programmer

Multi-chiplet gives Apple options.  The ultras so far have been dual chips of the same type, but that doesn’t have to be the case.  And they might be able to do edge connectors on more than one edge.  More expensive and higher power though, so mostly for desktops and servers.  Imagine one chip with just CPUs, and one with just GPUs… and connectors on two edges instead of one.  That would create a lot of permutations — all CPU, 3 GPU + 1CPU, 2+2.  Put a core or two on the GPU chiplet and then you could have “GPU only” combination.  Lots of options, which makes for some interesting possibilities for the pro desktop/server lineup.

None of which means that consumer machines wouldn’t still be single chip SoCs.

apple4thewin said:

Everyone currently trying to come out with a chip using SoC by the end of 2025 or 2026 but apple is already one step ahead. Although would this still share memory or will it go back to the dedicated ram for CPU and other for GPU?

This would almost certainly still be a unified memory architecture.  The chiplets will be interconnected via some kind of high speed in-package network or bus, much like current chips use an on-die interconnect.  This gives manufacturing flexibility and improve yields.  AMD has been aggressively using such techniques for years, and it has really just been a matter of time until Apple jumped on it as well.

I’m surprised more people aren’t aware of how much manipulation and disinformation happens on TikTok.  It has been extensively studied and documented.  The current Romanian election was extremely heavily influenced by TikTok, to such a degree that they just annulled the whole thing!  This isn’t unique to TikTok (it happens to some extent in any media), but it is much more severe and direct.  The collection of user information isn’t great, but the actively controlling what users see is worse.  They are actively being manipulated.

entropys said:

The only real downside is if software gets written for a vertically integrated system with minority market share. Not so much an issue for cloud services, and office software.

But it can have a downside for certain applications. Gaming of course is obvious, but also real work that requires grunt, like CAD software. The big players just do not bother with Apple, even though the hardware would be a fantastic marriage with their software. 

There is some good news here though.  The ARM versions of Windows and Linux can be run under virtualization on macOS (multiple solutions are available), and Windows does have a Rosetta-like solution.  There are some other WINE-based solutions.  Depending on the OS-based needs of the software you need to run, one of these is likely to work fine... and the M4's very impressive CPU performance means that the performance impact of such cross-translation still leaves you with quite a usable result.  A lot of the software in question doesn't need anything close to the available compute power, which means that losing 20-50% doesn't actually matter.  And the M4's GPU is pretty potent too, so some of the translation implementations deliver perfectly acceptable results.  If modern games can run adequately, most productivity software is nowhere near as demanding.  CAD software used to tax GPUs 10-20 years ago, but now the hardware is extremely powerful by comparison.  If you have a program that taxes the latest GPUs when run natively, sure, the translation may by too big a hit... but the vast majority of cases, it isn't likely to be a problem.

jvm156 said:

I fail to see how this is any harder to hit than the old ones power button🤷🏻‍♂️

More importantly, it is harder to hit by accident.  I have accidentally hit my 2018 Mac mini's power button while plugging/unplugging cables on the back.  I'm happy that it is moved, and reaching under it to hit the button on such a small and light computer is trivial.  Most rack or other mounting options I've seen will be easier to reach with the button on the bottom.

It is better to leave the machine on.  If power quality is an issue then you ought to have a surge suppressing power strip anyhow (and use its switch), or unplug it from the wall.