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Standard memory connector already makes memory-on-chip a no-go. And we're past that even, cause we have storage-on-chip, which is both faster and more secure (i

Standard memory connector already makes memory-on-chip a no-go. And we're past that even, cause we have storage-on-chip, which is both faster and more secure (in the "hardware security" sense which is of course sketchy but still a thing). Even on desktops now. I had a pretty loaded cheesegrater Mac Pro and replaced it with an M1 Mac mini, less upgradable but such a nice machine anyway. I could believe the phone chipmaking status quo is broken or monopolized if I saw a lack of progress and price increases. Instead, we've been getting remarkably faster and more versatile phone hardware at a steady pace. And most consumers care about that, not about modular upgrades. There are a few smaller areas I feel like the manufacturers are pushing consumers rather than listening to them, like removing headphone jacks to sell BT earbuds.

AnthonyMouse 3y ago
> Standard memory connector already makes memory-on-chip a no-go. No it doesn't. You put the memory on the chip and then you add more via the connector. The memory on the chip is faster but there's less of it. Cache hierarchies are useful. This is already a thing. All modern CPUs have SRAM caches integrated into them. Xeon Max has integrated HBM. It still has memory slots. > And we're past that even, cause we have storage-on-chip, which is both faster and more secure (in the "hardware security" sense which is of course sketchy but still a thing). This is in no real sense more secure. You can secure data on an untrusted storage device simply by encrypting it. It's also not obvious how this would be any faster. NVMe with four PCIe lanes is enough for some of the fastest desktop SSDs, and if you wanted more you could always add more lanes. A PCIe lane isn't that many pins.