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2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

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Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#671

Post by ytch »

pabs3 wrote: post #662
ytch wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has built many second-source partners for cost-reduction for a long time. But most of their CPUs are made by TSMC right now. I'm wondering will Apple find another semiconductor factory partner (they tried to build A9 by both Samsung and TSMC, but Samsung one seems like has heat issues)or stick with TSMC?

Are there any fabs that can compete with TSMC? Or EUV equipment manufacturers that can compete with ASML?

from density (MT/mm2):

TSMC 5nm: 173.1

Samsung 5nm: 126.5

Intel 10nm: 100.8

Intel 7nm: 202 (estimated [1])

Therefore TSMC is still the best in density right now.

[1] https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/7_nm_lithography_process#Intel

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#672

Post by ninkendo »

feanaro wrote: post #546
testfoobar wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I particularly like Chrome profiles. I have a few profiles with their own bookmarks/histories/open tabs/etc. For example, one of my profiles is "Shopping". Another is "Work" and yet another is "Social Media". Context switching profiles at a macro level - as opposed to intermingling work/shopping/social - is beneficial to me. When I switch over to "Shopping", I have my tabs on whatever purchase I'm researching open. I…

Firefox also has profiles, though they're not a very prominent feature and are a bit less polished as a result. firefox --ProfileManager

You can also type about:profiles in the address bar and launch a new profile from there.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#673

Post by fomine3 »

legulere wrote: post #529
interestica wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These gains are just through improvements in processors. Now, combine that with parallel leaps for battery tech... It's also good that battery tech hasn't jumped too far ahead already - the constraint has helped in the development in these mobile chips. The display panel is still the biggest energy draw on my laptop. There's a lot of chance for improvement there too. A 2 day battery in 5 years isn't that crazy.

Apple is slowly moving to mini led displays and probably micro led displays after that. That should also improve energy use.

Currently miniLED for backlight is power hungry compared to simple edge LED. It's used for high contrast HDR. MicroLED won't available for laptop near the future.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#674

Post by kepler1 »

It takes a lot of money, people, and investment to bring a chip to market, years ahead of other competitors' technologies.

Maybe locking it down (to the disappointment of the "everything open" crowd) is Apple's reward for advancing the state of the industry and offering high performing chip beyond anyone's expectations. Maybe for companies to survive in such a business, they need to take advantage of the technologies they're able to bring to fruition, and fund the 9/10 ideas that don't make it.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#675

Post by prawn »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #41

I'm not surprised it's doing well. Apple has deeper pockets than anyone else on the planet, and they have considerable experience doing this kind of thing –literally, decades . Say what you will about Apple; this is a strong point for them. But I'm still waiting for the M2 before I upgrade. I'm also interested in new form factors. Right now, they are still relying on the currently-tooled production line for their she…

Do you have an example of what they could do differently? Shrink the Mini, but what could you do with a laptop where the form is largely influenced by size of screen, needing it to sit up, keyboard and so on.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#676

Post by xenadu02 »

breakfastduck wrote: post #452
xenadu02 wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Going on internet comments So instead of going on evidence and public statements by Apple executives - statements that have repeatedly said the Mac is the Mac - you choose to believe random internet comments? There is a delicate balance between protecting average users who have no clue what is safe software and what isn't vs allowing power users and developers to do what they want. Since the days of ActiveX control…

Are you sure you’ve replied to the right comment? I was literally making the point that these rumours have persisted for years and nothing has ever come of it. I couldn’t agree more with the rest of your comment!

My apologies, I did reply to the wrong comment!

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#677

Post by kingnothing »

postalrat wrote: post #296
dukeofdoom wrote: post #209

Macbook air: $999 (2 ports, no hdmi) vs $699 mac mini (2 ports + hdmi) + ipad $329 = $1029 Thinking of upgraing, my current macbook 2013 sits in a drawer 99% of the time connected to a monitor and keyboard. That 1% of the time when I travel, the macbook is too large to use comfortably on an airplane seat. The ipad would work better for this use. macbook air also only has two ports, so one would be used for external m…

I wish apple or some company would make a computer stick that plugs into a usb c hub for power and peripherals. No battery and no buttons other than power. I don't see why it couldn't about the size of a wallet and offer at least as good thermals as a macbook air.

The Mac Mini is only 7 inches x 7 inches x 1.5 inches. It's not a stick but you could certainly mount it on the back of your monitor or under your desk and never see it.

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#678

Post by freediver »

jorl17 wrote: post #656
aculver wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Yes, it does. I use AdBlock Pro. 2. Yes, it does. I've been using Safari as my primary browser as a Rails developer for at least the past decade and have always found the developer tools at least adequate. I don't use the developer tools on other browsers heavily, so I don't know if I might be missing something.

I used to run Safari on my mac and it was the best thing in the world: - It integrated perfectly with the OS - It saved battery like heeeeell - It integrated natively with Airpods and media keys - It clearly had worse performance than Chrome and a couple of incompatibilities, but it was perfectly acceptable - I could run most of my extensions, namely uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere and Reddit Enhancement Suite - The…

Yes, PM me for an invite (its not Safari but is native, Webkit based browser that runs uBlock and other webextensions)

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#679

Post by et2o »

ytch wrote: post #622
paulpan wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unsung hero here is TSMC and their industry-leading 5nm fabrication node. Apple deserves praise for its SOC architecture on the M1 and putting it together, but the manufacturing advantage is worth noting. Apple is essentially combining the tick (die/node shrink) and tock (microarchitecture) cadences together each year, at least the past 2-3 years. The question, perhaps a moot one, is how much the performance gains ca…

Apple has built many second-source partners for cost-reduction for a long time. But most of their CPUs are made by TSMC right now. I'm wondering will Apple find another semiconductor factory partner (they tried to build A9 by both Samsung and TSMC, but Samsung one seems like has heat issues)or stick with TSMC?

Wonder if Apple would buy TSMC

Re: 2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test

#680

Post by fomine3 »

mlyle wrote: post #393
nwlieb wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a 1-1 comparison? If the ARM compile is compiling to ARM binaries then there might be less work/optimizations since it is a newer architecture. Seems like a test with two variables that changed. Would be interesting to see them both cross-compile to their respective opposite archs.

Maybe not, but A) it's close-- most of the work of compiling is not microarchitecture-level optimizations or emitting code, and B) if you're a developer, even if some of the advantage is being on an architecture that it's easier to emit code for... that's still a benefit you realize. It's worth noting that cross-compiling is definitely harder in many ways, because you can't always evaluate constant expressions easily…

So cross compile for RISC-V, POWER, or something else would be fair?
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