3 ms·

Keep in mind that so far Apple has only started offering M1 on what are essentially entry-level computers. I think it's likely there will be a 32GB Unified Memo

Keep in mind that so far Apple has only started offering M1 on what are essentially entry-level computers. I think it's likely there will be a 32GB Unified Memory version for the 16" MBP (which maybe will become available on the 13" or Mac Mini too). I think M1 would not be able to achieve the performance and efficiency improvements if the RAM were not integrated, so they'll stick with Unified Memory for the time being. I don't think this will be as tenable for the Mac Pro (and maybe not even iMac Pro), but those are probably much further from Apple Silicon than anything else, so we'll see what happens.

whalesalad 6y ago
I agree with you completely. I am looking forward to the next offering and hope that they have a plan for more memory. In the meantime I wonder if they are going to do dual (or more) socket configurations. I was just thinking to myself imagine a Mac Pro with 8 of these M1 chips in it all cooled by one big liquid heat block. That thing would rip.
- DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
  > hope that they have a plan for more memory. I can't imagine them not doing it. If they were satisfied that 16GB was sufficient, I would've expected them to also refresh the 16" MBP with M1. I think the fact that they didn't is a good indicator that something about M1 isn't ready for the big boy league, and my guess is RAM will factor into that. My guess is that the second generation (M2?) will improve performance with little efficiency gain and will include up to 32GB "Unified Memory". And then binning will be used to produce the 16GB and 8GB variants. > I wonder if they are going to do dual (or more) socket configurations. Whoa, that's something I hadn't thought of! I wonder if M1 is amenable to that kind of configuration. That would be pretty neat!
  - arpigartigar 6y ago
    (This should be a reply to an older comment of yours and I realise it's probably bad form to be posting it here, but I couldn't find any other way to contact you) A few weeks ago you made a comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24653498 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24653498) where you mentioned a PL Discord server. Could I get an invite? I can be reached through aa.santos at campus.fct.unl.pt if you'd rather not discuss it in public/if you'd like to verify my identity. Sorry to everyone else in the thread for being off-topic.
    - DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
      Hello! Yes, HN's lack of notifications really poses a problem in situations like this. Sigh. However, the answer to your question is fortunately a simple one: the Discord server mentioned is run by the /r/ProgrammingLanguages community over on Reddit [0]! If you go to that page (might need to be on a desktop browser because ugh) and look in the sidebar/do a search for "Discord server", you'll find a stable invite link. Alternatively, I can just provide you with the current link [1] and note that it may not work forever (for anybody who finds this comment in the future). [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/programminglanguages/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programminglanguages/ [1] https://discord.gg/yqWzmkV https://discord.gg/yqWzmkV
ddingus 6y ago
Seems to me, off chip RAM becomes a new sort of cache. If Apple sizes the on chip RAM large enough for most tasks to fly, bigger system RAM can get paged in and performance overall would be great, until a user requires concurrent performance exceeding on chip RAM.
- DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
  Hmm that's a good point! The thing I worry about is that the whole appeal of the Mac Pro is upgradeability — you can replace components over time. So integrated RAM would be problematic since that's a component people definitely like to upgrade. But with your idea... I dunno, if they could pull that off that would be super cool!
  - ddingus 6y ago
    Yeah I think so too. If they can execute from off chip Ram, perhaps with a wait state or whatever it takes, for a ton of use cases no one will even notice. It will all just effectively be large RAM. Doing that coupled with a fast SSD, and people could be doing seriously large data work on relatively modest machines in terms of size and such. A very simple division could be compute bound code ends up being on chip RAM, I/O bound code of any kind ends up in big RAM, off chip. Doing just that would rock hard.
bufferoverflow 6y ago
Entry level? Did you see their prices?
- DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
  I mean, as far as Apple computers go... yeah, these are absolutely entry level. And $700 (new M1 Mac Mini starting price) is really pretty reasonable even compared to other options, honestly.

whalesalad 6y ago

I agree with you completely. I am looking forward to the next offering and hope that they have a plan for more memory. In the meantime I wonder if they are going to do dual (or more) socket configurations. I was just thinking to myself imagine a Mac Pro with 8 of these M1 chips in it all cooled by one big liquid heat block. That thing would rip.

DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
> hope that they have a plan for more memory. I can't imagine them not doing it. If they were satisfied that 16GB was sufficient, I would've expected them to also refresh the 16" MBP with M1. I think the fact that they didn't is a good indicator that something about M1 isn't ready for the big boy league, and my guess is RAM will factor into that. My guess is that the second generation (M2?) will improve performance with little efficiency gain and will include up to 32GB "Unified Memory". And then binning will be used to produce the 16GB and 8GB variants. > I wonder if they are going to do dual (or more) socket configurations. Whoa, that's something I hadn't thought of! I wonder if M1 is amenable to that kind of configuration. That would be pretty neat!
- arpigartigar 6y ago
  (This should be a reply to an older comment of yours and I realise it's probably bad form to be posting it here, but I couldn't find any other way to contact you) A few weeks ago you made a comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24653498 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24653498) where you mentioned a PL Discord server. Could I get an invite? I can be reached through aa.santos at campus.fct.unl.pt if you'd rather not discuss it in public/if you'd like to verify my identity. Sorry to everyone else in the thread for being off-topic.
  - DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
    Hello! Yes, HN's lack of notifications really poses a problem in situations like this. Sigh. However, the answer to your question is fortunately a simple one: the Discord server mentioned is run by the /r/ProgrammingLanguages community over on Reddit [0]! If you go to that page (might need to be on a desktop browser because ugh) and look in the sidebar/do a search for "Discord server", you'll find a stable invite link. Alternatively, I can just provide you with the current link [1] and note that it may not work forever (for anybody who finds this comment in the future). [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/programminglanguages/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programminglanguages/ [1] https://discord.gg/yqWzmkV https://discord.gg/yqWzmkV

ddingus 6y ago

Seems to me, off chip RAM becomes a new sort of cache. If Apple sizes the on chip RAM large enough for most tasks to fly, bigger system RAM can get paged in and performance overall would be great, until a user requires concurrent performance exceeding on chip RAM.

DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
Hmm that's a good point! The thing I worry about is that the whole appeal of the Mac Pro is upgradeability — you can replace components over time. So integrated RAM would be problematic since that's a component people definitely like to upgrade. But with your idea... I dunno, if they could pull that off that would be super cool!
- ddingus 6y ago
  Yeah I think so too. If they can execute from off chip Ram, perhaps with a wait state or whatever it takes, for a ton of use cases no one will even notice. It will all just effectively be large RAM. Doing that coupled with a fast SSD, and people could be doing seriously large data work on relatively modest machines in terms of size and such. A very simple division could be compute bound code ends up being on chip RAM, I/O bound code of any kind ends up in big RAM, off chip. Doing just that would rock hard.

bufferoverflow 6y ago

Entry level? Did you see their prices?

DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
I mean, as far as Apple computers go... yeah, these are absolutely entry level. And $700 (new M1 Mac Mini starting price) is really pretty reasonable even compared to other options, honestly.