Apple Announces New Line of MacBooks and Mac Minis Powered by M1

[RandallFlagg]

Yeah AT's single threaded benchmark of the A14 implies that it is able to match the general single thread performance of a 5950X Zen 3 CPU.

Except, that's an A14 at 2.9 Ghz and the 5950X runs at 4.7Ghz boost. Napkin math says 38% higher IPC than Zen 3.

 

[xman2007]

So basically an ipad with screen and keyboard? no x86 app support without emulation and a souped up iOS?

 

[silentbogo]

Did you even look at the picture of the PCB in the post you replied to?
It says unified, not integrated in your picture. Those two words mean very different things.

Just watch the video, I'm telling you, the whole point of that part was "why do we need all that pesky RAM, IO and secrurity chips, if we can put it all in one package". Though, I'm still confused since some slides show it on SoC, and the one later (that's on Anandtech as well) shows SoC die with two RAM chips on an interposer.

This packaging style with DRAM embedded within the organic packaging is something that isn’t inherent new to the new M1 chip as we’ve already seen such a design featured on the A12X. Apple uses likely uses this kind of packaging instead of your usual smartphone POP (package on package) because these chips are designed with higher TDPs in mind, and making sure one can cool the design down efficiently in the new designs is paramount.

In either case, it'll probably be under the heatspreader or an impenetrable layer of epoxy(more likely), similar to A12z.

 

[Space Lynx]

So basically an ipad with screen and keyboard? no x86 app support without emulation and a souped up iOS?

so this can't run WoW without an emulator of some kind?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Just watch the video, I'm telling you, the whole point of that part was "why do we need all that pesky RAM, IO and secrurity chips, if we can put it all in one package". Though, I'm still confused since some slides show it on SoC, and the one later (that's on Anandtech as well) shows SoC die with two RAM chips on an interposer.

In either case, it'll probably be under the heatspreader or an impenetrable layer of epoxy(more likely), similar to A12z.

Nowhere does Apple mention that it's integrated though.

M1 also features our unified memory architecture, or UMA. M1 unifies its high‑bandwidth, low‑latency memory into a single pool within a custom package. As a result, all of the technologies in the SoC can access the same data without copying it between multiple pools of memory. This dramatically improves performance and power efficiency.

 

[Lucas_]

Also:

Apple Announces The Apple Silicon M1: Ditching x86 - What to Expect, Based on A14

www.anandtech.com

"Intel has stagnated itself out of the market, and has lost a major customer today. AMD has shown lots of progress lately, however it’ll be incredibly hard to catch up to Apple’s power efficiency. If Apple’s performance trajectory continues at this pace, the x86 performance crown might never be regained."
taking this out of the article; really interesting statement.

 

[RandallFlagg]

Someone over at AT made the observation that Apple's performance claims are against an i7 1.7Ghz Iris 645 MacBook Pro 13.3

That is an gen 8 processor i7-8557U.

So if M1 is 2x faster than that it would have a geekbench multi-core score of 8000ish, and 12000ish if 3x faster.

That would put it on par with an Intel 9700K \ 10700 non-K and AMD 3700X multi-threaded. Single thread seems to be about 30%+ higher than both.

Edit: (for the 2x claim, 3X claim would put it above the 10900K and 5800X).

Edit2: And if they actually get 3X, I will be buying one

 

[R-T-B]

so this can't run WoW without an emulator of some kind?

No, unless blizzard recompiles (which they may), but WoW isn't really a CPU pig I don't think.

So basically an ipad with screen and keyboard? no x86 app support without emulation and a souped up iOS?

Runs full MacOS X.

 

[Space Lynx]

No, unless blizzard recompiles (which they may), but WoW isn't really a CPU pig I don't think.



Runs full MacOS X.

so this is a non-gaming work machine basically. that is a shame.

 

[R-T-B]

so this is a non-gaming work machine basically. that is a shame.

At the moment, yes. They are depending on vendors to follow them on the arm trail. Whether that happens remains to be seen (as does the emulation penalty).

 

[bonehead123]

Where is the M1 fab?

Oh come on now, we all know it is located directly underneath YOUR garage, where else would it be, hahahahahaha

Will be interesting to see what the reviews say about these new rigs ....

 

[silentbogo]

Nowhere does Apple mention that it's integrated though.

They don't say it explicitly, but accent on it quite clearly.
"Until now, a Mac needed multiple chips to deliver all of its features. It had chips for the processor, I/O, security and memory. Now with M1, these technologies are combined into a single SoC..."
"M1 unifies its high-bandwidth low-latency memory into as single pool within a custom package"

 

[tony359]

Nowhere does Apple mention that it's integrated though.

Apple's own animation - just a few frames after the one you original posted - shows the RAM chips flying into the new M1 chip.

 

[Space Lynx]

At the moment, yes. They are depending on vendors to follow them on the arm trail. Whether that happens remains to be seen (as does the emulation penalty).

I guess the main benefit of going this route is they are basically the old Apple again in the sense they are basically virus/malware worryfree at least for next few years?

 

[Fouquin]

I'm curious this arm chips tdp. Doubt they publish that, though.

40W in the Mac Mini, or thereabouts.

It says unified, not integrated in your picture. Those two words mean very different things.

Correct the RAM is layered with the SoC logic. It's a lot of layers and extremely delicate.

 

[biffzinker]

From Anandtech:

This packaging style with DRAM embedded within the organic packaging is something that isn’t inherent new to the new M1 chip as we’ve already seen such a design featured on the A12X. Apple uses likely uses this kind of packaging instead of your usual smartphone POP (package on package) because these chips are designed with higher TDPs in mind, and making sure one can cool the design down efficiently in the new designs is paramount.

Apple Announces The Apple Silicon M1: Ditching x86 - What to Expect, Based on A14

www.anandtech.com

 

[Vya Domus]

Apple's own animation - just a few frames after the one you original posted - shows the RAM chips flying into the new M1 chip.

Can we stop already ? Look at a single memory module on a stick of RAM, now picture a whole bunch of them. Can they fit on a single chip ?

Come on ...

 

[Ashtr1x]

So this is faster than Intel 10900K as per Anandtech ? What is this joke really. Measuring the ST performance with so similar workload on top then deciding which is the best, without blowing a hole in TDP from 5W to the 90W of the x86 parts how can this CPU beat both of the desktop chips. And there's no software which works on both, Linux doesn't exist on Mac i guess to make some Phoronix benchmarks as well for any proper real world performance figures.

Anandtech shows Android processors lagging severely behind but in real life I don't see the same translation, if the SPEC graph is linearly scaled with the price/performance. Why do Android Samsung Galaxy Note also being priced at iPhone level and same for OnePlus T models, Huawei too and people across the world test them out of whack on YouTube.

Apple users are going to empty shelves and people really want to run their iPhone and iPad apps on Mac which has soldered RAM, only 1 I/O port connector type, sealed shut battery with the chassis, sealed shut keyboard design, ton of propreiutary software blocking any sort of HW repair, a shame to computing to be honest while press gives massive green light. And Apple's video on gaming was horribly trash, I would like to see an RPCS3 or PCSX2 run on this new M1 processor, or SOTRR which was ported to run on Vulkan exclusively, ah Metal or GTFO at Apple land lol.

 

[biffzinker]

Can we stop already ? Look at a single memory module on a stick of RAM, now picture a whole bunch of them. Can they fit on a single chip ?

Come on ...

It would explain the limit of 16GB for the MacBook Pro. Four DRAM dies in the onboard DRAM package for each of the two near the SoC.

 

[silentbogo]

Can they fit on a single chip ?

Of course they can. How do you think smartphones and tablets are getting all this RAM.
Samsung and Micron current-gen LPDDR4X go as high as 12GB(96Gbit), and apple has two of them.

 

[xman2007]

How can it be OSx when OSx is x86 and ARM is not x86, they can call it OSx and yea I guess it now is and will be going forward but it is in essence iOS and it can't run native x86 applications like macs have done for the last 15 years, so there's a whole plethora of applications that will need to be rewritten or run in x86 emulation

 

[Vya Domus]

Of course they can. How do you think smartphones and tablets are getting all this RAM.
Samsung and Micron current-gen LPDDR4X go as high as 12GB(96Gbit), and apple has two of them.

They are not on the same chip. How are we still debating this ?

 

[SL2]

big.LITTLE core design on both laptop and desktop? interesting to see them advertising it as an 8 core CPU instead of 4+4.

WHERE does it say it's not eight equally large cores?

 

[silentbogo]

How can it be OSx when OSx is x86

Since when? OS X was released on PPC, and only moved to Intel-only since Snow Leopard.

They are not on the same chip. How are we still debating this ?

They are on the same package. Did we watch the same presentation?

 

[xman2007]

Since when? OS X was released on PPC, and only moved to Intel-only since Snow Leopard.


They are on the same package. Did we watch the same presentation?

since 2009?