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It's processors. x86 architecture is not as efficient as ARM based, which is why ARM is used in embedded low power devices. Like the common adoption curve, Int

It's processors. x86 architecture is not as efficient as ARM based, which is why ARM is used in embedded low power devices. Like the common adoption curve, Intel viewed ARM as a toy, that could never compete with their power capabilities. But ARM got better and better every year, and though x86 got marginally better, they weren't being driven by a market that demanded higher performance. ARM caught up, and due to some exceptionally clever engineering by Apple, has surpassed the capabilities of x86. We've seen the same story many times before, electric cars will never be competitive, online shopping will never compete with the in store experience, solar/wind/etc will never compete with coal, digital cameras will never compete with film....etc etc Add your own, there are plenty of examples, but I'm failing to remember others right now.

pseudosavant 5y ago
Apple caught up and then surpassed x86. ARM designs are a joke. Compare Surface Pro X to an M1 Mac. If the ARM ISA was inherently so much better it would be easy for Qualcomm and Samsung to release top performance ARM laptops, but they can't. Apple is so far ahead of everyone right now.
- terrorOf 5y ago
  M1 also uses ARM cpu core.
- baybal2 5y ago
  > If the ARM ISA was inherently so much better it would be easy for Qualcomm and Samsung to release top performance ARM laptops, but they can't. They simply don't really want. Gets just any top ARM SoC from both, and scale caches, and bus widths to M1's size. The advantage will immediately stop looking so dramatic.
  - imtringued 5y ago
    But that is an argument against ARM and an argument in favor of any processor that is being designed by a large company with lots of capital and good engineers. The ISA doesn't even enter the conversation.
- pedalpete 5y ago
  Apple's M1 is an ARM processor that has two major benefits over ARM based PCs. 1) Rosetta is FAR more powerful than any translation app on windows. This means that M1 is able to run Mac programs that were built for macOS much more efficiently than windows apps running on ARM. It's amazing how much this piece of software does in making this a smooth transition for apple. 2) The end-to-end pipeline at Apple has let them define the first M1 chip limitations in graphics and memory, and with this, and the shared memory and quick memory access, they're able to blow anything from Qualcomm out of the water. The only way Qualcomm could compete with that chip is if they dictated to the customer "this is the build you're getting, you can't upgrade RAM, or use a different GPU, etc etc. That's just not how they operate.
  - heisenbit 5y ago
    It is not just Rosetta but the compiler toolchain, the long experience with iOS libraries running on ARM providing an almost identical API, multiple rounds of binary architecture transitions via fat binaries in combination with the app store. Having said this Samsung has just to find a few buyers and kick start the software development in this iteration. Whether they can build momentum depends on the next model, on their software/hardware partners and on how committed they are.
  - fpoling 5y ago
    It is not only Rosetta. M1 has special hardware to allow for faster emulation like supports for Intel cache coherency protocol allowing to emulate multithreaded code with much less efforts.

pseudosavant 5y ago

Apple caught up and then surpassed x86. ARM designs are a joke. Compare Surface Pro X to an M1 Mac. If the ARM ISA was inherently so much better it would be easy for Qualcomm and Samsung to release top performance ARM laptops, but they can't. Apple is so far ahead of everyone right now.

terrorOf 5y ago
M1 also uses ARM cpu core.
baybal2 5y ago
> If the ARM ISA was inherently so much better it would be easy for Qualcomm and Samsung to release top performance ARM laptops, but they can't. They simply don't really want. Gets just any top ARM SoC from both, and scale caches, and bus widths to M1's size. The advantage will immediately stop looking so dramatic.
- imtringued 5y ago
  But that is an argument against ARM and an argument in favor of any processor that is being designed by a large company with lots of capital and good engineers. The ISA doesn't even enter the conversation.
pedalpete 5y ago
Apple's M1 is an ARM processor that has two major benefits over ARM based PCs. 1) Rosetta is FAR more powerful than any translation app on windows. This means that M1 is able to run Mac programs that were built for macOS much more efficiently than windows apps running on ARM. It's amazing how much this piece of software does in making this a smooth transition for apple. 2) The end-to-end pipeline at Apple has let them define the first M1 chip limitations in graphics and memory, and with this, and the shared memory and quick memory access, they're able to blow anything from Qualcomm out of the water. The only way Qualcomm could compete with that chip is if they dictated to the customer "this is the build you're getting, you can't upgrade RAM, or use a different GPU, etc etc. That's just not how they operate.
- heisenbit 5y ago
  It is not just Rosetta but the compiler toolchain, the long experience with iOS libraries running on ARM providing an almost identical API, multiple rounds of binary architecture transitions via fat binaries in combination with the app store. Having said this Samsung has just to find a few buyers and kick start the software development in this iteration. Whether they can build momentum depends on the next model, on their software/hardware partners and on how committed they are.
- fpoling 5y ago
  It is not only Rosetta. M1 has special hardware to allow for faster emulation like supports for Intel cache coherency protocol allowing to emulate multithreaded code with much less efforts.