81–90 of 529 posts
The real competition is no longer Intel. Its AMD. Or if you're just buying Apple because you like them then there is no competition, you buy what they offer. I like fanless systems so I'll be watching Apple closely.
Huh? Apple is quite the opposite of fanless... They have literally the most devoted fanbase among computer vendors.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if the CPU can support mixed RAM. E.g. have the on-die 8GB of "fast" ram, and then support 2 external DIMMs or something for "overflow", file caching, etc.
That is a great idea. I think the software is going to be the hard part. You would need some kind of heuristic or software to manage moving memory between those two locations. That is just my initial thought I could be totally wrong.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if the CPU can support mixed RAM. E.g. have the on-die 8GB of "fast" ram, and then support 2 external DIMMs or something for "overflow", file caching, etc.
That is a great idea. I think the software is going to be the hard part. You would need some kind of heuristic or software to manage moving memory between those two locations. That is just my initial thought I could be totally wrong.
I love everything about the move to Apple Silicon with the exception of the decision to put memory on-die or in-package (not sure how it is configured). They call it 'Unified Memory'. It makes a lot of sense but I don't know if they are going to be able to pack enough memory in there. A lot of folks are fixated on CPU performance lately (which is rad) but I think that there is a tendency to ignore memory. I have 32gb…
Nearly universal praise for the M1 versus it's predecessor but I don't see how this really changes Apple's position the way he implies. Their machines are still far more expensive than Windows and can't use high-powered GPUs like AMD/Nvidia. The people who choose PC, still have the same incentives to do so. For most users, the faster performance will probably not be very noticeable. The reduced power consumption is t…
Previous criticism was that you could get an equivalently powerful Windows device for cheaper from other manufacturers - This likely tips the scale and means that these Macbooks are very competitively priced considering their performance.
Then on top of that, you get battery life and build quality that runs circles around the closest competitor - so it does represent a really compelling offer on paper.
Maybe I should just wait. Ryzens will hopefully be coming more steadily next year and Intel should be cutting prices. 2021 is going to be a good year for hardware.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if the CPU can support mixed RAM. E.g. have the on-die 8GB of "fast" ram, and then support 2 external DIMMs or something for "overflow", file caching, etc.
That is a great idea. I think the software is going to be the hard part. You would need some kind of heuristic or software to manage moving memory between those two locations. That is just my initial thought I could be totally wrong.
I really like OSTEP's chapters on virtual memory if you're interested in reading more[1].
Is anyone else thinking, what the f*ck? Are we in a new era of computing? It certainly feels that way when looking at these desktop class ARM chips, where performance doubled every year or so, just like back in the 80s and 90s.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone on that thread was saying that the M1 may be using on-chip DRAM as L2/L3 cache. Not sure how true that is.
Don’t most processors use on-chip SRAM for their cache, which is faster than DRAM?
I love everything about the move to Apple Silicon with the exception of the decision to put memory on-die or in-package (not sure how it is configured). They call it 'Unified Memory'. It makes a lot of sense but I don't know if they are going to be able to pack enough memory in there. A lot of folks are fixated on CPU performance lately (which is rad) but I think that there is a tendency to ignore memory. I have 32gb…