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How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

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Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#61

Post by FredPret »

Mistletoe wrote: post #4
htk wrote: post #3

I consider myself very lucky to be born in this age of civilization where technology increases at such incredible pace. Playing games on an atari in my childhood, then sega master system, nintendo, snes, pc games, the first 3d acceleration consumer cards, all the way to having a supercomputer in my pocket. What a time to be alive.

Unfortunately this hasn’t resulted in people being more happy. It’s quite the paradox. What are we doing all this for? https://news.gallup.com/poll/505745/depression-rates-reach-n... I don’t post that to be negative, because I agree with what you are saying about a unique time to be alive and have done the same Atari to Xbox Series X glow-up and I marvel at the improvements there. But I do think happiness (and decrea…

What does happiness have to do with material progress?

There are happy monks and unhappy billionaires.

Humanity must push forward on all fronts.

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#62

Post by least »

scarface_74 wrote: post #51
throwanem wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's worked out wonderfully for us of late, hasn't it.

How would spending billions on the space race help?

Numerous technological advancements have been made as a result of the space race, but asking for justification on spending money on scientific inquiry is just going to come to whether or not you support science generally.

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#63

Post by 7373737373 »

mlsu wrote: post #48

I've often struggled to really "grok" how complex chips are. They all kinda look the same. I write software, so I know how complex that is, but like the device itself -- it's this little black box. What's the difference between one little black box and another? Most people don't even get that far; they think the computer is the screen that lights up. I've been reading datasheets a lot at work. The datasheet for an ST…

The

    Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer’s Manual Combined Volumes: 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, and 4
has over 5000 pages!

[0] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/t...

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#64

Post by throwanem »

least wrote: post #62
scarface_74 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would spending billions on the space race help?

Numerous technological advancements have been made as a result of the space race, but asking for justification on spending money on scientific inquiry is just going to come to whether or not you support science generally.

I'd like to see some justification for considering science and space exploration as one and the same. It's hardly as if we've run out of things to learn from this planet, after all.

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#65

Post by throwaway4good »

oraetlabora wrote: post #37
throwaway4good wrote: post #22

In terms of usefulness and end user experience, I find no difference between the iPhone X (A11, 4 billion transistors) and my current 14. Seems to me that all that extra processing power is still looking for a use case.

Well that says more about you than about the iPhone. One example: User experience regarding camera processing improved tremendously between X and 14. Only with the bigger processing power they could optimize images in a fraction of a second after taking them. The photonic engine as we have today, would not be deliver the same experience on an iPhone X.

It is still the same use case. I mentioned the iPhone X and not the earlier models because the X takes really good photos and videos. Sure the later models are better; but it is a bit like watching 4K instead of 1080p on the TV. I can tell the difference but 1080p is fine.

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#66

Post by dehrmann »

mlsu wrote: post #48

I've often struggled to really "grok" how complex chips are. They all kinda look the same. I write software, so I know how complex that is, but like the device itself -- it's this little black box. What's the difference between one little black box and another? Most people don't even get that far; they think the computer is the screen that lights up. I've been reading datasheets a lot at work. The datasheet for an ST…

It's turtles all the way down.

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#67

Post by hedgehog »

throwaway4good wrote: post #22

In terms of usefulness and end user experience, I find no difference between the iPhone X (A11, 4 billion transistors) and my current 14. Seems to me that all that extra processing power is still looking for a use case.

Feature, not bug. There is a steady stream of features that build on the newer hardware, for example local dictation support starts with A12 devices. The big question is not whether a five year old phone supports the most current software (I would hope so), it's whether today's brand new phone will likewise support the updated software in five years, and what features can app developers rely on being present in five years.

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#68

Post by dehrmann »

samwillis wrote: post #30
scarface_74 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is more amazing that we went from the Wright brothers in 1903 to landing on the moon in 1969.

And we haven't been back in 50 years, despite all the incredible technology improvements. The Apollo guidance computers had "several tens of thousands of transistors"[0], we now have 19 billion in our pocket! 0: https://www.aei.org/technology-and-innovation/apollo-11-mank... .

Sending people there is incredibly risky, and there just isn't that much science to do.

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#69

Post by dehrmann »

jdjdjdhhd wrote: post #27
olliej wrote: post #18

I vaguely recall (many years ago) some GPU (a Matrox one iirc) coming out and it being a huge deal because of how many transistors it had. I think it may have been an amazing 100 million. Times have changed :D

Computers used to evolve much more quickly... Or at least the improvements made a much bigger difference

The difference between 1990 and 2000 was astounding. 2000 and 2010 was ok. 2010 and 2020 was meh. Now, what computers did in the 90's, cell networks did from 2005 to 2015.

Re: How many billions of transistors in an iPhone processor?

#70

Post by jacquesm »

throwanem wrote: post #64
least wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Numerous technological advancements have been made as a result of the space race, but asking for justification on spending money on scientific inquiry is just going to come to whether or not you support science generally.

I'd like to see some justification for considering science and space exploration as one and the same. It's hardly as if we've run out of things to learn from this planet, after all.

Personally I'd like to see some justification for discovering America, there was plenty to be learned in Spain and Portugal at the time.
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