[Teongot]

There's a tidy mathematical progression in Apple CPU architectures.

6502 (Apple 1,2,3): 1976

68k (Mac): 1984 (+8 years)

PPC: 1994 (+10 years)

x86: 2006 (+12 years)

ARM: 2020 (+14 years)

If the trend continues, we will see Apple's next architecture in 2036.

[ithkuil]

2036, Apple Mill

[mhh__]

Well, the people behind the Mill might not being around in 16 years time.

That being said, I would really like to see the Mill make it to Silicon - even if it doesn't work in the end, it's much more interesting to me than RISC-V.

[ithkuil]

Patents will survive their retirement ;-)

I assume RISC-V appeal is because it's open and thus allows people to explore (proprietary) implementations while maintaining compatibility at the ISA level.

If I understand correctly you cannot do this with Mill either.

Their work looks very interesting, but I'm not drawn in writing an fpga implementation or work on a toolchain for it, since I know any success may be impeded by patents

[jecel]

What about the Apple IIgs (1986) and its 65C816 processor? I suppose it would be valid to consider it a version of the 6502 if you are not separating 32 and 64 bit PPCs, x86 and ARMs.