Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by nostromo on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:30PM (#25050509)

Apple has a "missing middle" problem.

They have a ton of fantastic consumer-level computing devices, and one ridiculously-priced mega-computer.

But there are many of us that want something in the upper-middle: a fast computer that is upgradable, but maybe $2k and not $6k (and up).

(The iMac Pro is a dud. People that want a powerful desktop generally don't want a non-upgradable all-in-one.)

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by derefr on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:40PM (#25050682)

Apple's solution for upgradability for their corporate customers, is their leasing program. Rather than swapping parts in the Mac, you swap the Mac itself for a more-powerful model when needed — without having to buy/sell anything.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by LoSboccacc on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @03:54PM (#25051771)

Apple has missing middle _strategy_

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by saagarjha on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:32PM (#25050542)

Apple doesn't care about your upgradability concerns on the notebook lineup. Once you get past that, it has traditionally done fairly well at covering a wide spectrum of users from the fanless MacBook to the high-powered MacBook Pros.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by athms on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:31PM (#25050518)

I have a late-2013 13" MBP with 16GB of memory. Seven years later I would expect a 13" MBP to support at least 32GB. I can get 13" Windows laptops that support 32GB of memory. The Mini is a regression, from 64GB to 16GB of memory. The only computer worth a damn is the new MBA.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by whywhywhywhy on Wednesday November 11, 2020 @08:09AM (#25058024)

Pretty sure my 2014 ish 13inch MBP with 16gb and 512 storage cost me around £1200, today speccing an M1 13inch MBP to the same 6 year old specs would cost almost £2000.

Seems absurd.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by saagarjha on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:35PM (#25050593)

Wait just a bit and I'm sure your concerns in this area will entirely disappear.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by athms on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @03:01PM (#25051032)

They already disappeared, I switched to Windows in 2019.

I use MacStadium for compiling and testing iOS apps. I was wondering if the ARM machines would be worth a look, but they are disappointing. If I was still using Macs as my daily driver, I would buy the new MBA for a personal machine.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by runawaybottle on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:27PM (#25050459)

But 16gb is what I had in a computer 10 years ago.

I was just window shopping a new gaming rig, and 32gb is affordable (100 bucks), 64gb (200 bucks). Cheap as shit, what’s the hold up?

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by sroussey on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:41PM (#25050711)

The memory is on package, not way out somewhere on the logic board. This will increase speed quite a bit, but limit physical size of memory modules, and thus amount. I think they worked themselves into a corner here until the 16” which has a discreet GPU and reconfiguration of the package.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by egsmi on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:52PM (#25050883)

A little bit up is was shown the memory in M1 is 5.5GHz DDR5. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25050625

Can you please provide the link to 64GB DDR5-5500 for $200? I'd love to buy some too!

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by fomine3 on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @08:14PM (#25054432)

It's fair but if they choose fast but expensive and unexpandable technology, possibly the choice is failed in some perspective. I think most people who buy mini prefer RAM capacity than faster iGPU.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by runawaybottle on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @08:22PM (#25054505)

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=64gb+ram

I guess DDR 500 runs you 350. It looks like Apple charges you 600 for ddr 400 32gb. I don’t know, what am I missing here?

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by spacedcowboy on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @08:43PM (#25054647)

Can you actually link to a product, not a search ? Because none of the items coming up there are DDR5-5500, they're all DDR4-3600 or worse, as far as I can see.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by runawaybottle on Wednesday November 11, 2020 @02:15AM (#25056196)

I guess I was wrong, everything is ddr4.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by egsmi on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @08:40PM (#25054620)

I’m confused. The link is for DDR4, it’s all too slow, and Apple doesn’t offer a 32MB M1 option at this time.

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Re:Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable... by saagarjha on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:32PM (#25050552)

A new processor architecture. Wait a couple months and you'll probably have the computer you wanted released too.

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