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I still dont understand why they name the chip it uses as A17 Pro when it has one GPU less that A17 Pro used on iPhone. They could have just call it A17. Not o
by ksec 2y ago
I still dont understand why they name the chip it uses as A17 Pro when it has one GPU less that A17 Pro used on iPhone. They could have just call it A17.
Not only a Pro SoC in the Mini, it is also using the rare N3B rather than N3E. I guess Apple has committed to a minimum N3B usage from TSMC for them to continue. AFAIK Apple is the only one using it.
The nice thing is that the repaid transition to whole lineup being AI ready is that 8GB is finally standard on Smartphone, and hopefully at least 12GB or 16GB on Mac.
- dagmx 2y agoThe Pro designates more than just the core count. If you look at the A18 vs A18 Pro, they’re not simply binned versions of each other. The Pro includes features like better display controllers, thunderbolt support and more video codec silicon. So it’s more fair to say this is a binned A17 Pro than what would fit if they removed the Pro nomenclature.
- deergomoo 2y agoI assume the chips in this thing are a bunch of lower-binned chips that were otherwise destined for iPhones. It's not uncommon for them to ship binned variants under the same name. They ship 8- and 10-core GPU variants of the base M3, and iirc the entry-level M1 MacBook Air had 7 GPU cores while the next config up had 8.