Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

macworld.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 192 posts

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#91

Post by ksec »

lsiunsuex wrote: post #53
jandrese wrote: post #17

I wish Apple would make a sort of Raspberry Pi like board with an A series chip, ethernet, HDMI, GPIO, SD Card, etc... for $50-$100 that runs Linux. I would also like a flying unicorn. Seriously, a high power SBC at a reasonable price point would be insanely useful for projects like portable MAME cabinets, video transcoders, scene displays, etc... I love the Pi but it's so old tech, especially the video cores, that i…

Worse is the array of smart devices that are forced to use Android type hardware / Android OS. Looking at the Peloton cycle I have specifically which clearly runs Android OS. Could be so much better if it was on faster hardware / could link up to Apple Watch for stats. Make a version of iOS that companies can build off of; maintain the OS patch cycles but let them put their own app / front end on it. Tons of smart de…

I hope and I wish the market and Android will force Apple to make this decision within the next 3 to 4 years.

They are still not making Apple TV set.

With WatchOS and the Apple S3 chip already includes 90%+ of the features needed. I bet the S3 cost less then $20, and Apple could have sold it at $50 along with WatchOS to specfic market that Apple do not intend to compete. Fridge, Fan, Lamp, bikes, TV set, radio, kitchen appliance or what so ever.

Apple currently charges $1 for the controller of Lightning Cables regardless of volume. They could have just offer similar program.

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#92

Post by jey »

vbezhenar wrote: post #63

I'm not really impressed by this article. I don't see much of a performance improvements in desktop CPUs, so I don't expect them in mobile CPUs as well. They were catching desktop CPUs until recently, but now they are playing on even field, so I doubt that it would be 25% in single-thread. Sure, they could drop more cores, but that's it and only for specific workloads. Also I'm not even sure that I need that performa…

Yeah. All I really want is more RAM so that I can tab between Safari and Facebook without one of them getting unloaded and losing my place.

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#93

Post by TheLoneAdmin »

guelo wrote: post #19

7nm is not going to be unique to Apple. TSMC has said that they have 50 customers using their new 7nm tech this year. That most likely includes Qualcomm whose Snapdragon chips power most Android phones.

AMD is launching VEGA 20 in 2H @ 7nm. Also, Nvidia is expected to launch a 7nm video card this year.

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#94

Post by titanix2 »

joeberon wrote: post #77
eckza wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only getting 8gb RAM in my 2015 13” Macbook Pro is one of my greatest regrets.

Same for me getting 128 gb storage

I paid for the storage upgrade, not the RAM one and I regret it weekly :( I saved 475€ on the whole machine thanks to exchange rate, but still the bill was salty.

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#95

Post by sho »

jey wrote: post #92
vbezhenar wrote: post #63

I'm not really impressed by this article. I don't see much of a performance improvements in desktop CPUs, so I don't expect them in mobile CPUs as well. They were catching desktop CPUs until recently, but now they are playing on even field, so I doubt that it would be 25% in single-thread. Sure, they could drop more cores, but that's it and only for specific workloads. Also I'm not even sure that I need that performa…

Yeah. All I really want is more RAM so that I can tab between Safari and Facebook without one of them getting unloaded and losing my place.

Which model do you have? No way this should be happening on a recent one just between two applications.

On the X (3GB) this doesn't seem to be an issue for me at all.

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#96

Post by gondo »

jey wrote: post #92
vbezhenar wrote: post #63

I'm not really impressed by this article. I don't see much of a performance improvements in desktop CPUs, so I don't expect them in mobile CPUs as well. They were catching desktop CPUs until recently, but now they are playing on even field, so I doubt that it would be 25% in single-thread. Sure, they could drop more cores, but that's it and only for specific workloads. Also I'm not even sure that I need that performa…

Yeah. All I really want is more RAM so that I can tab between Safari and Facebook without one of them getting unloaded and losing my place.

as soon as one of those app gets access to more ram, it will use all of it, and you will have the same experience just look at desktop

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#97

Post by wwweston »

jandrese wrote: post #17

I wish Apple would make a sort of Raspberry Pi like board with an A series chip, ethernet, HDMI, GPIO, SD Card, etc... for $50-$100 that runs Linux. I would also like a flying unicorn. Seriously, a high power SBC at a reasonable price point would be insanely useful for projects like portable MAME cabinets, video transcoders, scene displays, etc... I love the Pi but it's so old tech, especially the video cores, that i…

Seems to take about 4-5 years from release for the depreciation&upgrade curves to bring an iPhone under $100. At that point, the main thing keeping them from being what you're asking for is:

1) No one has been particularly dedicated to developing an open-source OS for these things, despite the fact that used phones are steadily becoming some of the most common devices in the world, to the point where we have to treat them like waste. 2) Apple's treatment of ports of any kind as a blemish.

Solve these problems, and you have the board in a slick package. :)

I'm less than half kidding. #2 is obviously solvable, as there are lightning dongles/docks for just about everything on your list. #1 gets harder over time with security measures but it has to be possible, it's a question of resources.

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#98

Post by bitL »

verall wrote: post #85
solidr53 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically a PC with GPIO? NVIDIA Jetson is the closest you can get in terms of performance, but the price is closer to $500. DX2 specs: GPU: NVIDIA Pascal™, 256 CUDA cores (1302MHz) CPU: HMP Dual Denver 2/2 MB L2 + Quad ARM® A57/2 MB L2 (1.4Ghz/2Ghz) Video: 4K x 2K 60 Hz Encode (HEVC) and 4K x 2K 60 Hz Decode (12-Bit Support) Memory: 8 GB 128 bit LPDDR4 (59.7 GB/s) Display: 2x DSI, 2x DP 1.2 / HDMI 2.0 / eDP 1.4 C…

*TX2 Also it has a student discount to only $300 which imo makes it much more compelling if you're eligible.

Still, only 1.5Tflops (roughly 750Ti level), which makes it insufficient for bleeding-edge robotics, but 8GB is nice for inference. NVidia has some high-performing board for automotive, but that one is 500W for a change...

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#99

Post by rbirkby »

mepian wrote: post #39
stefan_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple chips famously have Imagination GPUs that have zero open-source support, a far ways off even from Nvidia. They are the absolute worst. That's before you consider that all the stuff Apple did to that poor ARM probably means you can't even boot Linux into a terminal on it today.

>Apple chips famously have Imagination GPUs Not anymore, Apple switched to in-house GPUs recently.

Apple's GPU is designed just down the road from Imaginations HQ. Guess where the designers previously worked...

Re: Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

#100

Post by Rexxar »

jandrese wrote: post #17

I wish Apple would make a sort of Raspberry Pi like board with an A series chip, ethernet, HDMI, GPIO, SD Card, etc... for $50-$100 that runs Linux. I would also like a flying unicorn. Seriously, a high power SBC at a reasonable price point would be insanely useful for projects like portable MAME cabinets, video transcoders, scene displays, etc... I love the Pi but it's so old tech, especially the video cores, that i…

Let's call this product "iPhone mini". With a good name for it, I'm sure we can convince Apple to do it.
Post reply on HN