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A comment on Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast?.

Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by d33lio on Monday November 30, 2020 @03:06PM (#25258271)
It'll be curious when they inevitably release the "M2" chip with higher memory capacity. If M2 has 32gb support I'll buy one immediately. For now, I'll be sticking to my "never buy gen 1 of any technology" rule. Right along side my, "use tech until it breaks" rule, however if you incentivize yourself to be a "power user" meeting the latter rule is far easier than the former ;) .
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by MBCook on Monday November 30, 2020 @03:27PM (#25258530)
> never buy gen 1 of any technology

I totally understand that sentiment, but in some ways this isn’t the first generation. While it’s the first desktop chip that Apple has RELEASED, they’ve been making their own chips since the iPhone 5s (IIRC). I imagine all the big bugs are sorted out.

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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by faitswulff on Monday November 30, 2020 @04:35PM (#25259321)
By the time docker, virtualization, and programming environments are mostly sorted out, there will likely be a successor to the M1 on the market, so while I'm not GP, I do agree with the sentiment in this case. Especially with an ISA change.
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by thoughtsimple on Monday November 30, 2020 @10:07PM (#25261849)
Virtualization and Docker are both well on their way. You can download working VM systems both very simple to the complex with QEmu. A Docker engineer announced on Twitter that he had a early (pre-alpha) version of Docker working on the M1.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/success-virtualize-wind...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ubuntu-linux-virtualize...

https://twitter.com/morlhon/status/1332609373051478016?s=21

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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by Wubdidu on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @05:12AM (#25263960)
Docker is still super early in development, see the most recent update here: https://github.com/docker/roadmap/issues/142#issuecomment-73...

I wouldn't expect official stable support to be available very soon. Even then, even if most of the official Docker image library will have ARM support, a ton of community images will need to be ported – all of this will take quite some time.

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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by faitswulff on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @07:14AM (#25264513)
Not to mention Homebrew and associated packages.
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by ecnahc515 on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @12:09AM (#25262550)
But they run ARM docker images, not x86.
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by qz2 on Monday November 30, 2020 @04:25PM (#25259178)
This. So far, after a week, my M1 is flawless. This is not first gen tech by a mile.

I’m slightly in shock to be honest. I was about to bail out to Linux and buy a monster PC but I can’t get a new Ryzen or Radeon card at the moment due to supply so I blew the cash on a Mini, which was actually in stock.

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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by lend000 on Monday November 30, 2020 @04:06PM (#25258966)
I'll be waiting for the M3X in 2022, at which point they should be using TSMC's 3nm node (another 15% more performance and density) and have had 2 years for the software ecosystem to get settled on ARM.
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by stetrain on Monday November 30, 2020 @03:23PM (#25258484)
You can see the gaps in the lineup that they have yet to fill, since the 4-port 13" Macbook Pro and high end Mac Mini are still being sold with Intel CPUs.

Both of those machines need at least 32GB options to properly replace them. I would guess we see that support in an M1X with more cores and more Thunderbolt lanes next year as they work their way up the lineup.

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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by grecy on Monday November 30, 2020 @03:34PM (#25258610)
It's a total guess, but I figure "M" is for "Mobile", and it will increment up in numbers like the A series has done in iphones/ipads

Then we'll see some other letter (Maybe) "D1" for Desktop perhaps for the machines next up the list performance-wise (higher-end Mac Book Pros and minis and lower-end iMacs.)

And finally we'll see "P1" for the pros, which is the iMac Pro and Mac Pro. The real beast, hoping for at least 128 cores.

All of them will just go up in number as the years go on.

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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by joakleaf on Monday November 30, 2020 @03:47PM (#25258760)
Don't you think "M" is just for "Mac"?
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by grecy on Monday November 30, 2020 @03:51PM (#25258813)
It sure could be, but I'll be shocked if they have their current M1 in the $999 MacBookAir and something still called "M1(x)" in the Mac Pro that has 128+ cores and >128GB RAM, etc. etc.

IMO, that's a totally different product, and it needs a different naming convention. But I'm just guessing.

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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by mattnewton on Monday November 30, 2020 @04:28PM (#25259213)
They put an M1 in a mac mini, I think it just stands for Mac. "M2 Max" or something is exactly what I expect for their next desktop chip name
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by macintux on Monday November 30, 2020 @06:05PM (#25260186)
I suspect M stands for Mac, but it's fair to note that the Mini (and iMac) were using mobile (laptop) hardware previously, so it's certainly plausible that M stands for mobile.
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by ridiculous_fish on Monday November 30, 2020 @06:13PM (#25260264)
The Intel Mac Mini and iMac both use Intel's desktop chip line, with 65 watt TDP.
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by macintux on Monday November 30, 2020 @06:20PM (#25260336)
Huh, I stand corrected, thanks. Did that change at some point or have I been consistently wrong?
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by ridiculous_fish on Monday November 30, 2020 @06:40PM (#25260505)
That I don't know! Except the original Bondi iMac definitely was laptop parts.
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by tcskeptic on Monday November 30, 2020 @04:28PM (#25259219)
I think you are right in the P series, that would make a bunch of sense
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by _ph_ on Monday November 30, 2020 @05:26PM (#25259843)
I think if you want a MB Air, it is absolutely fine to by now, as the M1 has precisely targetted for this machine. For the other machines, for sure there are variations to come which have more cores, more memory etc. For those, you should wait until they appear.
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Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast? by wil421 on Monday November 30, 2020 @08:28PM (#25261199)
Buying an M1 now that I will give to my wife once the M2 16 inch comes out. A family member opted for an iPad over a 15 inch MBP that was collecting dust so I’m not really out any money on the tech until it breaks rule.

I almost ordered an intel 16 MBP inch a couple weeks ago. Thankfully I didn’t pull the trigger.

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