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Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

9to5mac.com

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Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#591

Post by userbinator »

...for portable Mac non-general-purpose computers...

How much are you willing to bet that there will be next to no public documentation for this SoC, just like with all the other tablet/phone ones out there? This is a scary turn of events - I still remember when Apple introduced their x86 transition and focused on how you could also run Windows on their "branded PCs", and the openness and standardisation was much welcomed... but then Apple slowly started to change that, and now they are on their way to locking down everything under their control.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#592

Post by linuxhansl »

elicash wrote: post #456
linuxhansl wrote: post #366

Do I need to worry now that a walled-garden company - with all its advantages - pulls ahead of open ecosystems? I only use Linux at home. Will I be doomed to inferior H/W going forward? This is not a rhetorical question or a flame... It's an honest question... Is Apple pulling ahead of everybody else and soon going to be our only option?

Your situation won't be worse than what would exist had Apple not moved so far ahead of the others. In fact, Apple moving ahead only encourages others to up their game. So you're better off, due to Apple, even if you don't buy their machines.

That's an excellent point, I didn't consider that.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#593

Post by JAlexoid »

saagarjha wrote: post #282
whynotminot wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially head scratching when you consider that a lot of folks still have 2012 Mac minis with 16GB of RAM. I think 16GB is the bare minimum for a professional machine. Apple clears the bar here, but doesn't exceed it. Maybe next year's machines? As a first product, I think it's good enough. And the performance gains elsewhere--if what Apple says is true--are actually pretty radically impressive.

It's possible to do development on 8 GB, you just can't use Electron apps.

Atom, Chrome and Firefox on a 2017 8GB 13" MBP - no issues in using it for development.

I upgraded it only because my keyboard died.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#595

Post by klelatti »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #580
therealmarv wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You skipped the keynote parts where they say faster 2x, 4x, 8x... and they say faster than every other laptop CPU and faster than 98% of laptops/PCs in their class sold last year? They said it several times. But I agree... let's wait for the benchmarks (btw. iPads already overturns nearly all laptop CPUs)

> You skipped the keynote parts where they say faster 2x, 4x, 8x... and they say faster than every other laptop CPU and faster than 98% of laptops/PCs in their class sold last year? They said it several times. The important part there is "in their class". I'm sure the Apple silicon will impress in the future, but there's a reason they've only switched their lowest power laptops to M1 at launch. The higher end laptops…

The reason is almost certainly that its the lowest power laptops is where the volume is and because it makes absolute sense to go for that part of the market first.

I'm really impressed by what they've done in this part of the market - which would have been impossible with Intel CPUs.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#596

Post by justasking123 »

Hey guys,

Anyone knows if the M1 would be faster for GPU bound work than 2020 MacBook Pro 16-inch with AMD Radeon 5600? I just spent over $4K and just got it delivered yesterday. Thinking of returning it if it does not compare favorably on GPU performance to the new M1 13-inch MacBook Pro. Insight/advice?

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#597

Post by quotemstr »

cromka wrote: post #510
quotemstr wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And macOS doesn't support Linux-style compressed RAM either, at least as far as I know. [1] https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/blockdev/...

One search away and you can prove yourself wrong. In fact they have had it since 10.9.

Cool. I stopped using it in 10.6. Glad macOS has caught up.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#598

Post by ogre_codes »

ljm wrote: post #448
varispeed wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't be surprised if the cooling solution was serialised and it had a detection whether the cooling is originally programmed for the particular unit like they do now with cameras and other peripherals (check iPhone 12 teardown videos). I bet that the logic would check the expected temperature for given binning and then shut down the system if it is too cool or too hot. Apple knows better than the users what hardw…

So, essentially their new Macbook line is a glorified iPhone/iPad but with a foldable display (on a hinge)? Not too far-fetched when you see the direction MacOS is headed, UI-wise. And it sounds nice, but if it means that repairability suffers then we'll just end up with a whole wave of disposable laptops.

> So, essentially their new Macbook line is a glorified iPhone/iPad but with a foldable display (on a hinge)?

This isn't some new. Since day 1, the iPhone has always been a tiny computer with a forked version of OS X.

> but if it means that repairability suffers then we'll just end up with a whole wave of disposable laptops.

Laptops have been largely "Disposable" for some time. In the case of the Mac, that generally means the laptop lasts for 10-15 years unless there is some catastrophic issue. Generally after that long, when a failure happens even a moderate repair bill is likely to trigger a new purchase.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#599

Post by 0x53 »

ebg13 wrote: post #394
0x53 wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often use more than 16 GB of RAM. Generally, I have 3-4 Windows 10 VMs running which each take at least 4GB to be stable. So if I have 4 running that is all the RAM already.

> Generally, I have 3-4 Windows 10 VMs running What are you doing that needs them all actually running simultaneously? Disk-backed VM pause/resume is extremely fast when your SSD's sequential read/write performance is measured in GBps. I have a hard time imagining a workflow that actually uses multiple systems all at once, so to me what you're saying sounds like "Well of course my RAM gets filled if I fill it on purp…

Haha. I will admit that it is sometimes just for convenience, but when testing networking code, or writing things to interoperate with large system I do really need 3-4 VMs running.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#600

Post by akmarinov »

JAlexoid wrote: post #552
sz4kerto wrote: post #467

"Testing conducted by Apple in October 2020 using preproduction MacBook Air systems with Apple M1 chip and 8-core GPU, as well as production 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-based MacBook Air systems, all configured with 16GB RAM and 2TB SSD. Tested with prerelease Final Cut Pro 10.5 using a 55-second clip with 4K Apple ProRes RAW media, at 4096x2160 resolution and 59.94 frames per second, transcoded to Apple ProRes 42…

The literally benchmarked the slowest 10th Gen i7 CPU on the market. And I got so excited about it...

They also said it's the fastest laptop CPU?
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