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Apple introduces M4 chip

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Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#62
post #43

The 256gb and 512gb models have 8gb of ram. The 1tb and 2tb models have 16gb. Not a fan of tying ram to storage. https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/

The economic reasoning behind this doesn't make sense to me. What do they lose by allowing slightly more freedom in configurations?

Margins and profit. Less variations in production makes for higher efficiency. Segmenting the product line can push consumers to purchase higher tiers of product. It's iOS anyways, and the people who know enough to care how much RAM they are getting are self-selecting for those higher product tiers.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#63
post #23

"With these improvements to the CPU and GPU, M4 maintains Apple silicon’s industry-leading performance per watt. M4 can deliver the same performance as M2 using just half the power. And compared with the latest PC chip in a thin and light laptop, M4 can deliver the same performance using just a fourth of the power." That's an incredible improvement in just a few years. I wonder how much of that is Apple engineering a…

Potentially > 2x greater battery life for the same amount of compute! That is pretty crazy. Or am I missing something?

Comparing the tech specs for the outgoing and new iPad Pro models, that potential is very much not real.

Old: 28.65 Wh (11") / 40.88 Wh (13"), up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi or watching video.

New: 31.29 Wh (11") / 38.99 Wh (13"), up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi or watching video.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#64

> M4 makes the new iPad Pro an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence Yeah, well, I'm an enthusiastic M3 user, and I'm sure the new AI capabilities are nice , but hyperbole like this is just asking for snark like "my RTX4090 would like a word". Other than that: looking forward to when/how this chipset will be available in Macbooks!

Although as I undserstand m3 chips with more VRAM handle larger LLMs better because they can load more into VRAM compared to 4090.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#65

Key values in the press release: - Up to 1.5x the CPU speed of iPad Pro's previous M2 chip - Octane gets up to 4x the speed compared to M2 - At comparable performance, M4 consumes half the power of M2 - High-performance AI engine, that claims 60x the speed of Apple's first engine (A11 Bionic)

>- Up to 1.5x the CPU speed of iPad Pro's previous M2 chip

What I want to know is whether that ratio holds for single-core performance measurements.

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#67
post #24

> M4 makes the new iPad Pro an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence. Isn’t there a ToS prohibition about “custom coding” in iOS? Like, the only way you can ever use that hardware directly is for developers who go through Apple Developer Program, which last time I heard was bitter lemon? Tell me if I’m wrong.

As with any Apple device — or honestly, any computing device in general — my criteria of evaluation would be the resulting performance if I install Linux on it. (If Linux is not installable on the device, the performance is zero. If Linux driver support is limited, causing performance issues, that is also part of the equation.)

NB: those are my criteria of evaluation. Very personally. I'm a software engineer, with a focus on systems/embedded. Your criteria are yours.

(But maybe don't complain if you buy this for its "AI" capabilities only to find out that Apple doesn't let you do anything "unapproved" with it. You had sufficient chance to see the warning signs.)

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#68
post #43

The 256gb and 512gb models have 8gb of ram. The 1tb and 2tb models have 16gb. Not a fan of tying ram to storage. https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/

The economic reasoning behind this doesn't make sense to me. What do they lose by allowing slightly more freedom in configurations?

It's just Apple's price ladder. The prices on their different SKUs are laid out carefully so that there's never a too big of a jump to the next level.

https://talkbackcomms.com/blogs/news/ladder

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#69

"With these improvements to the CPU and GPU, M4 maintains Apple silicon’s industry-leading performance per watt. M4 can deliver the same performance as M2 using just half the power. And compared with the latest PC chip in a thin and light laptop, M4 can deliver the same performance using just a fourth of the power." That's an incredible improvement in just a few years. I wonder how much of that is Apple engineering a…

On one hand, it's crazy. On the other hand, it's pretty typical for the industry. Average performance per watt doubling time is 2.6 years: https://newsroom.arm.com/blog/performance-per-watt#:~:text=T... .

M2 was launched in June 2022 [1] so a little under 2 years ago. Apple is a bit ahead of that 2.6 years, but not by much.

[1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/06/apple-unveils-m2-with...

Re: Apple introduces M4 chip

#70
post #24

> M4 makes the new iPad Pro an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence. Isn’t there a ToS prohibition about “custom coding” in iOS? Like, the only way you can ever use that hardware directly is for developers who go through Apple Developer Program, which last time I heard was bitter lemon? Tell me if I’m wrong.

Well, this is the heart of the "appliance" model. iPads are appliances . You wouldn't ask about running custom code on your toaster or your blender, so you shouldn't ask about that for your iPad. Also all the common reasons apply: Security and Privacy, Quality Control, Platform Stability and Compatibility, and Integrated User Experience. All of these things are harmed when you are allowed to run custom coding. (discl…

Lots of people ask about running custom code on other appliances. I think they call them hackers.
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