3 ms·

My question is why Qualcomm while using the same arch, has not produced a chip as fast as the M1?

S_A_P 6y ago
I suspect there was some talent at apple that figured out some details which Qualcomm have not at this time. This guy seems to improve things at every place he has been. He left abruptly from Intel this year, which hopefully is not due to health reasons. https://www.anandtech.com/show/15846/jim-keller-resigns-from-intel-effective-immediately https://www.anandtech.com/show/15846/jim-keller-resigns-from...
- imtringued 6y ago
  Qualcom doesn't have a business model that involves high end processors. Who are they going to sell those SoCs to?
rsynnott 6y ago
Qualcomm is a virtual monopoly in the space it serves (mid to high end non-Apple non-Chinese phone chips); arguably it doesn't have that much incentive to do anything much.
- rurban 6y ago
  And they are supposed to be a much shittier company than Intel, or Boeing or Oracle. You need to be really desperate to work there.
p_l 6y ago
You're missing the wildly different target that Apple can follow. Apple designs chips and devices in lockstep. When designers were working on various A-series chips, they knew the details of the device, and could optimise on that. Qualcomm doesn't get that kind of view. They make a generic CPU design for given market segment, and have to "please" much wider buyer range. As such, if they tried to apply some of the things that are publicly known about Apple designs, they would probably end up with a chip that would be hard to sell due to taking more space or having higher TDP etc. And before advent of multicore, Qualcomm was using the available space budget heavily to integrate the radio functionality internally (then it oscillated a bit over time depending on chip and market segment).
baybal2 6y ago
They don't need to, they are in a much more down to earth market niche.
HacklesRaised 6y ago
Because their profitability is of the SOC alone, Apple, the entire product, so they are forced into certain design compromises.
stefan_ 6y ago
Nobody has mentioned it in the comments: because their money maker is in 5G modems (and of course LTE et al before). The ARM SoC is a bonus they throw on for their customers that need the integration (Android vendors, but not Apple).
gpderetta 6y ago
I don't think they have access to 5nm as Apple has pretty much monopolized it so far. And Apple out together a very very good design team.

I suspect there was some talent at apple that figured out some details which Qualcomm have not at this time. This guy seems to improve things at every place he has been. He left abruptly from Intel this year, which hopefully is not due to health reasons. https://www.anandtech.com/show/15846/jim-keller-resigns-from-intel-effective-immediately https://www.anandtech.com/show/15846/jim-keller-resigns-from...

imtringued 6y ago
Qualcom doesn't have a business model that involves high end processors. Who are they going to sell those SoCs to?

rsynnott 6y ago

Qualcomm is a virtual monopoly in the space it serves (mid to high end non-Apple non-Chinese phone chips); arguably it doesn't have that much incentive to do anything much.

rurban 6y ago
And they are supposed to be a much shittier company than Intel, or Boeing or Oracle. You need to be really desperate to work there.

p_l 6y ago

You're missing the wildly different target that Apple can follow. Apple designs chips and devices in lockstep. When designers were working on various A-series chips, they knew the details of the device, and could optimise on that. Qualcomm doesn't get that kind of view. They make a generic CPU design for given market segment, and have to "please" much wider buyer range. As such, if they tried to apply some of the things that are publicly known about Apple designs, they would probably end up with a chip that would be hard to sell due to taking more space or having higher TDP etc. And before advent of multicore, Qualcomm was using the available space budget heavily to integrate the radio functionality internally (then it oscillated a bit over time depending on chip and market segment).

baybal2 6y ago

They don't need to, they are in a much more down to earth market niche.

HacklesRaised 6y ago

Because their profitability is of the SOC alone, Apple, the entire product, so they are forced into certain design compromises.

stefan_ 6y ago

Nobody has mentioned it in the comments: because their money maker is in 5G modems (and of course LTE et al before). The ARM SoC is a bonus they throw on for their customers that need the integration (Android vendors, but not Apple).

gpderetta 6y ago

I don't think they have access to 5nm as Apple has pretty much monopolized it so far. And Apple out together a very very good design team.