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Re:Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end... by miskin on Thursday November 12, 2020 @04:28AM (#25068071)
They probably have a lot of customers still demanding Intel CPUs. Mac minis are often used in server farms as build servers and there are many companies that would require Intel CPU there for some time.
Re:Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end... by arrrg on Thursday November 12, 2020 @05:05AM (#25068295)
All of that is true, however it is notable that the models they replaced (are not selling anymore) are all the lower end models. The two port MacBook Pro, the Air, only the lower end mini.

Seems pretty obvious to me that there will be another more higher end variant of the M1, though maybe the only difference will be the amount of RAM, the number of GPU cores, the number of supported USB4 ports or something like that, not raw CPU performance.

Either way, it seems obvious to me that the M1 is their low end Mac chip.

That will be interesting to watch.

Re:Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end... by _ph_ on Thursday November 12, 2020 @09:11AM (#25070000)
Yes, it looks like the M1 was designed mostly for the MacBook Air. The specs are a perfect fit and it makes a lot of sense, as the Air is their most popular laptop. Having the perfect Air - and the new one is truly impressive - will make for a lot of Mac sales. Also, they also put it in the bottom end MB Pro and Mini. But indeed with the next variant of Apple Silicon, the higher end variations, and other devices are probably going to be supported.
Re:Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end... by valuearb on Thursday November 12, 2020 @12:28PM (#25072170)
The M1 Mini is far better than Intel Mini on cost/power, power/watt, power/heat measures.

Server farms are going to switch rapidly, one leading Mini server farm just announced a 600 unit starter order, and the CEO noted that Big Sur also made significant changes to licensing to make its use in server farms easier.

Re:Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end... by valuearb on Thursday November 12, 2020 @05:24PM (#25076017)
Of course i just found out M1 only supports 1 gigabit Ethernet, but I don’t think that changes the decision much.