SoCs are inevitable. The CPU is a black hole which will eventually absorb all parts of the computer. As SoCs become more capable, discrete components will ine

SoCs are inevitable. The CPU is a black hole which will eventually absorb all parts of the computer. As SoCs become more capable, discrete components will inevitably find themselves less commonly used outside of datacenter and workstation. This is a natural outcome of increasingly dense transistors and was observed by the CEO of Centaur Technologies in the 90s. One of the neat aspects of multi-chip modules and specifically AMD's implementation of chiplets, is that they are able to share chiplets across segments, improving yields, volume, binning, and profitability all at the same time. Their 3D VCache has also been very exciting, as we're starting to see Epyc CPUs with L3 cache measured in gigabytes. I think Apple made very smart decisions about jumping to on-package DRAM in terms of taking advantage of the increased bandwidth to bolster performance, and in the ways it worked with their pricing model. Though I think it's clear that 8gb system memory is about the minimum anyone could get away with shipping in such a system. As things get denser, numbers will only go up, and the pain of being stuck with a fully integrated system should decrease. 10 years from now, a SoC with 256gb DRAM integrated will feel very different from a bottom tier M1, while likely occupying a similar price point.