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Also isn't Apple has it "easy" designing a chip from scratch with 0 backward compatibility + they manage the HW + SW. Intel & AMD have to support thousands of
by Thaxll 6y ago
Also isn't Apple has it "easy" designing a chip from scratch with 0 backward compatibility + they manage the HW + SW.
Intel & AMD have to support thousands of different config:
- I can plug my old memory it works
- I can plug my old graphic card it work ( PCI-e )
Apple has 0 constrains about legacy hardware, software ( beside that emulation layer ), so yes it's a great achievments, but it's very different from designing a chip for PC.
- saagarjha 6y agoYou put "that emulation layer" in parentheses but it's no trivial feat writing an x86/x86_64 emulator with high enough fidelity to run almost all Mac apps at almost native speeds.
- ridiculous_fish 6y agoFurthermore the M1 has some hardware support for this, via a runtime-toggle to force x86-style total store ordering.