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Makes sense. The real story with M1 isn't so much about how amazingly innovative Apple's CPU design is (although it is pretty good), as much as how Intel has re

Makes sense. The real story with M1 isn't so much about how amazingly innovative Apple's CPU design is (although it is pretty good), as much as how Intel has rested on their laurels for 5 years. Now, if only AMD could bring back that ARM Zen design that they cancelled a few months before Ryzen 1st Gen...

nextos 6y ago
The M1 is great because it's fanless. AMD Ryzen is superb on workstations, but let's see if they can deliver a nice fanless or low power option. I hope they do.
- PragmaticPulp 6y ago
  The Ryzen mobile chips, including the upcoming Ryzen 7 5800U mentioned above, have a low 10W (configurable up to 25W) TDP. That's in the ballpark of Apple's chip.
  - my123 6y ago
    That number isn't very meaningful - because it applies to the base clocks only... which is a big catch. Go beyond that and the power usage balloons quickly (won't repeat myself, see my other comment on this thread at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25231798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25231798). On laptops, more power efficiency maps directly to increased performance (turbo clocks provide higher performance in bursts or at the expense of your laptop's fans sounding like a jet turbine).
  - Kye 6y ago
    My laptop with a Ryzen 5 4500U is only fan-free at idle. OEMs would need to do some serious work on cooling to make that work.
- gameswithgo 6y ago
  if 7nm Zen3 is close, then 5nm can probably match without a fan.
  - api 6y ago
    It’s almost like power efficiency is all about the process node. M1 is 5nm. It’s a great core but it’s power profile would not be so impressive at a larger node.
    - m_mueller 6y ago
      Dennard called and would like to have his scaling back.
    - unix_fan 6y ago
      Its not enough of a jump to close the gap. the a14 did not bring major improvements in power efficiency, despite being on 5nm.
- floatboth 6y ago
  Only the MacBook Air is fanless, and of course it throttles after a while, that's why there's the Pro with a fan on the M1
Zenst 6y ago
>Now, if only AMD could bring back that ARM Zen design that they cancelled Oh yes that would rock and open up a whole new level of fault tolerance as could run real-time upon two different CPU cores in parallel, which for some workloads would add value. Certainly adding an ARM chiplet would be cool and technically doable, though so would a RISC V core and if Nvidia buy ARM then that choice may become political.
- Demiurge 6y ago
  > if Nvidia buy ARM then that choice may become political. If? Was that a typo? They have indeed [https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for...]
  - Zenst 6y ago
    Unless changed in the past couple of days - It still needs approval. So be UK, China and USA approval needed of varying degree's. That said, I don't foresee any hurdles, but the ink not been signed yet.

nextos 6y ago

The M1 is great because it's fanless. AMD Ryzen is superb on workstations, but let's see if they can deliver a nice fanless or low power option. I hope they do.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago
The Ryzen mobile chips, including the upcoming Ryzen 7 5800U mentioned above, have a low 10W (configurable up to 25W) TDP. That's in the ballpark of Apple's chip.
- my123 6y ago
  That number isn't very meaningful - because it applies to the base clocks only... which is a big catch. Go beyond that and the power usage balloons quickly (won't repeat myself, see my other comment on this thread at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25231798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25231798). On laptops, more power efficiency maps directly to increased performance (turbo clocks provide higher performance in bursts or at the expense of your laptop's fans sounding like a jet turbine).
- Kye 6y ago
  My laptop with a Ryzen 5 4500U is only fan-free at idle. OEMs would need to do some serious work on cooling to make that work.
gameswithgo 6y ago
if 7nm Zen3 is close, then 5nm can probably match without a fan.
- api 6y ago
  It’s almost like power efficiency is all about the process node. M1 is 5nm. It’s a great core but it’s power profile would not be so impressive at a larger node.
  - m_mueller 6y ago
    Dennard called and would like to have his scaling back.
  - unix_fan 6y ago
    Its not enough of a jump to close the gap. the a14 did not bring major improvements in power efficiency, despite being on 5nm.
floatboth 6y ago
Only the MacBook Air is fanless, and of course it throttles after a while, that's why there's the Pro with a fan on the M1

Zenst 6y ago

>Now, if only AMD could bring back that ARM Zen design that they cancelled Oh yes that would rock and open up a whole new level of fault tolerance as could run real-time upon two different CPU cores in parallel, which for some workloads would add value. Certainly adding an ARM chiplet would be cool and technically doable, though so would a RISC V core and if Nvidia buy ARM then that choice may become political.

Demiurge 6y ago
> if Nvidia buy ARM then that choice may become political. If? Was that a typo? They have indeed [https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for...]
- Zenst 6y ago
  Unless changed in the past couple of days - It still needs approval. So be UK, China and USA approval needed of varying degree's. That said, I don't foresee any hurdles, but the ink not been signed yet.