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Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023

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Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023

#51
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple pays a premium for the privilege of using their face to test the new node for brick walls. Sure, sometimes it means they get the newest bestest chips a year early and the fans can party, but if you're an anti-fan just remain patient and I suspect one of these years you will be the one with reason to party.

Which is my point exactly. They’re using market power to basically stymie competition. This is textbook anticompetitive behavior.

Is it? I think it’s using money, not market power.

Using market power would be threatening TSMC to shop elsewhere if they sell the same tech to others. I’ve not heard claims they do.

I also think TSMC is the one having market power there, but given that Apple pay’s a lot for them to build the tech, that may not be as large as one would think.

Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023

#52

Some 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…

I enjoy the competition that Apple brings to the computing market with M* chips. As an innocent bystander in the world of AI, neural networks etc, I wonder if Apple Silicon and its neural cores would become the proprietary brake like CUDA is for ML work. That is if they do something phenomenal with the 3nm facility and bring about some hardware that only they can do.. I'd rather have a healthy competetive ecosystem w…

I think it's too early for AI/ML acceleration to standardize on an API. It takes a long time to figure out what abstractions we should standardize on before we can make a universal API.

Consider the whole history of OpenGL, Metal, Vulcan, WebGL, WebGPU...

It would have been a mistake to keep using OpenGL, and WebGL was perhaps a mistake from the beginning. It was the wrong abstractions. Metal and Vulcan are clearly better abstractions for GPU APIs, and it really doesn't matter too much that Metal is Apple-only because they're close enough that you can have a good Vulcan API on top of Metal (MoltenVK). That is, what matters is that we converge on the same abstractions, and those take a long time to get right.

Now in the end we've gotten WebGPU (which isn't only for web browsers btw, can be used from native apps too) that can provide a nice universal cross-platform API.

Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023

#54
post #4

Is there any projection on when and if Intel will catch TSMC? Seems TSMC keep managing to deliver every single planned process improvement on time.

Intel claim this should be by 2025 (once their 18A process comes on line). Obviously they could miss this target, but they say they're still on track.

Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new nodes also typically go towards iPhones and tablets as well, and in total that's only hundreds of millions of people benefitting from improved devices, so yeah pretty much nobody.

How improved though? iPhones are already pretty fast. I don't know about you, but i've never compiled a kernel on my phone. Having a faster, actual workstation grade computer would be better. But yeah you're right, sarcasm is the right approach.

Haha yes compiling a kernel should be the focus. Forget all the advancements in instant computational photography, on-device voice recognition and Siri, 4K HDR 60fps stabilized videos, 120Hz retina screens running perfectly smooth animations on an all day lasting battery, because neckbeards can't compile a kernel

Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023

#57

Some 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…

I don't think those criticism are valid. Apple has insane order numbers, competitors do not. It's only natural they prioritize who gives them more business.

[deleted]

Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023

#58
I’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.

Re: Apple to occupy 90% of TSMC 3nm capacity in 2023

#60
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apple are in the unique position to give with their war chest of cash Don’t all the big tech companies have giant cash accounts?

If I'm googling this right Apple had perhaps $48B in cash in 2022. I don't know how others compare.

Apple Q2 2023 report indicates USD 166 billion in cash reserves.
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