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Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

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Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#111

Post by throw1234567891 »

vkazanov wrote: post #107
throw1234567891 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually pretty far off: > Unified memory in Linux creates a single address space accessible to both the CPU and GPU, eliminating the need to manually copy data between system RAM and video memory. It is enabled via NVIDIA's CUDA, AMD's ROCm/HIP, or generic kernel-level Heterogeneous Memory Management (HMM). So it does exist and is available for platforms that matter.

It is interesting how apple claimed that "unified memory" is something special, and ppl believed them. Intel and AMD had been doing this for years already, and had linux support for it from day 1.

Cool. Apple was the only one who managed to ship a consumer device with UMA and RDMA support. 2TB VRAM max over RDMA.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#112

Post by _glass »

Sebastian_09 wrote: post #89

What I’m not sure to understand is that if you want to just run Claude code or openclaw type software with llm apis or subscriptions (and not run local models) to benefit from a local file system and always-on capability for ‘second brain’ type of workflows, I guess you don’t need a Mac mini but can run it on a raspberry pi or an old laptop ? Does anyone have experience with that ?

it's only because you can send texts via imessage on a macmini. that's it.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#113

Post by throw1234567891 »

vardump wrote: post #110
throw1234567891 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so you have invent unified memory for linux first because that’s the limitation today

Raspberry Pi and other SBCs, Android phones and practically all of the embedded devices with a display and microprocessor. All have unified memory. Linux runs just fine on all of those.

Dude, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48858095

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#114

Post by vardump »

throw1234567891 wrote: post #113
vardump wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raspberry Pi and other SBCs, Android phones and practically all of the embedded devices with a display and microprocessor. All have unified memory. Linux runs just fine on all of those.

Dude, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48858095

Ah ok. I replied to ~45 minutes stale page.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#115

Post by embedding-shape »

> "people often want a system that's under their control, isolated from their primary machine, and capable of running 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Brooks. "A Mac mini is an amazing system for that," he added.

These execs are so out of touch they believe Apple hardware to be "a system that's under their control", how does it come to this? Besides, a VM without bi-directional sharing of data gives you pretty much the exact same thing.

Did hundreds/thousands of developers really go out there and bought Mac Minis just because one prominent technology semi-celebrity happens to have used a Mac Mini for the development of their thing? Seems bananas people would spend hundreds on monies on something they barely grasp how it works.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#116

Post by embedding-shape »

windex wrote: post #96
Sebastian_09 wrote: post #89

What I’m not sure to understand is that if you want to just run Claude code or openclaw type software with llm apis or subscriptions (and not run local models) to benefit from a local file system and always-on capability for ‘second brain’ type of workflows, I guess you don’t need a Mac mini but can run it on a raspberry pi or an old laptop ? Does anyone have experience with that ?

Yup, for openclaw and APIs you dont need a big PC. I run something lightweight on the RPI4 8gb. Many people run local LLMs which is where a mac is useful. Frankly I dont think you can beat the value of an openrouter subscription and API calls.

> Many people run local LLMs which is where a mac is useful

Unless you go for the very expensive options, most of the Mac Minis really aren't suitable for running local LLMs, they're painfully slow with prefill/processing input, and the models you are able to run don't handle long context very well, which these sort of long-running agents perform very differently with when you can.

I'll agree with your latter point, hard to beat the value of using something like OpenRouter or similar remote inference.

Even with local models, you can run the agent software and the inference workload on different hosts, which is what I'm doing at home. Beefy server responsible for inference, tiny VM on other server is running the actual agent software + RPC + bridges and what not.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#117

Post by groundzeros2015 »

embedding-shape wrote: post #115

> "people often want a system that's under their control, isolated from their primary machine, and capable of running 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Brooks. "A Mac mini is an amazing system for that," he added. These execs are so out of touch they believe Apple hardware to be "a system that's under their control", how does it come to this? Besides, a VM without bi-directional sharing of data gives you prett…

I think tech people spend hundreds on tech because it’s fun.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#118

Post by charcircuit »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #61
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #20

Apple could probably sell a machine starting at $10,000 if they architected it as the sole place one’s Private Cloud Compute [1] ran. It would need a path to a $2,500 machine, I think. But this is a niche I don’t think another consumer-facing brand could do like Apple. [1] https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/

But that would be more for enterprise usage. I cannot imagine a personal computing usage which can justify a 10k machine.

Apple is a premium brand with high brand loyalty. Do you not think even 1 billionaire would want something like that? Even to just say that they bought it. Apple could sell things at a price point much more than $10k.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#119

Post by tomaskafka »

embedding-shape wrote: post #115

> "people often want a system that's under their control, isolated from their primary machine, and capable of running 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Brooks. "A Mac mini is an amazing system for that," he added. These execs are so out of touch they believe Apple hardware to be "a system that's under their control", how does it come to this? Besides, a VM without bi-directional sharing of data gives you prett…

The remote access story for macOS is absolute sadness, without Jump Desktop there would be zero performant ways to access that “system under my control”.

And all of that because Tim Apple fears any feature that could mean people could have less than one iDevice per person.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#120

Post by pjmlp »

esskay wrote: post #83
pjmlp wrote: post #63

> Apple's Mac mini and Mac Studio have become the machines of choice for running AI agents, according to Doug Brooks, Apple's senior product manager of Apple silicon. This is mostly an US phenomenon, no Mac mini nor Mac Studio around here. Only Thinkpads and Macbooks laptops talking to hyperscalers.

Around where? They're pretty popular for it in the UK right now given our obscene energy pricing as they end up being one of the best low power options for local llm. If you're not in the local llm space you obviously wouldn't see it. It's like saying Tennis isnt popular around here then admitting you dont frequent a tennis court so wouldn't even know.

Around here in my German office, and down in my home country Portugal, even less, given the average salaries.
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