Somewhere, the collective whos who of the silicon chip world is shitting their pants.<p>Apple just showed to the world how powerful and efficient processors can be. All that with good design.<p>Customers are going to demand more from Intel and the likes.<p>Just imagine Apple releasing the Mx chips for server infrastructure. Intel ought to be sweating bullets now.<p>edit: a word.
This would be quite an accelerated timeline if Apple ships its second-generation M-series chip only eight months after the first. Typically, they’ve followed a sort of six-month tick-tock pattern for the A-series, launching a new major revision in the fall with the new iPhone, and launching an “X” revision in the spring with new iPads.<p>I think most observers have been expecting an “M1X” for Apple's first pro-oriented ARM Macs, so an M2 already would be a surprise.
All very impressive, but here's my question: what are they going to do about graphics cards? Will they find a way to connect existing graphics cards to their CPU? Will they make their own ARM-based graphics cards? Will AMD or Nvidia?
I hate to say that, but I am likely going to buy M2 Mac. I don't like Apple and their anti-competitive tactics, but I admit they won their spot for now.
However, as soon as good PC competitor comes in, I'll drop Apple like a hot potato.
While this news is about "a rumor according to sources familiar with the matter" it's obvious that Apple will be doing this at some point. Whether it's the M2 or if there will be a new letter designator (X-series silicon for eXtreme performance? Apple X1?) I am very interested to see what the performance numbers will be for an ARM-powered workstation rocking 16 to 32 high power cores. Aside from the Ampere eMAG, is a 16+ core ARM-powered workstation even a thing yet? (I don't count Amazon's Gravaton chips in this discussion because I cannot own a machine on my desktop powered by one).
I haven't yet used an M1 mac but based on what I've read about it I have fully bought into the hype train.<p>Hoping my next laptop will be a M2-powered MBP, assuming they can increase the maximum RAM to at least 32GB.
FTA: <i>"the latest semiconductor production technology, known as 5-nanometer plus, or N5P. Producing such advanced chipsets takes at least three months”</i><p>I know as good as nothing of this process, but I can’t imagine the latency from silicon wafer to finished product is 3 months. I also can’t imagine some inherent start-up delay for producing the first chip (but as I said: I know as good as nothing of this process), so where do those 3 months go? Is it a matter of “you have to be extremely lucky to hit so few minor issues that it only takes 3 months to have a first working product”?
Just a side rant here... I'm really frustrated I can't monitor the Neural Engine's usage in the M1 in my MacBook Air. Apparently Apple did not build an API for extracting data points from the these 16 cores, so I can only watch what the CPU and GPU are doing when running and optimizing Tensorflow models while the NE remains a black box.
If Apple is having this kind of success, it seems they should look to compete in the data center with this or the following generation of chips. I wonder if it is a good time to invest in Apple.
Is anything known about the chip? The deal breaker of M1 (for me) as it currently stands is the amount of RAM it can handle (16 GB).<p>Edit: Mistyped 16 as 1, sorry about the confusion
Full article: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210427125928/https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Apple-s-follow-up-to-M1-chip-goes-into-mass-production-for-Mac" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20210427125928/https://asia.nikk...</a>
I’m reading somewhat incompatible reactions in the top level comments e.g. [1]
> Somewhere, the collective whos who of the silicon chip world is shitting their pants. Apple just showed to the world how powerful and efficient processors can be. All that with good design. Customers are going to demand more from Intel and the likes.<p>Another [2]:
> I really want the next MacBook Pro to support driving two 4K monitors over thunderbolt and have an option to buy 32 gigs of ram.<p>Meanwhile the last Intel MacBook Pro supports driving four (4!) 4K displays [4]. Apple silicon is far ahead in benchmarks but how does speeds and feeds translate into what customers actually want?<p>Battery life is impressive but unfortunately not the usual differentiator during a worldwide pandemic. The M1 Macs are quite quiet (the first MacBook Air without a fan—in 2020!) meanwhile the Intel Surface Book was fanless in 2017. We shot the messenger of the recent Intel attack Apple ads [5] but message is still worth reading. I bought an M1 MBA and realized the speed didn’t make a difference as my consumer computer. For the first time in decades I’m not sure if Apple provides the most pleasurable experience.<p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26956336" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26956336</a><p>[2] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26955682" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26955682</a><p>[4] <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT210754" rel="nofollow">https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT210754</a><p>[5] <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/17/justin-long-get-a-mac-intel-ad-campaign/" rel="nofollow">https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/17/justin-long-get-a-mac-i...</a>
Arm-based laptops that are competitive with Apple M1+ could arrive as early as 2023, powered by a Qualcomm SoC based on their $1.4B acquisition of Nuvia, lead by a team that designed Apple's M1, iPad and iPhone SoCs. This would likely run Windows for ARM and Linux. Hopefully it will also include hardware virtualization support, like M1.<p><a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=nuvia&sort=byPopularity&type=story" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...</a>
I know a lot of people waiting for this one, myself included. Here's hoping Asahi Linux is ready around then!<p>I'm guessing the 2021 MacBook Pro is going to be the fastest laptop ever made.
Besides the radio antenna (Qualcomm) that Apple is quickly replacing with their own, is there any other tech/chips inside Apple SoC that they don't design themselves?
When I was young, every time I got a new computer (which wasn't often, but it happened a few times), the new machine was absurd amounts faster than the previous one. Like 10 times more processing power and memory.<p>I'm glad we can live that feeling again, even if just for a short while.
I have an M1 MacBook Air, and I’m blown away.
I cannot wait for a 16 inch MacBook Pro with whatever madness they have planned.<p>I love the direction Apple is headed with their hardware.
soldered ram and SSD coupled with SSD Wear issues leading to a less than 3 year lifespan of a laptop makes all of this a hard pass for me, and should be for any sensible person too.
Cool! So now (or at least soon-ish) I can get my hands on some dirt cheap, practically never used M1 hardware on eBay to play around with?<p>I wonder if Apple is familiar with the Osborne effect[1].<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect</a>
Why a new SoC? Isn't the M1 basically maxiing out what can be done on a SoC, but what's missing is the version with external memory and GPU?<p>They can refresh the core in the M1 of course, and I expect they will do that yearly like the AXX cores, but it would be weird to go even 2 generations of the SoC without addressing the pro cpu.
Even earlier than expected. Perhaps my suspicion to skip M1 to go for M2 was completely right.<p>It doesn't hurt to wait a little or perhaps skip the first gen versions due to the extremely early software support at the time, rather than getting last year's model (Nov 2020) and suffering from the workarounds and hacks to get your tools or software working on Apple Silicon.<p>I won't have a wobbly software transition unlike most M1 early adopters. Afterwards, I'll most certainly skipping M1 to something higher. (Likely M2)<p>Like I said before, wait for WWDC and don't end up like this guy. [0] Those on Intel (Especially those on 2020), no need to run for the M1, Just skip it and go for M2 or higher.<p>Downvoters: Here's another foot-gun Apple hid behind the hype squad. [1] For the iPad Pro, if you bought the 2020 version, your keyboard is incompatible with the M1 version meaning you have to fork another $350 for a new one that works.<p>At the time of the Macbook Air M1 launch (Nov 2020), tons of software issues, even the recovery system fell apart for most people for M1. Even upgrading to this on launch day right here with those issues was an instant no deal.<p>Once again Intel Mac users, plenty of time to migrate to something even better. (M2 or higher)<p>[0] <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-sold-my-old-ipad-pro-to-backflip-and-now-i-have-cash-for-an-m1-model/" rel="nofollow">https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-sold-my-old-ipad-pro-to-back...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/04/new-12-9-inch-ipad-pro-doesnt-support-the-previous-magic-keyboard/" rel="nofollow">https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/04/new-12-9-inch-ipad-p...</a>