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

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811–820 of 1001 posts

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

#811

The responses here seem to not really acknowledge what a rabbit apple has been pulling out of the hat. 2-3x the performance both from a CPU and GPU perspective, whilst being far more energy and thermally efficient. Of course this was kind of known and rumoured, but now we know. Finally real competition for intel. If only these chips were available to others. they are literally running laps around the competition. Cur…

Apple dug Intel's grave.

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

#812
post #747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, this reminds me of college. I remember some of my first CS courses, everyone either had a brand new mbp or an ALIENWARE super beefy laptop. I had a 300 dollar 7" netbook. Turns out that unless you're doing deep learning, etc. (which you might as well just run remote IMO), a bottom of the line intel atom processor can handle the workloads that a CS program throws at it no problem. I mean, in reality you're doing…

CS courses are the least demanding of all on computers. Usually the other courses when it comes to computer would need either office suite or specific software, both are vastly more demanding than the CS toolchain that has been mature since the 90s. That is, unless the course somehow uses Java, which practically forces you to use an IDE that are full of bloat.

gosh, I just remembered my first IDE I used in class, Dr. Java.

I honestly thought that the ability to interact with java code without all the boilerplate was a great way to introduce people to coding. That being said, I'm sure languages and interpreters like python's were pretty mature in 2010 too.

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

#813

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was hopeful they'd weigh less. An iPad Pro 12.9 inches weighs 1.4lbs. The 13.3 inch MacBook Air M1 is 2.8lbs. I'm sure there are reasons but there are companies, LG for instance, that make 2 lbs 13.3 inch notebooks and 3 lbs 16 inch notebooks. No I don't want an LG but I was hopeful for a 16" Arm Macbook Pro that weight 3 lbs. Now I'm pretty confident it will be the same as an Intel Macbook Pro 16" at 4.4lbs (heavy…

The 12.9” iPad Pro plus Magic Keyboard weighs 3lbs. Subtract a little weight for the wrapper and you are basically equivalent to an air with screen + keyboard + trackpad.

not according to apple's home page.

    iPad Pro 12.9"   1.391 lbs
    Magic Keyboard   0.5 lbs
    Total            1.891 lbs
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLA22LL/A/magic-keyboard-...

Apple doesn't list the weight of an iPad Pro but wikipedia does

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad_Pro#Fourth_generation#Mod...

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

#814
post #700

These benchmark scores claim that the only CPU faster than the Apple A14 is the recently released Ryzen 9 3950X : https://www.anandtech.com/show/16226/apple-silicon-m1-a14-de... What's the catch here? Did Apple just blow x86 out of the water?

The catches are: 1. single-threaded performance only; 2. sustained load

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

#816

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.

I think it’s good actually

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

#817
post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was hopeful they'd weigh less. An iPad Pro 12.9 inches weighs 1.4lbs. The 13.3 inch MacBook Air M1 is 2.8lbs. I'm sure there are reasons but there are companies, LG for instance, that make 2 lbs 13.3 inch notebooks and 3 lbs 16 inch notebooks. No I don't want an LG but I was hopeful for a 16" Arm Macbook Pro that weight 3 lbs. Now I'm pretty confident it will be the same as an Intel Macbook Pro 16" at 4.4lbs (heavy…

> LG for instance, that make 2 lbs 13.3 inch notebooks and 3 lbs 16 inch notebooks Those are the Gram series, right? They use a magnesium alloy chassis that feels like flimsy plastic. They are light, but they feel like a something that's going to imminently break compared to Apple's aluminum unibody. In my view, the Gram trades off too much stiffness and chassis robustness for weight to be palatable to a non-niche au…

I agree the LG feels bad. I don't agree that Apple doesn't have the talent to solve this and make 30% lighter laptops.

As for weight, carrying a 4.4lbs notebook to and from work and to meetings never bothered me. Carrying the same notebook for days on end as a digital nomad, especially in hot and humid weather did.

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

#818

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a dev and I have the air as my personal, side-project computer, and I have already ordered the new one. I use vim to develop primarily in python/js. So my need for performance is super low.

I was going to point out something like that but figured I would get shouted down. For me, check in to bitbucket and Jenkins pulls the build and does it on a rack full of servers dedicated for the process...and yes to VIM. :) One of my colleagues placed an order for the Air about 10 seconds after you could.

Yes, developers with cloud backed infra have the most to gain from this architecture change.

All we need is huge battery life (check), better heat management (check), and snappy enough performance for our thin client machine (check). We're not training the next GPT on our laptop anyways.

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

#819
post #194

I'm interested to see the benchmarks vs. comparable AMD systems. Some of the claims, like 2x performance increase on the MBP are impressive, but intel laptops have been absolutely trounced by AMD 4000-series laptops of late. Also will be interested to see the benchmarks of the integrated GPU vs. discreet GPU performance.

Psst…you want to use "discrete".

Depends on what they're rendering with that GPU…

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

#820

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 12.9” iPad Pro plus Magic Keyboard weighs 3lbs. Subtract a little weight for the wrapper and you are basically equivalent to an air with screen + keyboard + trackpad.

not according to apple's home page. iPad Pro 12.9" 1.391 lbs Magic Keyboard 0.5 lbs Total 1.891 lbs https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLA22LL/A/magic-keyboard-... Apple doesn't list the weight of an iPad Pro but wikipedia does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad_Pro#Fourth_generation#Mod...

Wrong Magic Keyboard. Look at the one for iPad Pro 12.9”.
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