Discussion Apple Silicon SoC thread

[Eug]

M1
5 nm
Unified memory architecture - LP-DDR4
16 billion transistors

8-core CPU

4 high-performance cores
192 KB instruction cache
128 KB data cache
Shared 12 MB L2 cache

4 high-efficiency cores
128 KB instruction cache
64 KB data cache
Shared 4 MB L2 cache
(Apple claims the 4 high-effiency cores alone perform like a dual-core Intel MacBook Air)

8-core iGPU (but there is a 7-core variant, likely with one inactive core)
128 execution units
Up to 24576 concurrent threads
2.6 Teraflops
82 Gigatexels/s
41 gigapixels/s

16-core neural engine
Secure Enclave
USB 4

Products:
$999 ($899 edu) 13" MacBook Air (fanless) - 18 hour video playback battery life
$699 Mac mini (with fan)
$1299 ($1199 edu) 13" MacBook Pro (with fan) - 20 hour video playback battery life

Memory options 8 GB and 16 GB. No 32 GB option (unless you go Intel).

It should be noted that the M1 chip in these three Macs is the same (aside from GPU core number). Basically, Apple is taking the same approach which these chips as they do the iPhones and iPads. Just one SKU (excluding the X variants), which is the same across all iDevices (aside from maybe slight clock speed differences occasionally).

EDIT:



M1 Pro 8-core CPU (6+2), 14-core GPU
M1 Pro 10-core CPU (8+2), 14-core GPU
M1 Pro 10-core CPU (8+2), 16-core GPU
M1 Max 10-core CPU (8+2), 24-core GPU
M1 Max 10-core CPU (8+2), 32-core GPU

M1 Pro and M1 Max discussion here:

Discussion - Apple Silicon SoC thread

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M1 Ultra discussion here:

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M2 discussion here:

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Second Generation 5 nm
Unified memory architecture - LPDDR5, up to 24 GB and 100 GB/s
20 billion transistors

8-core CPU

4 high-performance cores
192 KB instruction cache
128 KB data cache
Shared 16 MB L2 cache

4 high-efficiency cores
128 KB instruction cache
64 KB data cache
Shared 4 MB L2 cache

10-core iGPU (but there is an 8-core variant)
3.6 Teraflops

16-core neural engine
Secure Enclave
USB 4

Hardware acceleration for 8K h.264, h.264, ProRes

M3 Family discussion here:

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M4 Family discussion here:

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M5 Family discussion here:

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[Doug S]

What does Apple use for AI compute needs? just Cloud credits from Amazon/Alphabet? They are not creating their own models and so its all inference at the moment.

They are creating their own models, they just aren't good enough yet hence the deal to essentially buy a fork of Gemini to use for now.

They've been using M2 Ultra based servers for running their own stuff for a while now. Undoubtedly they also use some external cloud compute as well. They seem to be pretty judicious about building their own capacity, they always use third party cloud as "overflow" even for iCloud storage.

That has turned out to be a really good move in hindsight since more and more countries look to be following China's lead of requiring cloud storage for their their citizens be on servers controlled by companies that are subject to their laws and not those of the US.

 

[Jan Olšan]

Because Microsoft dead-ended their own hardware. So consumers then face a choice to move forward - a new PC that Microsoft may dead-end again, or a Mac.

In reality, today's Macs will be "dead-ended" by Apple long before today's x86 PCs lose Windows support. Just look at history.

You can still put Windows 11 on 2008-2011 computers. It's not officially supported but it works and they get all the security patches. What do you get from Apple for comparable machines?
(And Linux users can add unknown number of extra years after any hypothetical date at which these computers actually stop working with Windows, whereas I can't confidently expect a "life after Apple" for M series MacBooks/MacMinis with how the Linux support limps on, currently.)

Possible exception: The Qualcomm devices due to the same lack of standards in Arm world. Those are probably the only Windows computers where I worry about them possibly staying usable for less than 10 years due to potential end of Windows support.

Enter one at $599.

Like there aren't enough Windows laptops at that price point...

 

[poke01]

You can still put Windows 11 on 2008-2011 computers. It's not officially supported but it works and they get all the security patches. What do you get from Apple for comparable machines?

Not officially but you can get full support via opencore on older x86 Mac’s which will run latest macOS.

Like there aren't enough Windows laptops at that price point...

Those people who couldn’t spend $1000 on a MacBook would’ve gotten a cheaper Windows laptop especially students. Now you can get a MacBook as low as $500. That will impact sales on lower end windows laptops and the Neo has been selling very well.

 

[poke01]

And Linux users can add unknown number of extra years after any hypothetical date at which these computers actually stop working with Windows, whereas I can't confidently expect a "life after Apple" for M series MacBooks/MacMinis with how the Linux support limps on, currently

M1 and M2 support Linux. M3 and later is being worked on.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/s/rulCtRUPqN

The Qualcomm devices due to the same lack of standards in Arm world

https://developer.arm.com/dev2/Architectures/ACPI.

Qualcomm doesn’t use ACPI yet. Ampere CPUs do support ACPI.
I suspect the Qualcomm laptops will get Linux support and will be usable after windows support dies, as Linux can run on anything.

 

[adroc_thurston]

Qualcomm doesn’t use ACPI yet.

They do but the current crop of Glymur devices still shipped devicetrees.