baka-dubbs

lkrupp said:

How often does it have to be repeated that ‘cherrypicking' and ‘crowing’ is for spec monkeys and benchmark junkies that populate tech blogs. But interesting that AMD chose Apple Silicon instead of Intel to attempt to smear, a la Samsung. At least we know Apple Silicon has everyone’s attention now, don’t we.

They compared themselves to both Intel and Apple, specifically the 1280P from Intel and both the M1 Pro in Cinebench and the M2 for the AI engine performance.  And yeah, I think its a sign of respect for Apple Silicon that they are being compared, Apple has big head start in leveraging AI in desktop hardware.

Every company cherry picks at their presentations to highlight their performance advantages.   Apple, Intel, Qualcomm and AMD all do this.  The article mentions(strangely) that they don't compare themselves to the M1 Pro Max or the M1 Ultra.  This is because the 7040 is not in the same pricing category(and the Ultra is a desktop chip...).  The 7040 is not their high end chip, its a thin and light chip.  They have a separate Dragon Range chip for high performance laptops that is a 16 core Zen 4 chip that runs at a much higher TDP.  And obviously the M1 Ultra should more rightfully be compared the desktop 7950x or a Threadripper chip, especially when factoring in costs.

MicroLED isn't some magic technology.  Its main advantages have always been higher brightness and no(far less) risk of degradation over time.  On the flip side, OLED is a pretty mature technology.  MicroLED offered more accurate colors originally, due to WOLED require a white pixel to boost the brightness, however Samsung's QD OLED no longer requires that, and is offered currently in a TV that has 2k nits of brightness.  So the brightness advantage is minimized, and the fact that QD OLED uses only a blue backlight with quantum dots to transform them into RGB, it supposedly reduces burn in risk(take that with a grain of salt, we will see over time).  

I think Apple will use whatever the best technology they can get at a high volume at a specified price level.  MicroLED continues to improve, but at least with Samsung's version is still power hungry and produces a lot of heat, both of which are not good for a portable device.  And OLED continues to improve each year.

The most interesting thing from the presentation isn't even mentioned here, its that the have integrated a Xilinix FPGA as part of their AI engine.  Depending on how addressable that FPGA is, it could create some interesing(if niche) capabilities.   

racerhomie3 said:

The EU is out of its mind! They are trying to regulate American innovation with their policies 

We have reached this crazy point in America where people think all regulation is bad and companies must have your best interest at heart, cause that's how capitalisms works.  They would never us deceptive practices, unsafe products, or any number of immoral decisions in order to make just a little more money...

I am actually interested in the Skylight panels.  I have some old track lighting and globe style lights that I was thinking of hiring someone to replace with recessed lighting, this seems to be a much easier DIY option that I like the look of.  I assume they can be hardwired, but I haven't seen anything published yet or how they will be packaged(IE, is one panel hardwired then using an interconnect with the other panes, can you specify how many hardwired vs add on panels, etc).