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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

#481

Post by cma »

ojosilva wrote: post #28

Apple mentions TensorFlow explicitly in the ongoing presentation due to the new 16-core "Neural Engine" embedded in the M1 chip. Now that's an angle I did not expect on this release. Sounds exciting! Edit: just to clarify, the Neural Engine itself is not really "new": > The A11 also includes dedicated neural network hardware that Apple calls a "Neural Engine". This neural network hardware can perform up to 600 billio…

I think this is for inference not learning, even though they use the term machine learning. They seem to just mean running models based on machine learning approaches.

Tensorflow includes stuff for inference.

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

#482

Post by mixmastamyk »

onepointsixC wrote: post #210
carabiner wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPhone has typically had lower specs while outperforming its competitors in benchmarks. I think the integration goes a long way toward efficiency.

But Mac OS X isn't iOS. The relative memory usage should be the same between an intel Mac and an ARM Mac. Which means for power users this is extremely disappointing.

Power-users generally won't be purchasing the lowest/mobilest end for work purposes.

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

#483

Post by culopatin »

noncoml wrote: post #273
rewtraw wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 they got it wrong. I would pay money to NOT have the touchbar.

As someone using a hackintosh considering a real Macbook, what's so wrong about it?

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

#484

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#485

Post by r00fus »

ziftface wrote: post #238
r00fus wrote: post #24

Same price as previous MB Air - $1k. That's a HUGE selling point to me. I was ready to see $2k for their newest kit. They're looking for marketshare gains.

I'm curious to know why you expected 2k. With more vertical integration, the cost normally goes down. Why would the cost go up for apple here?

I guess I was expecting a high margin, top-end product, typical of Apple.

Some people would have paid more for iOS apps on their Mac.

Given this is an architecture shift, I guess it seems to make sense to test it out with a midrange product.

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

#486

Post by duhi88 »

ljm wrote: post #448
varispeed wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't be surprised if the cooling solution was serialised and it had a detection whether the cooling is originally programmed for the particular unit like they do now with cameras and other peripherals (check iPhone 12 teardown videos). I bet that the logic would check the expected temperature for given binning and then shut down the system if it is too cool or too hot. Apple knows better than the users what hardw…

So, essentially their new Macbook line is a glorified iPhone/iPad but with a foldable display (on a hinge)? Not too far-fetched when you see the direction MacOS is headed, UI-wise. And it sounds nice, but if it means that repairability suffers then we'll just end up with a whole wave of disposable laptops.

To me it looks more like they swapped the motherboard out with their own, keeping the rest of the hardware the same.

With RAM and SSD already soldered to the motherboard, repairability can't really get much worse than it already is.

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

#487

Post by Xni9ne »

I think you must wait till the work with this devices How you know ? we have m1 here and how you know it is not like a series ? in iphone we have 6gb of ram at performance of 12 or more apple doesn't work at numbers and it is stil supporting more rams on intel processors wait and see ehat was apple magic

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

#488

Post by pgib »

I've been using an older 2016 MacBook Pro (1st with TouchBar) and was excited about something faster. Given that most people are working from home now, and the fact that the new MacBook Pro is virtually identical physically to what I got four years ago, I'm actually considering just getting the Mac mini to save about CAD $1,000. I also have a 12" MacBook which I adore, and so the times I do need something portable, it doesn't get more portable than that. (And it's surprisingly capable for my dev environment.)

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

#489

Post by ChuckMcM »

I think Apple has done an amazing job of pulling off their own silicon. At Sun I got to be involved peripherally in the effort that created SPARC and it was way more work than I had suspected. So kudos to Apple's design, engineering, and QA teams!

I am also noting that they have killed the "ARM SoC's will never match what Intel can do" story line. That always reminded me of the "Microcomputers will never be able to do what minicomputers can do" story line that everyone except DEC and HP seemed to realize wouldn't hold up over time. "Never say never" is a good motto in the computer business.

That said, as the integration continues apace re-usability and repairablilty reach all time lows. When you consider that you could take a 1970's minicomputer, disassemble it to the component level, and create an entirely different (and functional) computer out of those components, you get a sense of how quaint that notion seems these days. I doubt anyone will ever desolder an M1 chip and put it onto a new board of their own design. And that reminds me more of the IBM "die on substrate" modules that they started using in mainframes which made them basically nothing more than low grade gold ore if they no longer worked as a mainframe.

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

#490

Post by jonplackett »

vmchale wrote: post #468
WanderPanda wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which actually sounds like a good fit for a dev machine, where you only compile once in a while, but do not sustain high loads

My compiles take like 8 minutes at worst.

You'd hit thermal throttling way before 8 minutes I'd guess.

A lot of my iPhone app builds are pretty quick though, < 1 minute.

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