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Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

semianalysis.substack.com

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141–150 of 206 posts

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#141

Post by bin_bash »

tyrfing wrote: post #70
MBCook wrote: post #44

Thanks to being based on their phone chips Apple came out of the gate with the M1 and cleaned everyone’s clock on performance-per-watt while putting in good to great numbers in general (as a CPU). But their rate of improvement on the A series has been slowing on general tasks. They’re on the same process node, and only increased frequency a bit. Is it really that surprising that performance didn’t take a massive jump…

> They’re on the same process node, and only increased frequency a bit. It's going from N5 to N5P, chosen by Apple over N4. > But no one [expects] that from Intel or AMD every year anymore. That's not accurate, a minor performance upgrade after almost 2 years is the exact thing Intel has gotten a lot of flack for in recent years. The fact that people are willing to defend it is really exclusive to Apple and their unb…

Intel didn’t get flack because of minor improvements, they got flack because they couldn’t release 10nm or any other major improvements for the better part of a decade.

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#142

Post by willis936 »

walterbell wrote: post #53
drawingthesun wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article says 40 employees not hundreds, but I imagine that 40 of Apple's top chip talent is going to hurt, that is a lot of brain power to lose! Seems some employees took more than themselves to Rivos. "at least two former Apple engineers took gigabytes of confidential information with them to Rivos."

Remember Apple cancelling their contract with Imagination (GPU) and hiring their employees to work on Apple's GPU?

Hurts donut.

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#143

Post by macintux »

adrr wrote: post #139
ezconnect wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting debt is the only way they could bring their cash home to avoid tax.

Can you explain the process? I can’t make it work to avoid tax. I assume Apple’s debt is credit lines to fund inventory.

Repatriating cash earned outside the U.S. involves a hefty tax (afraid I don't recall the number). Occasionally the government offers a tax holiday to encourage companies to do so.

So, rather than bring the money home at the high rate, Apple has been taking on debt for U.S. operations while waiting for (and perhaps lobbying for) another tax holiday.

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#144

Post by macintux »

solarkraft wrote: post #136
BackBlast wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones are the flagship product. They will always get the latest and greatest first, including cores, die shrinks, etc etc.

Which is weird because most iPhone users use all the power for stuff like WhatsApp. iPhones are plenty fast already (honestly probably mostly due to a well cared-for UI).

I assume Apple wants the phones to have the most efficient CPUs, since battery life is much more critical than laptops & desktops.

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#145

Post by mnholt »

solarkraft wrote: post #136
BackBlast wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones are the flagship product. They will always get the latest and greatest first, including cores, die shrinks, etc etc.

Which is weird because most iPhone users use all the power for stuff like WhatsApp. iPhones are plenty fast already (honestly probably mostly due to a well cared-for UI).

It’s my opinion that Apple sees putting the best processors in iPhones as being able to extend the life of the product. With that available compute overhead today it will feel “faster” longer and can take advantage of software features they develop 1-3 years down the line.

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#146

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

hn_go_brrrrr wrote: post #87
BackBlast wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AMD survived bulldozer. They survived not because of the quality of their chips, but because there exists a sizable x86 market that is literally anything except Intel.

Why does that market exist?

Because, before the mobile explosion, we had the PC industry explosion which created a huge demand for X86 PCs and Macs in every home.

And even after the mobile revolution shrank the demand for X86 PCs, the cloud revolution further entrched X86 in the cloud.

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#147

Post by ArtWomb »

Gigachad wrote: post #56
MBCook wrote: post #44

Thanks to being based on their phone chips Apple came out of the gate with the M1 and cleaned everyone’s clock on performance-per-watt while putting in good to great numbers in general (as a CPU). But their rate of improvement on the A series has been slowing on general tasks. They’re on the same process node, and only increased frequency a bit. Is it really that surprising that performance didn’t take a massive jump…

Tech journalism needs a dramatic story. So every product is either world changing or a complete failure.

SemiAnalysis may be burying the lede and underhyping the story of the decade here: head of apple arch leaves and takes 100 process engineers to start stealth risc startup and its creating a delay effect in consumer tech innovation, bombshell!

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#148

Post by pdnell »

KerrAvon wrote: post #54
brokencode wrote: post #24

Why does the biggest and richest company in the world ever have to suffer from talent leaving because they don’t get paid enough? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Steve was notoriously and sometimes arbitrarily cheap. Apple retains some of that.

Yet they’ll buy their own quarry or glass factory…

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#149

Post by AshamedCaptain »

Gigachad wrote: post #56
MBCook wrote: post #44

Thanks to being based on their phone chips Apple came out of the gate with the M1 and cleaned everyone’s clock on performance-per-watt while putting in good to great numbers in general (as a CPU). But their rate of improvement on the A series has been slowing on general tasks. They’re on the same process node, and only increased frequency a bit. Is it really that surprising that performance didn’t take a massive jump…

Tech journalism needs a dramatic story. So every product is either world changing or a complete failure.

Someone will probably mention that "it's not tech journalism, but all journalism", and I would probably agree. However please keep in mind that there is a significant selection bias here itself -- non-dramatic stories will be less frequently featured here on HN, and even if they are, attract less comments.

Re: Apple M2 Die Shot and Architecture Analysis – Big Cost Increase and A15 Based IP

#150

Post by koonsolo »

brokencode wrote: post #24

Why does the biggest and richest company in the world ever have to suffer from talent leaving because they don’t get paid enough? It just doesn’t make any sense.

So you claim that 10 well paid engineers are better than 15 average paid engineers?
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