News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test by sudosysgen on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @04:22PM (#25130037)
China already has 14nm online, and should have 7nm in a year or two, so that means that we will probably see some real RISC-V chips from there soon, if sanctions continue.

So I think that we will have a four way competition between Intel, AMD, Apple, and Chinese RISC-V chips.

That being said, I don't see x86 dying, I think AMD and eventually Intel when they wake up will be competitive.

Re:2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test by totalZero on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @11:46AM (#25138959)
When you say they "should have 7nm in a year or two," are you just banking on them copying or stealing a European-made EUV machine?

China cannot be competitive at the razor's edge if its semiconductor companies depend on promptly copying/stealing technology that European, Taiwanese, and American companies bring to market.

Re:2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test by sudosysgen on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @03:01PM (#25141715)
7nm doesn't require EUV. Intel has 10nm which is equivalent to TSMC 10nm without EUV, altough it's not that great.

SMIC has already produced some 7nm chips without EUV.

As for EUV for the further future, there has been quite a bit of research in that domain for many years in pre-emption of this, and while I think they will be a node or a node and a half behind for a while, they will almost certainly have one ready eventually. Of course, that will be accelerated by stealing data on EUV machines, or maybe buying a used EUV machine from someone and reverse-engineering it.

Re:2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test by StreamBright on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @05:40PM (#25130890)
I don't see X86 dying either, I think it will be dominant in the desktop/laptop segment for a long time. I am not sure why Longsoon uses Mips64 over RISC-V. Is RISC-V generally available and ready for prime times?
Re:2020 Mac Mini – Putting Apple Silicon M1 To The Test by sudosysgen on Thursday November 19, 2020 @12:05AM (#25146403)
I think Longsoon still uses MIPS64 because of institutional knowledge. It's moreso Alibaba and HiSilicon that I think are promising, and they both seem to be getting on the RISC-V train.