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:

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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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[Doug S]

Exactly this. All these "big" announcements are just made so Trump can boast about it to his voters. It's all BS designed to fool the gullible. Apple will invest the minimum it can to make it seem like they're bringing back some manufacturing. They'll deliberately slow plant build outs so that by the time Trump is no longer POTUS, they'll just cancel the plants.

No one is tracking Apple's $600b "investment".

Apple committed to investing $430 billion in the US over the next five years in 2021 shortly after Biden took office. And committed to investing $360 billion over the next five years in 2017 short after Trump took office the first time. Cook knows how to play the game, on both sides.

These commitments never really had anything to do with investing in US production capacity beyond whatever already made sense. They are counting all the salaries from Cook's down to today's new hire at the local Apple Store, along with all the utilities, taxes and money they pay the company that runs the cafeteria in the spaceship. Any components sourced in the US like Micron DRAM are counted. All the datacenters, including green energy investments to power them. It sounds like the custom "AI servers" might be getting built here - that's much easier to do since they don't have the same types of product cycles that consumer products like iPhones and Macbook Airs do and are likely more amenable to automation since there's no customization and no fancy cases. Basically every dollar paid in the US, either directly or indirectly, is being counted.

 

[Eug]

I didn't use sales prices to prove that I was right. Stop putting words in my mouth and twisting actual things I said.

Hmmm…

Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart have been selling the M1 Air for $650 - $750 for over a year now. You keep saying my predictions are ridiculous but you keep getting proved wrong over and over again.

 

[johnsonwax]

This point about warranties is hard to over-emphasize. For laptops used for college / professionally, many of us have mission critical needs and insurance against downtime and repair/replacement cost is very important.

Anecdotally, before I purchased a fully spec’ed M4 Max, I researched comparable x86 options from the top 3-4 vendors. It seemed that no one offered an AppleCare-like warranty beyond three years. The indefinite warranty protection offered through AppleCare+ seems unique to the industry and I find it incredibly valuable. But maybe I missed a program offered by a major vendor somewhere.

In addition, adding phone support so that you have an AppleCare like experience brings the cost of the laptop to about the same as a highly specced M4 Max!

Yeah, when the cost of a 3 year warranty raises the price by ⅓ (which was about what we found - this was some years ago, so maybe things have improved), the actuaries are trying to tell you something important.