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Are these M1 Pro/Max based on the A14 or A15? Does “M1” == “A14” or does it mean “M1” == “5nm TSMC node”?

Joeri 5y ago
They share the core design, icestorm for efficiency cores and firestorm for performance cores, but these are recombined into entirely different systems on chip. To say the m1 max is the same as a14 is like saying a xeon is the same as an i3 because they both have skylake-derived cores.
supermatt 5y ago
m1 is already very different to A14/15. Why do you think they are "based" on the mobile SoCs?
- tiffanyh 5y ago
  Because CPU tears downs show that “Apple's M1 system-on-chip is an evolution of the A14 Bionic” [0] [0] https://www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/apple-m1-vs-apple-m14-floorplans https://www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/apple-m1-vs-apple-m14-...
wmf 5y ago
The differences between the A14 and A15 are so small it doesn't matter. I suspect the CPU/GPU cores come from the A14 but the ProRes accelerator comes from the A15.
- GeekyBear 5y ago
  >The differences between the A14 and A15 are so small it doesn't matter. The testing shows increases in performance and power efficiency. >Apple A15 performance cores are extremely impressive here – usually increases in performance always come with some sort of deficit in efficiency, or at least flat efficiency. Apple here instead has managed to reduce power whilst increasing performance, meaning energy efficiency is improved by 17% on the peak performance states versus the A14. If we had been able to measure both SoCs at the same performance level, this efficiency advantage of the A15 would grow even larger. In our initial coverage of Apple’s announcement, we theorised that the company might possibly invested into energy efficiency rather than performance increases this year, and I’m glad to see that seemingly this is exactly what has happened, explaining some of the more conservative (at least for Apple) performance improvements. On an adjacent note, with a score of 7.28 in the integer suite, Apple’s A15 P-core is on equal footing with AMD’s Zen3-based Ryzen 5950X with a score of 7.29, and ahead of M1 with a score of 6.66. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16983/the-apple-a15-soc-performance-review-faster-more-efficient/2 https://www.anandtech.com/show/16983/the-apple-a15-soc-perfo... Having your phone chip be on par with single core Zen 3 performance is pretty impressive.

They share the core design, icestorm for efficiency cores and firestorm for performance cores, but these are recombined into entirely different systems on chip. To say the m1 max is the same as a14 is like saying a xeon is the same as an i3 because they both have skylake-derived cores.

supermatt 5y ago

m1 is already very different to A14/15. Why do you think they are "based" on the mobile SoCs?

tiffanyh 5y ago
Because CPU tears downs show that “Apple's M1 system-on-chip is an evolution of the A14 Bionic” [0] [0] https://www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/apple-m1-vs-apple-m14-floorplans https://www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/apple-m1-vs-apple-m14-...

wmf 5y ago

The differences between the A14 and A15 are so small it doesn't matter. I suspect the CPU/GPU cores come from the A14 but the ProRes accelerator comes from the A15.

GeekyBear 5y ago
>The differences between the A14 and A15 are so small it doesn't matter. The testing shows increases in performance and power efficiency. >Apple A15 performance cores are extremely impressive here – usually increases in performance always come with some sort of deficit in efficiency, or at least flat efficiency. Apple here instead has managed to reduce power whilst increasing performance, meaning energy efficiency is improved by 17% on the peak performance states versus the A14. If we had been able to measure both SoCs at the same performance level, this efficiency advantage of the A15 would grow even larger. In our initial coverage of Apple’s announcement, we theorised that the company might possibly invested into energy efficiency rather than performance increases this year, and I’m glad to see that seemingly this is exactly what has happened, explaining some of the more conservative (at least for Apple) performance improvements. On an adjacent note, with a score of 7.28 in the integer suite, Apple’s A15 P-core is on equal footing with AMD’s Zen3-based Ryzen 5950X with a score of 7.29, and ahead of M1 with a score of 6.66. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16983/the-apple-a15-soc-performance-review-faster-more-efficient/2 https://www.anandtech.com/show/16983/the-apple-a15-soc-perfo... Having your phone chip be on par with single core Zen 3 performance is pretty impressive.