Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

9to5mac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

611–620 of 1001 posts

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

#611

Post by myrandomcomment »

Aperocky wrote: post #605
myrandomcomment wrote: post #573

So there is an interesting trend here in the comments because HN is very developer focused. Everyone seems to say "well this does not work for my XXX because of RAM, etc." I would say yes, no surprises there! With this line up Apple is fine with that, because the Air and 13" are not targeted at you. This is the laptop for my wife or kids that use it for school, web, some music and video, nothing at a professional lev…

I'm a dev and I have the air as my personal, side-project computer, and I have already ordered the new one. I use vim to develop primarily in python/js. So my need for performance is super low.

I was going to point out something like that but figured I would get shouted down. For me, check in to bitbucket and Jenkins pulls the build and does it on a rack full of servers dedicated for the process...and yes to VIM. :)

One of my colleagues placed an order for the Air about 10 seconds after you could.

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

#612

Post by neurostimulant »

jpeg_hero wrote: post #402

i don't understand how you're supposed to develop server-side x86 code on this machine. isnt this an important market for the mac?

A few months ago I build a personal linux server and use it via ssh and VSCode's remote development feature, which mount the server filesystem and do port forwarding so it feels as if it's a local machine even while working outside my home network. My usual workflow doesn't change at all, and I got the benefit of a fast server while using laptop form factor. The new arm laptop is probably perfect for this setup, allowing you to build for intel arch whenever you need it.

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

#613

Post by vbezhenar »

jonplackett wrote: post #99
ojosilva wrote: post #28

Apple mentions TensorFlow explicitly in the ongoing presentation due to the new 16-core "Neural Engine" embedded in the M1 chip. Now that's an angle I did not expect on this release. Sounds exciting! Edit: just to clarify, the Neural Engine itself is not really "new": > The A11 also includes dedicated neural network hardware that Apple calls a "Neural Engine". This neural network hardware can perform up to 600 billio…

I can't see how something that tiny can compete in any meaningful way with a giant nVidia type card for training. I'd imagine it's more for running models that have been trained already, like all the stuff they mentioned with Final Cut.

Isn't it better to rent a cloud with as many GPUs as necessary for a time needed to train the model? I don't know state of things in ML.

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

#614

Post by garmaine »

akmarinov wrote: post #600
JAlexoid wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

"in its class"

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

#615

Post by hybridtupel »

satysin wrote: post #165

No 32GB options on any of the models announced today is a shame. Or not I guess as it means I won't be buying anything today M1 looks impressive, hopefully it scales as well to higher TDPs. Pretty much what I expected today with all the low power models getting updated. With no fan I expect the Air will throttle the CPU quickly when using the high performance cores. Calling it an "8-core CPU" is a little cheeky IMHO…

Also just two ports on a PRO model. C‘mon there is plenty of room on both sides. Maybe lets it look elegant but then the cable mess will be on the desk, thanks.

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

#616

Post by suyash »

ojosilva wrote: post #28

Apple mentions TensorFlow explicitly in the ongoing presentation due to the new 16-core "Neural Engine" embedded in the M1 chip. Now that's an angle I did not expect on this release. Sounds exciting! Edit: just to clarify, the Neural Engine itself is not really "new": > The A11 also includes dedicated neural network hardware that Apple calls a "Neural Engine". This neural network hardware can perform up to 600 billio…

Yes, need to see more strong evidence that the new MBP's can handle large amounts of ML Training using TF or CreateML so we don't have to get NVIDIA machines/laptops.

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

#617

Post by duskwuff »

etempleton wrote: post #320
grecy wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed the slides kept saying "Up to" 8 GPU cores. That left me wondering if there are different variants of the M1 with different core counts. (Note: It always said 8 CPU cores)

According to Apple's website the Macbook Air appears to only have 7 active GPU cores. I suspect that chips in the Air may be binned separately and may or may not support the higher clock speeds even with the active cooling of the Mac Mini and Macbook Pro.

7 on the base model, 8 on the upgrade. You're probably correct that this is a binning thing.

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

#619

Post by tachyonbeam »

klelatti wrote: post #574
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 Pro is quoted as 2.8x the 1.7 GHz i7. Not Intel's fastest chip but, if these benchmarks are correct, that's a big speed bump and the higher end Pro's are to come. How fast does it have to be in this thermal envelope to get excited about?

How many cores does that have, and how many cores does the i7 have though?

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

#620

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

Dunedan wrote: post #145

I honestly expected more. While compute performance and power efficiency seems to be really good, the M1 chip is apparently limited to 16GB RAM, 2TB storage and 2 Thunderbolt/USB4 controllers. Comparing the new 13" MacBook Pro with the previous one that's a regression in every aspect as the Intel-based ones allow up to 32GB RAM and 4TB storage and offer 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports.

It's not a regression if you compare like with like: https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=MacBookPro-13-M... (M1 “two ports” compared with Intel “two ports” and “four ports”)

I assume there will be a “four ports“ Apple Silicon version down the road.

Post reply on HN