Re:Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery
by pierrebai on Wednesday November 25, 2020 @12:03PM
(#25211405)
I agreed. It think it's typical of cargo-culting: explanations don't need to make sense, it's all about the breathless enthusiasm.
Look, want to know how M1 achieve its result? Easy. Apple is first with a 5nm chips. Look in the past: every CPU maker gains both speed and power efficiency when going down a manufacturing node.
Intel CPU were still using a 14nm node (although they called 12+++) while Apple M1 is now at 5nm. According to this [1] chart, that's a transistor density at least 4x.
Not saying Apple has no CPU design chops, They've been at it for their phones for quite a while. But people are just ignoring the elephant in the room: Apple gives TSMC a pile of cash to be exclusive for mass production on their latest 5nm tech.
Look, want to know how M1 achieve its result? Easy. Apple is first with a 5nm chips. Look in the past: every CPU maker gains both speed and power efficiency when going down a manufacturing node.
Intel CPU were still using a 14nm node (although they called 12+++) while Apple M1 is now at 5nm. According to this [1] chart, that's a transistor density at least 4x.
Not saying Apple has no CPU design chops, They've been at it for their phones for quite a while. But people are just ignoring the elephant in the room: Apple gives TSMC a pile of cash to be exclusive for mass production on their latest 5nm tech.