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I hear you, but Apple sells today a laptop with 54 gpu/neural-network cores. For a workstation, which this seems to target - doesn’t seem particular a lot to h

I hear you, but Apple sells today a laptop with 54 gpu/neural-network cores. For a workstation, which this seems to target - doesn’t seem particular a lot to have ~2x that

dna_polymerase 4y ago
Core isn't a standardized unit of measurement. ARM-cores on the Apple Silicon line and the x86-Intel/AMD core behave very differently.
- rbanffy 4y ago
  For the CPU cores, M and x86 are converging. M1 had a very expressive lead on gen 11 and 12 Intel because of multiple hiccups on Intel's product pipeline, but that is not going to hold for long. As for the GPU cores, I know very little how they compare, and GPU cores tend to be wildly different between manufacturers.
  - intrasight 4y ago
    >not going to hold for long honest question: why do you think that? My believe is that a good analogy for such leads would be an average marathon runner vs Kipchoge. His "lead" will only increase with time.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      > why do you think that? Because, love it or lump it, Intel's manufacturing process is ludicrously advanced. Power hungry, particularly when they're locked on older nodes, but extremely capable when their interests align. Pat Gelsinger has even stated that it's his goal to get Apple back as an Intel customer. Their foundry services started working with ARM to get RISC cores manufactured, and if they stick to their roadmap, it's possible for them to leapfrog TSMC's density limitations. We'll have to see where things go, but I do agree with the parent. Apple's lead was their investment on the TSMC 5nm node, which as-of the M2 is clearly difficult to iterate on. Apple needs advancements in density to make a faster chip - Intel does not.
      - rbanffy 4y ago
        > Apple's lead was their investment on the TSMC 5nm node That's only part of the deal. Apple also made some really cool architectural innovations, as well as creating workload-oriented ISA extensions that proved extremely effective.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
lern_too_spel 4y ago
38 GPU cores. The neural network inference cores don't do floating point and therefore aren't used for training or games. Assuming these GPU cores are comparable, if >3x isn't a reasonable target, what would you suggest is?

I hear you, but Apple sells today a laptop with 54 gpu/neural-network cores. For a workstation, which this seems to target - doesn’t seem particular a lot to have ~2x that

dna_polymerase 4y ago

Core isn't a standardized unit of measurement. ARM-cores on the Apple Silicon line and the x86-Intel/AMD core behave very differently.

rbanffy 4y ago
For the CPU cores, M and x86 are converging. M1 had a very expressive lead on gen 11 and 12 Intel because of multiple hiccups on Intel's product pipeline, but that is not going to hold for long. As for the GPU cores, I know very little how they compare, and GPU cores tend to be wildly different between manufacturers.
- intrasight 4y ago
  >not going to hold for long honest question: why do you think that? My believe is that a good analogy for such leads would be an average marathon runner vs Kipchoge. His "lead" will only increase with time.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    > why do you think that? Because, love it or lump it, Intel's manufacturing process is ludicrously advanced. Power hungry, particularly when they're locked on older nodes, but extremely capable when their interests align. Pat Gelsinger has even stated that it's his goal to get Apple back as an Intel customer. Their foundry services started working with ARM to get RISC cores manufactured, and if they stick to their roadmap, it's possible for them to leapfrog TSMC's density limitations. We'll have to see where things go, but I do agree with the parent. Apple's lead was their investment on the TSMC 5nm node, which as-of the M2 is clearly difficult to iterate on. Apple needs advancements in density to make a faster chip - Intel does not.
    - rbanffy 4y ago
      > Apple's lead was their investment on the TSMC 5nm node That's only part of the deal. Apple also made some really cool architectural innovations, as well as creating workload-oriented ISA extensions that proved extremely effective.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

lern_too_spel 4y ago

38 GPU cores. The neural network inference cores don't do floating point and therefore aren't used for training or games. Assuming these GPU cores are comparable, if >3x isn't a reasonable target, what would you suggest is?