4 ms·
Not specializing in this area, I'm somewhat at a loss to understand what is so unique about the M1 that competitors could not implement similar in other ARM bas
by beezle 6y ago
Not specializing in this area, I'm somewhat at a loss to understand what is so unique about the M1 that competitors could not implement similar in other ARM based systems or instead on Intel/AMD? Maybe another way to ask is what of the M1 performance is due to ARM and what from the Apple implementation?
- masklinn 6y agoI'm not a specialist either but my understanding is that Apple has thrown a lot of resources (and hardware) at the problem (and have been doing so for a while, the M1 is simply the apotheosis), and it has paid off: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25257932 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25257932 Nothing stops other ARM manufacturers from doing that, but it's expensive, and most manufacturers don't really have a reason to work this hard at it, they have a fairly low-margin biz and their clients aren't going to pay big bucks. For Apple however, these chips are completely structural, they already underlie huge amounts of their business and with the switch of Macs to ARM are slated to do so even more. It may not be possible for x86 though, because of the architecture's complexity limits e.g. how wide you can decode, and more generally how much hardware you can keep fed concurrently.
- Symmetry 6y agoBeing willing to be inefficient in terms of performance per square millimetre of silicon to be more efficient in terms of performance per watt was how it started. Having less cruft in the ISA that let them be more creative in other areas might be the more important factor now.