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As I've written elsewhere and the article discusses in excellent detail, something that's missing in the conversation is a discussion of the custom application

As I've written elsewhere and the article discusses in excellent detail, something that's missing in the conversation is a discussion of the custom application specific silicon over here, https://areoform.wordpress.com/2020/11/30/tanstaafl-apples-m1/ https://areoform.wordpress.com/2020/11/30/tanstaafl-apples-m... (on HN, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25256025 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25256025 ) I dislike linking to myself, but the take is long and it essentially points out that Apple themselves hint at Application Specific silicon in the M1 in their keynote, and when added with their acquisitions of ASIC specialists, it's not a long-take to say that comparing the M1 against most vanilla X86 processors isn't quite fair. It's a very different beast with its own tradeoffs. By colocating several different application specific processors under one roof and selling it as a CPU, Apple may have revitalized/invented something new. It's a bit like the iPhone - taking elements that were already there and catalyzing them into a new form. This new not-quite-a-CPU SoC likely has significant implications for the future of computing that should be discussed and detailed. Because, There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

pram 6y ago
A lot of the stuff you’re referring to as “application specific” is already present in Intel Macs with the T2 chip. Except obviously slower and older. People aren’t discussing it because it isn’t really “new”
- areoform 6y ago
  They have indeed moved the system controller etc from the T2 onto the M1 more or less wholesale. If you look at the TEM image I have added to my post of the M1's sister chip, the A14, you'll see that the classical CPU and GPU take up only a small fraction of the die. The rest isn't memory as a naive take would suggest. It's custom silicon handling a large basket of previously CPU tasks.
creddit 6y ago
But the cores are really good in real world, general purpose computing so I'm not sure the ASS (Application Specific Silicon) is more than half the story.
mrkstu 6y ago
No more a tradeoff than something like AVX-512 though right? Or the custom instructions Intel will add for large customers like Facebook?
rsynnott 6y ago
While that’s no doubt helping in, say, classifying photos in iPhoto, it’ll do nothing for SPECInt. The impressive general purpose benchmark results are down to the CPU.

pram 6y ago

A lot of the stuff you’re referring to as “application specific” is already present in Intel Macs with the T2 chip. Except obviously slower and older. People aren’t discussing it because it isn’t really “new”

areoform 6y ago
They have indeed moved the system controller etc from the T2 onto the M1 more or less wholesale. If you look at the TEM image I have added to my post of the M1's sister chip, the A14, you'll see that the classical CPU and GPU take up only a small fraction of the die. The rest isn't memory as a naive take would suggest. It's custom silicon handling a large basket of previously CPU tasks.

creddit 6y ago

But the cores are really good in real world, general purpose computing so I'm not sure the ASS (Application Specific Silicon) is more than half the story.

mrkstu 6y ago

No more a tradeoff than something like AVX-512 though right? Or the custom instructions Intel will add for large customers like Facebook?

rsynnott 6y ago

While that’s no doubt helping in, say, classifying photos in iPhoto, it’ll do nothing for SPECInt. The impressive general purpose benchmark results are down to the CPU.