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Apple Announces The Apple Silicon M1: Ditching x86 - What to Expect, Based on A14
The new processor is called the Apple M1, the company's first SoC designed with Macs in mind. With four large performance cores, four efficiency cores, and an 8-GPU core GPU, it features 16 billion transistors on a 5nm process node. Apple's is starting a new SoC naming scheme for this new family of processors, but at least on paper it looks a lot like an A14X.
[...] Apple made mention that the M1 is a true SoC, including the functionality of what previously was several discrete chips inside of Mac laptops, such as I/O controllers and Apple's SSD and security controllers.
[....] Whilst in the past 5 years Intel has managed to increase their best single-thread performance by about 28%, Apple has managed to improve their designs by 198%, or 2.98x (let's call it 3x) the performance of the Apple A9 of late 2015.
[...] Apple has claimed that they will completely transition their whole consumer line-up to Apple Silicon within two years, which is an indicator that we'll be seeing a high-TDP many-core design to power a future Mac Pro. If the company is able to continue on their current performance trajectory, it will look extremely impressive.
[....] Apple's usage of a significantly more advanced microarchitecture that offers significant IPC, enabling high performance at low core clocks, allows for significant power efficiency gains versus the incumbent x86 players. The graphic shows that at peak-to-peak, M1 offers around a 40% performance uplift compared to the existing competitive offering, all whilst doing it at 40% of the power consumption.
Apple's comparison of random performance points is to be criticised, however the 10W measurement point where Apple claims 2.5x the performance does make some sense, as this is the nominal TDP of the chips used in the Intel-based MacBook Air. Again, it's thanks to the power efficiency characteristics that Apple has been able to achieve in the mobile space that the M1 is promised to showcase such large gains – it certainly matches our A14 data.
[...] Apple claims the M1 to be the fastest CPU in the world. Given our data on the A14, beating all of Intel's designs, and just falling short of AMD's newest Zen3 chips – a higher clocked Firestorm above 3GHz, the 50% larger L2 cache, and an unleashed TDP, we can certainly believe Apple and the M1 to be able to achieve that claim.
See also: Apple is astonishingly confident in its new M1 Mac processors
The New M1 Mac mini Comes Apple's 8-Core & GPU, Delivers 3x More CPU Performance, and Only Costs $699
Apple's New M1 MacBook Air, Pro and Mini Can't be Configured with More than 16GB of RAM
The M1 MacBook Air Actually Has Two Chipset Variants to Buy, One With Smaller Number of GPU Cores
TSMC cannot meet the entire Apple M1 order volume, Samsung could jump to the rescue
macOS 11.0 Big Sur: The Ars Technica review
Parallels working on support for Apple's M1 Arm-based silicon, could bring Windows 10 back to the Mac
Apple Silicon Macs Can Run Any iOS App, but Major Developers Have Reportedly Decided Not to Offer Them for Now
Previously: Apple Will Reportedly Sell a New Mac Laptop With its Own Chips Next Year
Apple Announces 2-Year Transition to ARM SoCs in Mac Desktops and Laptops
Apple's New ARM-Based Macs Won't Support Windows Through Boot Camp
Embarrassingly Apple's Two-Year Old ARM Chip Benchmarks Faster Than Microsoft's Surface Pro X
Apple Has Built its Own Mac Graphics Processors
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Friday November 13 2020, @05:31PM (10 children)
During the last year, there were only a few articles covering the Digital Restrictions Managment (DRM) technologies baked into the T2 chip [soylentnews.org] inlcuded in the new systems. But there were some nonetheless. I've seen a more than a few press releases the last few days about the M1 but not one mentions the DRM that comes with the new hardware on the accompanying T2. Seriously, it was highlighted as a selling point up until recently. However, not even the EFF seems to have turned attention to it.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday November 13 2020, @05:39PM (2 children)
https://9to5mac.com/2020/11/11/apple-mac-m1-processor-details/ [9to5mac.com]
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/macos-11-0-big-sur-the-ars-technica-review/ [arstechnica.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by canopic jug on Friday November 13 2020, @05:42PM
Secure enclave is slightly different, but related.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2020, @08:05PM
so about "external media". this is a arbitrarly chosen border in the form of a ... case? or is the border defined as a cable leaving the mainboard?
with apples paranoia that somebody might take a bit out of the other side too, maybe external means storage that isn't part of the M1 SoC? i mean the ram is in there already ... why not dump the harddisk nand in there too?
hmmm ... maybe in the future, when you buy a apple you just buy a ... chip (tho i wonder how they're going to fit a keyboard in there) ^_^
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Freeman on Friday November 13 2020, @05:54PM (2 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management [wikipedia.org] Know your enemy. I mean, they don't call it the Government and Police Power increase act, they call it the "Patriot Act".
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2020, @06:07PM (1 child)
At the risk of veering offtopic, it was the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act [antiwar.com]
As for these ARM parts, we're going to be eating some serious pi over the next couple of years. Apple was the past and Raspberry is the future.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday November 16 2020, @03:55PM
Yeah, no, Apple is still set to be a big player for a long time to come. Raspberry Pi isn't in the same league. Raspberry Pi is focused on cheap electronics that can be afforded by the most people, but while also still being a useful computer. Highly education market focused and a big thing in the UK.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2020, @08:02PM (3 children)
So you're saying it can't run Linux?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday November 14 2020, @12:39AM (2 children)
Sounds like it. Unless someone signs a Linux kernel. And keeps it signed through all upgrades.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2020, @10:37AM (1 child)
Not because it couldn't, but because the wazzy bastards won't let it! This sounds like a hacking challenge! And, better than some stupid game console!!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday November 14 2020, @12:58PM
Hacking one of the game consoles to run Linux would make a great $500 PC. Hacking one of the new ARMacs to run Linux would make a great $1700 PC.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2020, @06:16PM (3 children)
where's ted kazinsky when you need him?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2020, @07:22PM
They threw him under the omnibus.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday November 13 2020, @09:53PM (1 child)
The same place he has been for the last 20+ years. Locked in his little cell at USP Florence ADMAX in Colorado.
https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/ [bop.gov]
04475-046
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2020, @10:47PM
So he quarantined from Covid quite early, then.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by richtopia on Friday November 13 2020, @06:29PM (1 child)
Apple is one of the few companies I can envision succeeding in this type of an architecture shift. However, everything we've seen so far is from Apple in marketing presentations. I eagerly await production samples getting to reviewers so we can see if these claims are as great as they claim.
Now, if we assume this M1 chip is all Apple touts, I wonder if this will shake up computing beyond Apple devices. The current application of laptops and i-devices needs low power and ever increasing performance, but I could also see server applications leveraging a cool and fast chip. Maybe we'll start seeing Apple branded server racks in the coming years.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by dak664 on Friday November 13 2020, @09:42PM
I know nothing about this chip, but Apple shot themselves in the foot when they transitioned from the Motorola 68K to the IBM PowerPC architecture. Yes, the PowerPC was much faster...except for interrupt latency. That was so bad that they had to wait in the ethernet driver for a possible back-to-back packet, locking up the screen and mouse for seconds at a time.
In my app video transfers from PowerPC to 68K worked fine, but transfers from 68K to PowerPC aborted every 8 seconds on a full ethernet buffer.
And that is when I ditched the order for 12 Macs and moved to x86 for process control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2020, @07:07PM (4 children)
Audio producers want to know - is it safe to go back to Apple yet? Will it ever be?
Not that all of us will want to. There's a lot you can do on BSD, these days.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Friday November 13 2020, @07:20PM (3 children)
I've been done with Apple for a long time but know a few people who haven't yet completed their migration from macOS to GNU/Linux. It may take them some time as the lock-in is getting worse. But in the off chance that some of them will only be able to make their move after the new M1 becomes ubquitous, I have to ask, which GNU/Linux distros can it run?
It looks like the hardware (or firmware) is set up to prevent booting unsigned systems. So any such distro will have to have been signed by Apple first. I have not seen any discussion of that either, yet. I would hope that at least one of the big ones like Linux Mint or even Ubuntu make that move or at least publish details on what the obstacles have been.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2020, @08:44PM (2 children)
Even if they did it, it might involve DRM contraventions.
I'd rather have a ten year old embedded system running FreeBSD with Audacity, Rosegarden and Muse (plus MuseScore, of course). It would be more maintainable, less subject to the mood swings of Apple High Command, and probably higher quality hardware construction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2020, @12:33AM (1 child)
You could always buy a brand new system that isn't from Apple. Intel doesn't provide an option to get rid of IME, but hackers have managed to remove it. AMD BIOSes allow disabling PSP (assuming you believe them). Not sure if the PSP disable functionality has been verified independently.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday November 14 2020, @12:43AM
Actually, the hackers found the mechanism for disabling the IME in an Intel database of responses to customer requests.
Now I don't know who the customer is, nut some suspect the NSA.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday November 13 2020, @09:59PM
Will you be able to get one that isn't already soldered into/onto a motherboard? As in will you be able to build you own. We all know Apple hates the clone market. So it is highly unlikely. So you are stuck using whatever they create and I wouldn't be all to surprise if they make that hardware as tamper proof as they possibly can so one should probably just forget about adding anything to it, removing it, using something not approved by Apple or running anything on it that they have not signed for.
So in that regard it might not matter all that much if it's the fastest, or not -- even tho it's a completely uninteresting claim since it won't be the fastest forever or for that matter for a very long time -- if at all since apparently the latest AMD is already faster.
But still it could be nice if you could buy one, put in on some non-apple hardware board and do with it what you like. If you have to buy an Apple product to use it then it has sort of already lost some of its luster.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by istartedi on Saturday November 14 2020, @01:25AM (2 children)
If you can't load an arbitrary OS on it, if you can't code "to the metal" according to your own desires, I would argue that in some sense it's not a computer. Their infamous ad campaign even hinted at that.
So. Congratulations, Apple. You've got the fastest toaster on the market.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Sunday November 15 2020, @09:36AM (1 child)
Agreed. Fuck Apple, and their fisher price, locked down iToys. If you want an ARM laptop, buy a Pinebook for $100.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday November 15 2020, @11:49AM
Pinebook SoC is slow. Pinebook Pro is on the right track. But today, November 15, 2020, Pine64 may announce [pine64.org] upcoming SoCs/products.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]