When might we see an ARM powered Macbook?
A little while ago I compiled some ARM vs x86 Geekbench data.
The figures are for the base model Macbook Air released each year, and the processor found in the iPhone (I’ve left out the iPad only A5X). When surfing Geekbench I discounted values that seemed to be obvious outliers. If anyone knows where you can find an average score by CPU please let me know.
| iPhone CPU, Date, Score
1176JZ(F)-S 412 MHz, 07/07, 137 |
MacBook Air CPU, Date, Score
Core 2 Duo L7500, 02/08, 2315 |
As you can see from the graph, with the A7 Apple managed to double the previous processor’s performance, which was triple the speed of the model before it, which was double the one before that. If this years A8 manages to double performance again to achieve a Geekbench score of around 5000 points, then it really will be within spitting distance of some of the processors put in the recent MacBook Airs.
In a MacBook Air, Apple would also have the option of cranking the speed further as heat and battery drain are less of an issue which makes this performance even more possible. Perhaps we’ll see an ARM CPU powerful enough for a MacBook in 2014 or at the latest 2015.