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

How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

asymco.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 202 posts

Re: How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

#71

Post by laughing_man »

SoftTalker wrote: post #17
cogman10 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And none of these companies are operating their own fabs, that's the problem. Fabs are a cutthroat business that's very hard to get into. It costs billions of continual investment to stay a float. That's why there's really only about 3 different companies with cutting edge fabs. TSMC, Micron, and Samsung. Even intel, who built a huge portion of their business on cutting edge fab tech, has struggled to keep funding it…

And a 64G DDR5 ECC DIMM costs $3K and is backordered. If ths isn't a bubble and demand persists, some new players are eventually going to want a cut of that.

Absolutely. "If this isn't a bubble and demand persists" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, though, and it may be some time before manufacturers decide that's the case.

Re: How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

#72

Post by eastbound »

fhn wrote: post #45
ruguo wrote: post #31

I wonder if companies like Apple will eventually start making memory themselves.

they blew it! They could have bought Intel for cheap and made memory AND CPUs!

Apple knows better than to buy a pile of incompetent smugs. Intel was rock bottom before Europe determined it was a “strategic move”[1] to buy factories in Europe from the only manufacturer that hasn’t innovated since 20 years, quickly followed by the US. In both cases, governments aren’t the most savvy spenders.

[1] A “strategic” expense is named like this when you can’t justify it by any rational means.

Re: How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

#73

Post by HerbManic »

nikhizzle wrote: post #43

Ex-Apple kernel engineer here, Apple will deal with the memory shortage by making software more efficient in ram usage. Apple will just make every aspect of the system more and more memory efficient. They've done it before over and over and can do it again.

This is a great long term strategy despite what the share holders would want to believe. If you increase efficiency even on lower end devices, you will get people coming back for more. It isn't the sale today, it is the sale tomorrow that matters.

Re: How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

#74

Post by regexorcist »

fhn wrote: post #42
autoexec wrote: post #27

[flagged]

completely agree. Most Apple users are in it for the ecosystem. Tech people care about performance and these people don't typically choose Apple until recently with the M series which are a beast. Even I'm envious.

No need to be. I'm rocking Asahi on a M1 and it's the absolute peak Linux desktop experience.

Re: How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

#75

Post by stingraycharles »

astrange wrote: post #56
szmarczak wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple? Sure. What about other developers? Firefox, Chrome already use gigabytes of RAM.

It's the websites that use that RAM, not the browsers. (Often the ads on the websites.)

And it’s the applications using web browsers as their UI kit that are the worst offenders in my experience.

Re: How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

#76

Post by tardedmeme »

szmarczak wrote: post #50
nikhizzle wrote: post #43

Ex-Apple kernel engineer here, Apple will deal with the memory shortage by making software more efficient in ram usage. Apple will just make every aspect of the system more and more memory efficient. They've done it before over and over and can do it again.

Apple? Sure. What about other developers? Firefox, Chrome already use gigabytes of RAM.

Fortunately, Apple devices only run approved software. Google will be forced to optimize memory or become unavailable on those devices.

Re: How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

#78

Post by CuriousRose »

shye wrote: post #66
mlindner wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SpaceX/xAI is investing in creating their own fab. If they can, Apple certainly can.

They can’t. Operating a FAB requires employing PhDs that are willing to work 8 hours shifts with no breaks (each removal of a bunnysuit is an expensive exercise), and there’s no reason to believe SpaceX is capable of hiring such people.

There was a point made recently by Musk that the whole clean room idea is outdated if you can just ensure the path the silicon takes from wafer to lidding is clean. Seems solvable to me, but leaves me wondering why it hasn’t been done before. I assume there is no human handling of raw/etched silicon now anyway, so why does the whole room need to be clean?

Re: How can Apple deal with the memory shortage?

#80

Post by deadfoxygrandpa »

CuriousRose wrote: post #78
shye wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can’t. Operating a FAB requires employing PhDs that are willing to work 8 hours shifts with no breaks (each removal of a bunnysuit is an expensive exercise), and there’s no reason to believe SpaceX is capable of hiring such people.

There was a point made recently by Musk that the whole clean room idea is outdated if you can just ensure the path the silicon takes from wafer to lidding is clean. Seems solvable to me, but leaves me wondering why it hasn’t been done before. I assume there is no human handling of raw/etched silicon now anyway, so why does the whole room need to be clean?

hmm yeah. its cool that musk knows more about this than the entire industry
Post reply on HN