[hajile]

It seems like it should be -- especially if Apple licensed AMD's Infinity Fabric. Apple could buy discounted dual or quad-core chiplets and add them onto their system. x86 performance would decrease to encourage shifting architectures, but it would allow a couple years of transition time.

All the talk about x86 emulation doesn't seem feasible. x86 is crufty enough when implemented in silicon and would be much, much worse being implemented by a team that hasn't spent their entire life learning all the weird little performance tricks for the architecture. Even if they somehow succeeded, Intel has deep pockets too and lots of lobbyists and would probably push for (and get) an injunction while in court. Even if Intel lost, the injunction would hurt Apple severely during the transition period. Apple would need still-patented x86_64, SSE x.x, AVX, virtualization instructions, etc that are all patented. In addition, if Oracle v Google decided in Oracle's favor, that would open yet another attack avenue.

Throwing in a couple hardware cores shouldn't cost a ton and would stop those legal concerns in their tracks.