The article quotes 36gb of ram for the m3 MacBook pros. Which made me wonder: why do we use power-of-2 gb ram configurations? If apple does 12/24/36, is that reasonable, or is there a reason not to?
Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
121–130 of 225 posts
Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#122Some people may criticise the "monopoly" Apply have of TSMC latest nodes, but I think it's ultimately good. TSMC need to know they have a customer for new nodes in order to invest in them, thats what Apple are in the unique position to give with their war chest of cash. This investment by Apple eventually leads its way to other customers and smaller businesses. The whole industry thrives on the wake Apple leaves behi…
Do you have any evidence whatsoever that TSMC would struggle financially without Apple?
Sounds like FUD to me.
Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#123Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not going to bet my life on it, but as per [0] the definition of the «[cash] reserve» is: «In financial accounting, reserve always has a credit balance and can refer to a part of shareholders' equity, a liability for estimated claims, or contra-asset for uncollectible accounts». So it refers to a credit balance, and it does not mention investments. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_(accounting)
That's a slightly different thing - a reserve account is what you've correctly linked, but what people here are talking about is just a basic balance sheet categories of cash and marketable securities; https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0000320193/386e8c0... So they have $25 billion in cash/cash equivalents (T-bills), $31 billion in "Current Marketable Securities" which are just those that are liquid this year…
Thank you for the clarification. Wikipedia links both, «cash reserves» and the accounting style reserves definitions, into a single article, which I have found somewhat puzzling. A subsection in the same article outlining or expanding on the difference between the two would be beneficial.
Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#125It's astonishing how TSMC is the only company in the world that can do this. They are just so far ahead of everyone else in manufacturing. It'd sure be nice to have more capacity. The Economist had a good article a few months ago about the volume of chip manufacture by country and process size. The takeaway is Taiwan leads 22nm is an interesting mix including South Korea and China. Chart: https://www.economist.com/im…
And the company that makes the lithography machine needed for theses nodes is also a monopoly... No other company in the world can do it.
It's weird to think we're dependent on single companies for such important things.
Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#126It's astonishing how TSMC is the only company in the world that can do this. They are just so far ahead of everyone else in manufacturing. It'd sure be nice to have more capacity. The Economist had a good article a few months ago about the volume of chip manufacture by country and process size. The takeaway is Taiwan leads 22nm is an interesting mix including South Korea and China. Chart: https://www.economist.com/im…
You don't mention Samsung, is this the case of their 3nm not being actually 3nm? https://wccftech.com/samsung-secures-3-nm-advanced-chip-orde...
I'm not an expert on the tech and can't say. Just going on what the Economist article talks about, South Korean manufacturing represents a tiny fraction of the smallest processes right now. The article you linked says the 3nm will start producing in 2024. That's good news, maybe there's competition coming.
Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#127I’d love some super smart technologist in this forum to give a realistic and practical pathway to disrupting apple in the mobile or “computer” market. Given the fact that Apple has such a dominant position in every part of the supply chain infrastructure I’m challenged with being able to see how any organization could possibly come up with something that pushes Apple into bankruptcy.
Why would you want that?
The walled garden approach devalues the already-overpriced hardware they are making. If they are taking up 90% of TSMC capacity making shit I would never buy (out of hardware I would otherwise want), I am clearly missing out on the fruits of an alternative reality.
The success of capitalism to meet the demands of a consumer are entirely dependent on competition. By vertically integrating their business, Apple has made it impossible to compete.
Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Local LLMs do best on big GPUs, which aren’t an option on Macs. What Apple has done with the M-series silicon is really impressive, but it’s not as fast as big, dedicated GPU silicon. It'd be pretty silly for Apple to cram in big, dedicated GPU when 99.9% of their customers don't care and don't want to pay for it, especially considering that anyone that does want big, dedicated GPU can outboard as much GPU as they…
Only on Intel Macs which are going away soon (only 2019 Mac Pro is remaining outside of refurbished.) Apple Silicon doesn't currently have any provision for external graphics cards.
There are two issues.
1) Apple Silicon won't support PCIe.
2) Apple doesn't want it to.
Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#129Some people may criticise the "monopoly" Apply have of TSMC latest nodes, but I think it's ultimately good. TSMC need to know they have a customer for new nodes in order to invest in them, thats what Apple are in the unique position to give with their war chest of cash. This investment by Apple eventually leads its way to other customers and smaller businesses. The whole industry thrives on the wake Apple leaves behi…
You would be correct if investment were the bottleneck. It's not.
The bottleneck on advanced processes is how fast ASML can build its EUV fabrication machines and they're extremely complicated pieces of kit with lots of specialized parts that are also extremely complicated pieces of kit. Even with all our modern production ability we're limited in how quickly we can assemble these machines that can actually do the lithography and everybody wants them.
ASML currently has a backlog of 100 machines. Intel, Samsung, TSMC, they all want them. They sell for $200m+ a piece. Everyone has the cash for them. ASML just can't produce them fast enough.
Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023
#130> Apple has booked nearly 90% of chip supplier TSMC's first-generation 3-nanometer process capacity this year
No surprise, the N3B ("first gen") process has bad economics and poor yields. Everyone else is waiting for N3E, which is pretty different to N3B.
See: https://www.semianalysis.com/p/tsmcs-3nm-conundrum-does-it-e...
https://fuse.wikichip.org/news/7048/n3e-replaces-n3-comes-in...