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How about waiting until the competitors is actually on the same process node size until declaring the x86 baggage to costly? Most of all, Apple is currently in
by yxhuvud 4y ago
How about waiting until the competitors is actually on the same process node size until declaring the x86 baggage to costly? Most of all, Apple is currently in the lead because they threw money on TSMC to get a virtual monopoly on the smallest node size. How much of that which will remain once the competitors are comparable is an unknown at this point.
- throwaway5959 4y agoWhat if Apple maintains a lead in process mode though? 3 nm while Intel is at 5, 2 nm while Intel is at 3, etc. I’m glad they have competition from more than just AMD and wish all three the best.
- yxhuvud 4y agoApple may maintain the lead, but it is done by throwing money at TSMC, not by having better technology by themselves. I'd prefer a situation where the TSMC let all of them have some access to the better node sizes as that would let the company with the better tech sell more.
- throwaway5959 4y agoI don’t see why the distinction would matter to the people it should matter the most to, Apple’s customers.
- yxhuvud 4y agoI was responding to a claim that Apple would keep their lead due to x86 baggage. It matters for the truthiness for that claim, it doesn't matter for how much stuff Apple will sell.
- mromanuk 4y agoComparing currently available CPUs on the market is pretty fair.
- kaba0 4y agoSure, but would you go as far to claim that X phone is so much better in battery, Y has no chance of catching up, when X just put a twice as big battery in their phone? Like we just don’t know how much node size alone matters in the picture (or in the analogy, whether the improvement is only due to the bigger capacity battery vs better energy management at other places)
- mromanuk 4y ago> Like we just don’t know how much node size alone matters in the picture (or in the analogy, whether the improvement is only due to the bigger capacity battery vs better energy management at other places) Yes, that's what interesting about this, how did they achieved the performance gap
- yxhuvud 4y agoThat is definitely true, but you can't reach any conclusion on the cost of the x86 baggage by comparing different process nodes. It has way too much influence on the end result to be ignored. In a few months we will have both AMD and Apple on the same size, so we will finally get some idea of how the baggage compare then. It won't be a long situation, Apple will relatively soon after release a new on a smaller size again.
- hajile 4y agoA13 and Zen 2 were both made in TSMC N7 fabs, but the performance per watt differences were still enormous.
- philistine 4y agoYou have had the same fab processes for years on phone chips and Apple was winning every year. The fact the chip is in the chassis of a computer does not suddenly change the game in favour of AMD.