Posted on 04/20/2021 6:45:24 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
Apple just launched its first custom processor for computers. The M1 chip is similar to the A-series processors inside the iPhone and iPad, and it powers just two devices: The late 2020 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. And yet, Intel is still terrified, having mounted a massive ad campaign in an attempt to convince the world that the M1 MacBooks can’t stand up to Windows 10 laptops running on Intel hardware.
The campaign was somewhat half-baked, and has since drawn criticism and ridicule for its missteps. The M1 MacBooks offer formidable performance and excellent battery life, with M1 being built on a chip technology unavailable to Intel. If anything, Intel’s campaign is drawing more attention to the potential of ARM processors when it comes to notebooks and desktops. And Intel’s ARM nightmare is only just beginning.
(Excerpt) Read more at bgr.com ...
That’s the second article I’ve recently seen focused against Intel chips. The other one was about ARM chips, IIRC. Looks like the free traitors took notice.
Intel to spend $20 billion on U.S. chip plants as CEO challenges Asia dominance
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-intel-manufacturing-idUSKBN2BF2WU
I don’t run Windows, BTW.
I am not convinced that ARM chips are the answer for desktop, workstation and servers. Low power usage is not as important there.
Intel’s “way out”:
A) License the ARM ‘core’
B) Get those front-end, fine chip-fab geometries working ...
C) Beat ARM and the contract foundries at their own game.
I’m Mac and Linux only, and have been for decades. I recently bought my daughter a new M1-powered laptop, and I played with it a bit. It was very impressive!
I would not mind trying them in devices but apple does not allow you to fix your own apple products. You get financially raped by apple to do simple repairs and replacements on stuff you own already.
Intel is so screwed. On one hand, it’s tough to feel any sympathy for them considering how they milked their dominance for years giving consumers tiny year-over-year performance increases while charging top-dollar. OTOH, it’s tough to see an American company lose so badly to off-shore manufacturers.
With an x86 process that is bigger and less efficient and consequently hotter than AMD’s - which makes their mobile CPUs less and less attractive - and no x86 alternatives in their own pipeline to challenge Apple, the only sector they still enjoy some measure of dominance in is the server segment...for now.
Maybe they can take that investment capital to build a fab that can make Apple’s proprietary ARM chips for them. Apple would sure like to have a supply vector that exists outside of Asia with Taiwan’s future looking increasingly uncertain.
My daughter got an Apple last month with the M1 chip, it is very nice. The M1 also makes a good addition to one’s firearm collection.
I can verify this. I bought a Macbook Air with the M1.
The thing is blazingly fast.
Interestingly, Intel has had a ARM architecture license - I believe also called an ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) license - for well more than decade and did nothing with it.
Their other problem is they have been working on x86 7NM for at least three years now (maybe longer) and admitted recently that 2023 is probably optimistic before it’s available.’ I’m not sure if migrating to ARM is going to improve their manufacturing processes.
Intel has been out-innovated and out-engineered at just about every level, from conception to execution. This new CEO seems to be saying the right things, but they’re going to need deliverables more than words.
Intel’s problem is not their “CISC” processors as much as their inability to master the art of x-ray lithography. Intel lost years promising a step to 10nm process which equals 7nm process of the recent Apple A-Series Chips. Intel is just beginning to release their 10nm chips in limited quantities while Apple shipping 5nm with their M1 and soon to be shipping 3nm with the M2 class chips in 2022. It is this ability to compact more onto the same piece of silicon that is giving Apple the advantage.
Now if China invades Taiwan, all bets are off. Apple may be hurting for a few years as the plants that Trump encouraged TSMC to build in the U.S. come online
Nope. You can pry my 2020 i9 Intel MBP out of my cold dead hands. (Need it to develop iOS builds for Unreal and Unity)
No BootCamp? No sale.
Don’t care how good they claim an emulator is, it’s still an emulator.
Parallels does a damn good job of running windows code if I don’t need to run it natively, and if I do, I use BootCamp.
And Windows 10 for ARM sucks donkey... (only version that works with Parallels 16.5/M1
“Games and apps won’t work if they use a version of OpenGL greater than 1.1, or if they rely on “anti-cheat” drivers that haven’t been made for Windows 10 ARM-based PCs.”
OpenGL 1.1 is so 1997 and only supports basic textured objects with diffuse maps. no vertex, fragment or pixel shaders. no bump/normal mapping, no spec map, no AO map, no tessellation ...
You realize, guys, I was sh*t-posting.
The last fab I was in we were doing e-beam lithography for GaAs FETs / pHEMTs as used on MIMICs and discrete fets used in LNBs ...
And remember, chip makers usually have at least 10-year roadmaps. This means that the M3, M4...M20 are in planning stages. Apple must have confidence that this platform will compete and take over Intels market share even in cloud computing data centers and high power massively multi-core / multi-chip applications. I expect to see everything running on this architecture in 10 to 15 years and Windows OS will be just another trashy niche OS for hobbyists and Microsoft will focus on Azure and Microsoft Office as their main revenue streams.
I do think it’s fumy Windows 10 on ARM runs better on Apple Silicon in emulation than it does natively on Microsoft’s own device running Qualcomm’s SQ1 chip.
That has to hurt.
Ever heard of the sting arm. They did have products based on it at one time...but they cleaned up their portfolio and eliminated it. I also have it on good authority that the original Adam processor started out life as an arm design that got completely reworked to execute x86. It was apparently a real abortion. They were trying to use the arm base to create a framework to reduce power.
Some of us have worked in the industry for 20 years and never set foot in a fan..yet the company I work for owns several 😀
I hate auto correct....fab not fan
.sheesh!
But if China should happen to invade Taiwan, then Intel will look pretty good, and Apple will be scrambling.
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