apple packed a bunch of them (image below) into, for example, a modular Mac Pro chassis. It’s an intriguing concept and one that is, at least in the abstract, a plausible option for Apple.

The ARM Mac: This Is a Computer

Nevertheless, moving to an ARM-based desktop architecture would require Apple to rewrite huge swathes OS X and third-party devs would have to go through similar conniptions — so, it’s probably not going to happen any time soon. Yes, Apple has done it before (i.e. 68K > PPC, Mac OS > OS X, PPC > Intel x86), but I don’t think we have reached the point of necessity and perhaps never will.

Still, who wouldn’t like a radically smaller, more efficient and greener workstation? Perhaps we’ll all be working on ARM Macs someday…

What’s your take?

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4 Comments »

Ultimate Mac Pro: Modular, stackable, cool - FairerPlatform said:

[...] That said, although the Mac will certainly be around for years to come, the extensible, expandable, component-based desktop computer vision illustrated by Zigich will never happen — that ship has already sailed. Or put another way, the cloud is here and my iPad is more powerful than a majority of the Macs I’ve owned over the years, cars are winning the race over trucks (see also: The ARM Mac Pro: Small, Light, Cheap, Plausible?). [...]

# 27 January 2013 at 11:25 am

Length vs Girth? There's an App for That - FairerPlatform said:

[...] Runnin’ Fun — MacTracker for iOS 2.3: Gains iPhone 5 Support, Adds Apple’s New Toys — The ARM Mac Pro: Small, Light, Cheap, Plausible? — iPad Bookmarks Disappeared? Try This Simple Fix — Space Station Song Recorded on [...]

# 28 January 2013 at 9:06 am

iTunes Top 10 Fun Facts: 25 Billion Songs, More said:

[...] Related posts: — Apple Petition: Bring OpenGL 4.3, ZFS to OS X 10.9 — Just Brilliant: iPad mini + Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard — Freeway Pro 6: Latest Mac App Store Victim — Steve Jobs in Sweden: ‘Computers Will Radically Revolutionize Education’ — The ARM Mac Pro: Small, Light, Cheap, Plausible? [...]

# 11 February 2013 at 4:39 pm

The iPhone 6 Looks Really Big - FairerPlatform said:

[...] As well done as Zigich’s ultimate modular Mac Pro or just a little too beyond the pale a la his ARM-based pro “tower” solution? [...]

# 27 February 2013 at 1:47 pm