Mac+ARM: potential perf implications

Here I thought someone was dispelling the myth that you could exchange a Intel processor with an ARM one and get "like super low energy consumption", and look, "it has the same GHz and much more cores!", and have the same or better performance.

But of course this article instead repeats that flawed idea, right down to the GHz numbers. As it turns out, no, you won't magically beat the leading semiconductor company in the world at their own game using 1/5th of the power.

(In fact, today Intel presented details on their upcoming 14nm process:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8367/intels-14nm-technology-in...

This is how you advance power and performance simultaneously)

I still think we'll see a hybrid Mac at some point. You'll be able to run apps in either x64 or ARM mode, depending on what performance they require. Apps will be able to delegate tasks to run on the high-performance core or GPU if necessary, or just run entirely in Intel mode if they are a game. For a video editor or photoshop, you can get away with running the majority of the GUI parts on a low-end chip.