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You misunderstand the point of the M1 out of Apple, and for that matter the graviton2 instances out of AWS. What was demonstrated in the marketplace is that the

by vasco 6y ago

You misunderstand the point of the M1 out of Apple, and for that matter the graviton2 instances out of AWS. What was demonstrated in the marketplace is that the biggest tech companies are now able to develop in-house processors that are more cost efficient and more performant. These processors are based on ARM and have minimal overhead licensing costs, as compared to buying Intel or AMD chips for their vast fleets / products. If AWS and Apple can do it, soon other very large companies will, but in a few years, even OEMs will be able to develop their own chips. The market for high end gaming is unlikely to be touched, but the vast consumer market is going to be eaten by custom made ARM-based chips. So in a world where processor design becomes a commodity, what does that mean for Intel and AMD? And what does that mean for the overall datacenter, consumer markets?

theevilsharpie 6y ago
> So in a world where processor design becomes a commodity, what does that mean for Intel and AMD? And what does that mean for the overall datacenter, consumer markets? Processor design is already a commodity, and has been for many years. Any company with the cash can buy a license to the ARM64 instruction set and the reference core design, and have someone like TSMC or Samsung manufacture it. These designs haven't taken over desktop market from x86 yet because those designs simply weren't performance-competitive with what AMD and Intel are pumping out, and it's not clear that that'll change anytime in the foreseeable future. Apple knocked it out of the park with the M1, but they've been kicking ass for years, including their competition in the ARM processor space. Just because Apple's processors happened to use an ARM instruction set, doesn't imply that an ARM revolution is upon us.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Apple isn't using a reference core, though. They are using entirely custom cores.

by vasco 6y ago

theevilsharpie 6y ago

> So in a world where processor design becomes a commodity, what does that mean for Intel and AMD? And what does that mean for the overall datacenter, consumer markets? Processor design is already a commodity, and has been for many years. Any company with the cash can buy a license to the ARM64 instruction set and the reference core design, and have someone like TSMC or Samsung manufacture it. These designs haven't taken over desktop market from x86 yet because those designs simply weren't performance-competitive with what AMD and Intel are pumping out, and it's not clear that that'll change anytime in the foreseeable future. Apple knocked it out of the park with the M1, but they've been kicking ass for years, including their competition in the ARM processor space. Just because Apple's processors happened to use an ARM instruction set, doesn't imply that an ARM revolution is upon us.

saagarjha 6y ago
Apple isn't using a reference core, though. They are using entirely custom cores.