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Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

mondaynote.com

11–20 of 201 posts

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#11
> Will Microsoft now offer an official Windows 10 on ARM that can run on M1 Macs?...This could create trouble in the x86 PC world. Or will Microsoft, less committed to Windows than it is to its applications running everywhere, be content to see Office and more run (and generate revenue) on M1 Macs…and how will HP, Asus, Dell and others react? This is just the beginning of a new competitive layout.

Could this be good news for Linux?

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#12

> Will Microsoft now offer an official Windows 10 on ARM that can run on M1 Macs?...This could create trouble in the x86 PC world. Or will Microsoft, less committed to Windows than it is to its applications running everywhere, be content to see Office and more run (and generate revenue) on M1 Macs…and how will HP, Asus, Dell and others react? This is just the beginning of a new competitive layout. Could this be good…

I was a little confused by this part because MS is already happy for Office to run everywhere, in browsers. Given the in house expertise that’s given us VS Code I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see an Electron powered Office app suite in the not too distant future. Linux would (and does) benefit just as much as Mac.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#13

> Will Microsoft now offer an official Windows 10 on ARM that can run on M1 Macs?...This could create trouble in the x86 PC world. Or will Microsoft, less committed to Windows than it is to its applications running everywhere, be content to see Office and more run (and generate revenue) on M1 Macs…and how will HP, Asus, Dell and others react? This is just the beginning of a new competitive layout. Could this be good…

Why? If everyone gives up and just builds everything on the web then it's an indirect boon for Linux, but M1 will probably never ever properly support Linux.

Unless Apple have a complete change of heart, if it ever does it will be as a result of far too much work done for free

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#14

I have seen so many articles on HN in front page about M1 over the past few weeks. Like a curious child I read all of them because somewhere in me I want to believe there exists a possibility of a giant leap for Desktop/Laptop. Having tried it myself, I should say this is going to be remembered just like the iPhone in 2007.

I doubt that very much. The iPhone was a true revelation: in user interface, in form factor, in the things it allowed you to do.

The M1 is amazing but it doesn’t compare. Performance (both raw and thermal) is a big boost but it’s not going to reinvent computing.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#15
post #10

I do give Apple credit for a terrific design. It would be interesting to know how much of the performance is attributable to the smaller process size, on-package memory, etc. Things others will be able to replicate. It's not clear to me how much of it is true competitive advantage.

I would assume that you'd have to try and scale for what ARM allows them to get away with (if you will) - e.g. ARM allows wider decoding, while also taking into account the increased density allowing you to get more bang for the same buck (so to speak)

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#16

I have seen so many articles on HN in front page about M1 over the past few weeks. Like a curious child I read all of them because somewhere in me I want to believe there exists a possibility of a giant leap for Desktop/Laptop. Having tried it myself, I should say this is going to be remembered just like the iPhone in 2007.

> I have seen so many articles on HN in front page about M1 over the past few weeks.

HN has a huge hard-on for Apple. It's not unjustified in this instance, but HN is exactly the same as any other online forum in that it has its own forms of tribalism and bias.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#17
post #2

> (If I may say so, that Note is worth re-reading if only for the amusement of noticing the similarity to the recent pooh-poohing of the newborn M1.) Apple's New Thing, 2001: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.5...

There's a lesson for all of us to not leap to conclusion. In the case of the Apple iPhone I didn't see it and only boarded the train by iPhone 4 (and honestly, I think it was about the right time). In the case of M1 I _did_ expect a revolution and frankly one I had been waiting for for decades (the true cost of x86 is finally exposed). I can't wait to see if Apple can keep up the momentum.

> the true cost of x86 is finally exposed

They've reinvented x86 at least twice: microcode and then x86_64. I wouldn't bury x86 yet.

Plus a good chunk of the M1 computing prowess is not even the CPU, it's the additional hardware such as the neural engine cores and such. This is something you could put next to a Sparc core, it's not ARM specific.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#18
post #14

I have seen so many articles on HN in front page about M1 over the past few weeks. Like a curious child I read all of them because somewhere in me I want to believe there exists a possibility of a giant leap for Desktop/Laptop. Having tried it myself, I should say this is going to be remembered just like the iPhone in 2007.

I doubt that very much. The iPhone was a true revelation: in user interface, in form factor, in the things it allowed you to do. The M1 is amazing but it doesn’t compare. Performance (both raw and thermal) is a big boost but it’s not going to reinvent computing.

It’s not the same, but this is significantly accelerating the end of x86, and the end of Intel (at least the end of the current dominance of both). Such shifts don’t come along that often.

Re: Apple Silicon M1 Disruption

#19

> Now you got a big problem, because neither Intel, AMD, or Nvidia are going to license their intellectual property I keep seeing this line and wonder - "did people miss the news about Nvidia buying Arm?". Sure, there are still plenty of hurdles to pass until it's official, but take a look at the initial piece written by Nvidia about the acquisition: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for... Spe…

Won’t be the first or the last acquisition to say everything will stay the same.
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