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The first conformant M1 GPU driver

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Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#531

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

> Instead of one row after the next, pixels in memory follow a spiral-like curve.

This is called a z-order curve[1, 2]. It makes texture mapping and mipmapping significantly more cache-friendly than the usual x-y ordering, because these operations are often performed in tiles of 2^n size.

I'd say it's more a fractal pattern than spiral-like, to be precise.

[1]: https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ComparingXYCurvesAndZOrde...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-order_curve?wprov=sfla1

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#532

Post by saagarjha »

hooch wrote: post #397
xp84 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iChat stored every conversation (if you enabled history) in HTML files the user could find in their Documents folder and read. Messages history is stored in an undocumented SQLite database that you’re not meant to touch. I’m not saying they’re completely proprietary in every way, but you can see the progression from wide open to “keep your hands off.” For another example, Apple Notes was actually just mail messages s…

IMAP notes still works.

It works about as well as it always did, which was not very well.

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#533

Post by vladvasiliu »

klausa wrote: post #401
vladvasiliu wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I still don't understand why people think in 2023 that Android can not be a viable alternative to an iPhone. Because some people, like yours truly, enjoy having a patched up-to-date mobile os, but also don't need to change their phone every other year. My Iphone 7 which I bought refurbished in February 2017, still works perfectly after a battery change. It has the previous iOS version, but it keeps receiving securi…

FWIW, Apple does release _some_ patches for previous iOS versions, but there absolutely are mitigations that are not back ported to older versions. If you care deeply about security, I’d recommend having a phone that actually is using up-to-date OS.

I do care, that's why I'm thinking of getting a new one. But still, ios 16, the first which didn't support the iphone 7, came out in September 2022. The iphone 7 came out in September 2016. I'm not aware of any Android phone with such a long support cycle.

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#534

Post by saagarjha »

gumby wrote: post #358
als0 wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apparently enough customers wanted it. Magsafe is genuinely a nice innovation that users missed. It solves the cord yank problem. But I do like having the option to use USB-C if I don't have the MagSafe cable.

I'm the other way around: I just want to carry a UB C cable or two. The cable was designed so wear and damage should accrue to the cable, not the connector in your device.

The current computers are the best of both worlds in that respect :)

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#535

Post by vladvasiliu »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #312
vladvasiliu wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I still don't understand why people think in 2023 that Android can not be a viable alternative to an iPhone. Because some people, like yours truly, enjoy having a patched up-to-date mobile os, but also don't need to change their phone every other year. My Iphone 7 which I bought refurbished in February 2017, still works perfectly after a battery change. It has the previous iOS version, but it keeps receiving securi…

My android phone is from 2011. All the apps I want to run on it run on it. I know of some that won't, but I don't want to use them. So what does this prove? Anything? Probably not.

I'd argue that games are a specific kind of app which require performance. It's likely that a brand new low-end phone supports the latest android os but not the latest power-hungy games. Though you can probably install them on it, just like I can install power-hungry games on my old iphone. It's just that it won't be an enjoyable experience playing them.

A password manager doesn't have any such requirements.

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#536

Post by hot_gril »

sheepscreek wrote: post #417
hot_gril wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah Flash was slow, but the common alternatives for in-browser animation/games were (and still are) far slower. H.264/5 maybe did video better than Flash, even then idk, Flash YouTube was always way faster on my old iMac than HTML5 YT. Google Hangouts/Meet will lag a high-end Intel MBP thanks to the unaccelerated VP8/9 video, but AIM Flash-based video calls ran fine on an iMac G4. On top of that, there was never a r…

Perhaps it was fast due to lack of tight security policies etc. These days, everything has to be containerized or be in a sandbox. That adds layers of overhead. Probably also why Google killed NaCl (Native Clients for Google Chrome). It was loosely in the same space as Flash and ActiveX - anyone remember that?

I've thought about that too. Can only guess about it myself. Old software tends to be faster just because it has to be, and there isn't always a compromise other than time-to-implement.

Not sure how ActiveX's sandboxing worked, but I'll bet it was even less than Flash, since it was running actual x86 code.

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#537

Post by kalleboo »

Zetobal wrote: post #176
tornato7 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a MacBook Pro in 2013 and my mom bought a Dell XPS at around the same time. Her laptop died, she got a Lenovo Yoga. That one died within a year and was replaced for free. The new one died after two years. When the M1 Air came out I gave her the old MacBook Pro, which she still uses every day, going strong (aside from battery life, but it's mostly plugged in). It has essentially outlived 4 Windows laptops. I…

The M1 won't, the SSD will wear out before that and with no way to swap, it will be landfill as well.

After 2 years of use, my M1 MBP has 5% write life used. Extrapolate that out and you get 40 years of lifespan.

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#538

Post by machinekob »

softfalcon wrote: post #472
WhereIsTheTruth wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Apple conforms to the existing standards of OpenGL and Vulkan we see gaining steam for many film and game production pipelines. Read what gamedevs have to say about this, Metal is more appreciated than Vulkan > 2. Apple tries to throw its weight around and force devs to support their Metal standards even more, ultimately hoping to force the world onto Metal + macOS. Apple was part of the Vulkan working group, kn…

I think the conversation is mixed here. Baldur’s Gate 3 was just released with first class Vulkan support. Steam is pushing hard with MoltenVK on macOS and native Vulkan drivers on the Steam Deck. I agree there are likely a lot of game devs who like Metal, but it would appear there are a lot of heavy hitters backing Vulkan. As well, in film, many render engines prefer Vulkan due to the flexibility to write complicate…

And Vulkan drivers are like 10-20% slower compared to DX11 on NV.

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#539

Post by mellosouls »

creato wrote: post #497
mellosouls wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harmful by what standard? The moderation here is among the best on the web, what on earth are you talking about? Even if there are a tiny minority of toxic users, blocking access to all seems like the issue may not be with HN... Edit: ok I missed some previous discussions, eg https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36971867#37000629 for earlier similarly dubious generalisations and complaints providing context.

In my opinion, HN comments/users skew heavily towards cynicism/negativity. It may be a tiny minority, but I don’t think it’s a tiny minority of the most vocal users.

That latter (more subtle) point is a possibility I suppose but even if it were the case it would likely reflect the unpleasant side of normal online psychology rather than anything particular to HN; and there is still a significant difference between cynicism/negativity and the bigotry and hostility claimed by the "harmful" comment and linked context.

If all such reflex internet-negativity is being wrongly interpreted as representative bigotry by an external party that's still not a HN issue; and the moderation complaint is still very misjudged.

Re: The first conformant M1 GPU driver

#540

Post by [deleted] »

nly wrote: post #116
bwanab wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son bought a Dell XPS for exactly that reason. After 1.5 years, the battery life was at 50%. He called Dell support and they said it was normal. He's now in the market for a MacBook Air M2.

This is a limit of battery technology. Your Apple laptop will ha e shit battery life in a few years as well

[deleted]
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