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Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

9to5mac.com

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Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#321

Post by aequitas »

vmception wrote: post #230
modeless wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's actually a pretty big limitation. I guess it's tough to do 64 GB with their on-package unified memory. I wonder if they're working on a version with discrete memory and GPU for the high end? They'll need it if they ever want to get Intel out of the Mac Pro.

Let's think about that a little bit. If the RAM is fast and the SSD is fast and the virtualization options are limited, then this is good enough? Or, inspire me. Which processes really require occupying and allocating bigger blocks of RAM? I personally don't want to purchase another machine with 16gb RAM but that's mainly because I want the option of having a powerful Windows guest or two running at the same time. Bu…

Virtualization and containers. Especially if you want to run an Electron based code editor next to it.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#322

Post by slayerjain »

rewtraw wrote: post #246
kevindong wrote: post #186

Completely unconfirmed speculation incoming: There's a solid chance that the logic board is exactly the same on all of the Macs announced today and the only difference is the cooling solution. If you play around with the Apple Store configurator, the specs are all suspiciously similar between every new Mac. https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch https://w…

If you compare the M1 Air and Pro, the only difference seems to be the addition of the Touchbar, 10% better battery life, and a "studio" speaker/mic on the Pro. https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/ I assume the addition of a fan on the Pro gives it better performance under load, but there doesn't seem to be a hugely compelling reason to not just get the Air.

I think MacBook Air is very compelling, and that's why got more screen time. Unless you want to run your system on >60% for extended periods of time - MacBook Air should be great.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#324

Post by jeffbee »

asimpletune wrote: post #233

It’s pretty nice that the stats don’t list the CPU’s clock rate. We can finally enter an era of less misleading indicators of performance, in the sense of what the overall experience will be. That’s what really matters.

This press release has the vaguest, most misleading and content-free performance claims that have ever been printed.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#325

Post by nrp »

kevindong wrote: post #186

Completely unconfirmed speculation incoming: There's a solid chance that the logic board is exactly the same on all of the Macs announced today and the only difference is the cooling solution. If you play around with the Apple Store configurator, the specs are all suspiciously similar between every new Mac. https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch https://w…

At Apple's volume and level of system integration, it doesn't make sense to do assembly sharing at that level between different models. Presumably the SoC package is the same between the different products, but binned differently for the Air, Pro, and Mini. The actual logic boards would be custom to the form factor.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#326

Post by CraftThatBlock »

gen3 wrote: post #285
trixie_ wrote: post #261

So I guess Windows won't run on M1, so none of my Windows software/Steam games will work either. Will software developers start dropping support for Mac now that they'd need to maintain an ARM version as well? It's not clear how long Apple will support emulation with Rosetta before cutting it off. What's the Linux landscape look like for this chip? It's great that there's performance and battery life improvements, bu…

Windows has an arm build, so I wouldn't count it out entirely. Edit: Never-mind, it looks like they are not porting bootcamp.

Apple said that only virtualization will be supported on their ARM chips. Locked through the bootloader (although wouldn't be surprised if exploits are released to load up Linux/Windows)

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#327

Post by saagarjha »

highfrequency wrote: post #134

Would be interesting to see single-threaded performance (/processor speed), I assume this falls way short of the advertised "3x faster" number. Also, only two Thunderbolt ports down from four!

I would expect single-threaded performance to be extremely good if this is in line with how Apple typically designs their processors. Also, you're comparing it to the wrong computer–this is clearly aimed at being a replacement for the 2-port MacBook Pro.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#328

Post by wmf »

ameen wrote: post #242
satysin wrote: post #165

No 32GB options on any of the models announced today is a shame. Or not I guess as it means I won't be buying anything today M1 looks impressive, hopefully it scales as well to higher TDPs. Pretty much what I expected today with all the low power models getting updated. With no fan I expect the Air will throttle the CPU quickly when using the high performance cores. Calling it an "8-core CPU" is a little cheeky IMHO…

Especially since it’s unified memory between the CPU and GPU - no wonder they were showing off mobile games on a desktop device

13" has always had unified memory.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#329

Post by tiernano »

_ph_ wrote: post #284
293984j29384 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8GB and 16GB configurations seem more than enough..

I had a quad-core Mini with 16GB in 2011. Almost 10 years later we should be much further, especially as the Intel Mini allows up to 64GB. (Which you probably would use only if you upgraded the memory yourself).

Also, lack of 10gbe is a big let down...

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#330

Post by whynotminot »

saagarjha wrote: post #282
whynotminot wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially head scratching when you consider that a lot of folks still have 2012 Mac minis with 16GB of RAM. I think 16GB is the bare minimum for a professional machine. Apple clears the bar here, but doesn't exceed it. Maybe next year's machines? As a first product, I think it's good enough. And the performance gains elsewhere--if what Apple says is true--are actually pretty radically impressive.

It's possible to do development on 8 GB, you just can't use Electron apps.

To be fair, most of us doing dev on our machines probably have a Slack client or Mattermost app floating in the background.

...And we might even be doing dev in something like VS Code in the first place.

We all like to dunk on Electron, but it's kind of become part of the furniture at this point, for better our worse.

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