Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
semianalysis.substack.com
Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
1–10 of 46 posts
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#2The competition in this market is quite difficult so im not too shocked by this. however I was impressed by the M1 chip they made
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#3> We believe Apple had to delay the next generation CPU core due to all the personnel turnover Apple has been experiencing
I believe Apple has delayed new architecture for CPU simply because the actual one is powerful enough and they (correctly) want to take advantage of it in terms of large scale (and due to chip shortage/fabs sufferer).
The new iPhone 13 Pro is very interesting but one thing leave me “meh”: the weight! Again has increased from the already quite heavy 12 Pro:
iPhone 12 Pro: 189 grams / iPhone 13 Pro: 204 grams
Not much but I’m sure we will feel the difference, like from 12 to 12 pro.
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#4> In 2019, Nuvia was founded and later acquired by Qualcomm for $1.4B. Apple’s Chief CPU Architect, Gerard Williams, as well as over a 100 other Apple engineers left to join this firm. More recently, SemiAnalysis broke the news about Rivos Inc, a new high performance RISC V startup which includes many senior Apple engineers. The brain drain continues and impacts will be more apparent as time moves on.
Seems very shocking, a recent turn-over of about 100 engineers. I’m gonna assume these were all related to the CPU architecture teams.
Makes one wonder why these people left. Did they feel it was too hard to make progress with ARM? Was pay bad and didn’t Apple want to increase compensation? Perhaps a bad work/life balance?
What was interesting is that Apple was recently looking for a RISC V engineer in a job posting and who knows … perhaps looking for multiple. Would Apple be looking to change architecture to RISC V in the future? Maybe Apple is also worried by a possible acquisition of ARM by Nvidea of course.
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#5> In 2019, Nuvia was founded and later acquired by Qualcomm for $1.4B. Apple’s Chief CPU Architect, Gerard Williams, as well as over a 100 other Apple engineers left to join this firm. More recently, SemiAnalysis broke the news about Rivos Inc, a new high performance RISC V startup which includes many senior Apple engineers. The brain drain continues and impacts will be more apparent as time moves on. Seems very shoc…
> Was pay bad and didn’t Apple want to increase compensation
A frustrating feature of large silicon valley companies is that if you leave the company and come back later you will typically have better compensation than if you had stayed.
I could also imagine that the M1 team felt they weren't adequately rewarded after hitting a huge home run.
Moreover, it's probably the best time to switch jobs, because their market value is highest and at Apple they would just be expected to repeat the same success every year. Not to mention the benefit of gaining equity in a new "startup" which is almost immediately acquired at high valuation.
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#6I would hold off on assuming that Apple gave their all to the iPhone chips. They still have the MacBooks and iPad Pros to announce.
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#7> We believe Apple had to delay the next generation CPU core due to all the personnel turnover Apple has been experiencing I believe Apple has delayed new architecture for CPU simply because the actual one is powerful enough and they (correctly) want to take advantage of it in terms of large scale (and due to chip shortage/fabs sufferer). The new iPhone 13 Pro is very interesting but one thing leave me “meh”: the wei…
It looks like they have hotten thicker again. I wonder if they could revolutionize the phone market YET AGAIN and re-introduce a 3.5mm jack.
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#8> We believe Apple had to delay the next generation CPU core due to all the personnel turnover Apple has been experiencing I believe Apple has delayed new architecture for CPU simply because the actual one is powerful enough and they (correctly) want to take advantage of it in terms of large scale (and due to chip shortage/fabs sufferer). The new iPhone 13 Pro is very interesting but one thing leave me “meh”: the wei…
It looks like they have hotten thicker again. I wonder if they could revolutionize the phone market YET AGAIN and re-introduce a 3.5mm jack.
Why would you want an iPhone with the headphones jack?! I dropped to the floor my iPhone two times: and both are due to the headphones jack cable!
I hope Apple will introduce a better codec for Bluetooth, way behind the actual AAC 256. But not the cable again…
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#9I was so excited by the M1 despite being a linux user. I couldn't wait any longer to upgrade my old workstation, so I went for an AMD 5950X instead and couldn't he happier.
(Its extremely fast and powerful compared to an M1, at cost of greater power consumption of course.)
Re: Apple CPU Gains Grind to a Halt
#10> We believe Apple had to delay the next generation CPU core due to all the personnel turnover Apple has been experiencing I believe Apple has delayed new architecture for CPU simply because the actual one is powerful enough and they (correctly) want to take advantage of it in terms of large scale (and due to chip shortage/fabs sufferer). The new iPhone 13 Pro is very interesting but one thing leave me “meh”: the wei…
Pro max is up to 240 grams now. Well beyond half a pound mark. Yikes. I know it’s not apple to apple comparison but the new galaxy fold 3 only weighs 30 grams more.