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Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

chipsandcheese.com

21–30 of 182 posts

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#21
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/testing-apples-m3-pr... I've been waiting for an upgrade to my M1 and I still haven't seen one worth spending that much money on. I'd rather just sink that into upgrading my Windows tower.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i5dBe_rsiNaQATH-D-Pj... Single core performance went from 2300 with the M1 to 3800 with the M4. That is a huge improvement for my workflow (large TypeScript mono repositories) which is dependent a lot of single core performance (even with parallel builds, because one rarely re-builds everything, rather hot reloads.)

I picked the Ars article because they showed real-world performance like encoding. Geekbench scores are difficult to impossible to equate to real-world results. There are ways to measure it properly, but most sites seem to just do Geekbench or something else like it and call it a day. Single-core performance isn't this universal thing. What's your actual workload like? I'm all over the Ryzen x3D CPUs because they have proven massive performance improvements for things I care about like Factorio. Some site reporting "yeah, single and multi-core scores are 20% better" doesn't mean anything. 20% better at what exactly?

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#22
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hasn't each gen been like 20-30% performance? Isn't that better than what AMD and Intel have managed?

Not really? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/testing-apples-m3-pr... I've been waiting for an upgrade to my M1 and I still haven't seen one worth spending that much money on. I'd rather just sink that into upgrading my Windows tower.

CPUs got good enough for most applications a decade ago, it is hard to talk about upgrades being “worth spending money on” without specific workload info.

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#23

> because there has not been any upstreamed Device Tree for this laptop, we were not able to get a Linux desktop installed Looking forward to tests of Linux on Arm UEFI ("SystemReady") for laptops based on Qualcomm Oryon.

I've been confused by this, aren't these systems using ACPI instead of Device Tree? I know AWS ARM systems use ACPI.

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#24
post #4

The M4 is the highest single core CPU in the world and it’s in a ridiculously thin tablet without cooling. I don’t understand where this idea that Apple has lost most of their chip design talent and is in trouble rhetoric is coming from. Apple still makes the world’s most advanced and efficient consumer chips, years after the M1.

The idea that Apple lost their most important talent came from SemiAnalysis. It’s a saucy idea so it spread from there without much backing.

They’re a tech news blog mixed with heavy doses of dramatized conjecture.

The primary author has written multiple times that Apple has lost lots of their key talent but has never been able to back it up beyond “I keep tabs on LinkedIn”.

End of the day, tech folks like drama as much as the next person. Sites like that are the equivalent to celebrity focused tabloids.

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#25

> because there has not been any upstreamed Device Tree for this laptop, we were not able to get a Linux desktop installed Looking forward to tests of Linux on Arm UEFI ("SystemReady") for laptops based on Qualcomm Oryon.

I've been confused by this, aren't these systems using ACPI instead of Device Tree? I know AWS ARM systems use ACPI.

Qualcomm is using device tree.

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#26
post #4

The M4 is the highest single core CPU in the world and it’s in a ridiculously thin tablet without cooling. I don’t understand where this idea that Apple has lost most of their chip design talent and is in trouble rhetoric is coming from. Apple still makes the world’s most advanced and efficient consumer chips, years after the M1.

>The M4 is the highest single core CPU in the world and it’s in a ridiculously thin tablet That's kind of the problem. The world's most powerful CPU is put in the world's most expensive and thinnest Netflix machine lol. Was the previous "thicker" M3 iPad holding anyone back? All that power and I can't use it to compile the Linux kernel, I can't use it to play the latest Steam/GOG games, or run CAD simulations, becaus…

That’s a very narrow definition of “useful” and one I’d say is rather focused on yourself?

Why is Linux the arbiter of what is “useful”? Why would it still be a benchmark flex if it was on macOS, an Os where millions of people do professional work everyday?

And why is the iPad just a “Netflix machine” when tons of people use the iPad for professional creative use cases as well?

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#27
post #5

Get proper Linux support and the RISC-V variant they seemed to be working on and I'll buy the laptop ;-) I have no interest in Windows and even less so on ARM.

You don't want a RISC-V laptop. Not yet, at least. It will take quite some doing before those compete with x86_64/arm laptops. Beautiful thing about Windows computers is that it's generally not too hard to make them into linux/BSD/etc computers. :) Qualcomm [1] and some vendors [2][3] are making progress towards linux support though. [1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.8-ARM-Changes [2] https://www.phoronix.com…

To get a good laptop, often you need to start with a bad one.

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#28
>Finally, Snapdragon X Elite devices are too expensive. Phoenix and Meteor Lake laptops often cost less, even when equipped with more RAM and larger SSDs. Convincing consumers to pay more for lower specifications is already a tough sell. Compatibility issues make it even tougher. Qualcomm needs to work with OEMs to deliver competitive prices.

Qualcomm can start by working with their accountants and reducing the price they charge for their SoCs. Rumors indicate the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 mobile SoC, with Oryon cores, will cost between $220-$240 USD.

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#29
post #2

From the article it seems like it clones a lot of the Apple M1 technology. So smart acquisition on Qualcomm's part to get competitive again. Apple engineers who worked on the Apple M4 should go start another company so Qualcomm can acquire it again for +1B. :). Or better yet, acquired by ARM themselves. It is likely that as this tech makes it to the smartphone market, Android phones are going to get a major speed boo…

>Android phones are going to get a major speed boost. They have been so uncompetitive against Apple for a while now.

Uncompetitive? These numbers indicate otherwise while being on a previous generation TSMC 4nm node. Just imagine if they were on the same 3nm node as the A17.

https://nanoreview.net/en/soc-list/rating

https://www.androidauthority.com/snapdragon-8-gen-3-vs-apple...

Re: Qualcomm's Oryon core: A long time in the making

#30
post #4

The M4 is the highest single core CPU in the world and it’s in a ridiculously thin tablet without cooling. I don’t understand where this idea that Apple has lost most of their chip design talent and is in trouble rhetoric is coming from. Apple still makes the world’s most advanced and efficient consumer chips, years after the M1.

>The M4 is the highest single core CPU in the world and it’s in a ridiculously thin tablet That's kind of the problem. The world's most powerful CPU is put in the world's most expensive and thinnest Netflix machine lol. Was the previous "thicker" M3 iPad holding anyone back? All that power and I can't use it to compile the Linux kernel, I can't use it to play the latest Steam/GOG games, or run CAD simulations, becaus…

> The world's most powerful CPU

maybe the most powerful / watt - desktop CPUs like the 9950X are still way more powerful.

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