KITA

AppleInsider said:

The A15 processor is still a bit of a mystery in terms of computational power. Rather than comparing the A15 to the A14 during the iPhone event, Apple said the A15 has 50% more power than competitors.

The iPhone 13 lineup will be available to pre-order starting September 17 and will ship on September 24. Primary features include a smaller notch, better cameras, and high-refresh displays in the pro models.

Read on AppleInsider

Here, they’re claiming that the new A15 will be +50% better than the next-best competitor. The next-best competitor is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 – if we look up our benchmark result set, we can see that the A14 is +41% more performant than the Snapdragon 888 in SPECint2017 – for the A15 to grow that gap to 50% it really would only need to be roughly 6% faster than the A14, which is indeed not a very large upgrade. Apple also didn’t comment on any new ISA features such as Armv9/SVE2, so it seems that the CPU doesn’t feature it?

Using breakthrough 5-nanometer process technology, A14 Bionic is packed with 11.8 billion transistors for increased performance and power efficiency in nearly every part of the chip. This latest-generation A-series chip features a new 6-core design for a 40 percent boost in CPU performance, and a new 4-core graphics architecture for a 30 percent improvement in graphics.

canukstorm said:

crowley said:

I feel like it's a little telling that they're saying 50% faster than rivals chips.  Only a couple years ago they wouldn't even mention rivals, they'd only be comparing Apple chips to the previous Ap ple chips.

This was a post I just saw by a semiconductor analyst.  Make of it what you will

https://twitter.com/dylan522p/status/1437886923972960263

This is the article he's linking to:  https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/apple-cpu-gains-grind-to-a-halt-and

Here, they’re claiming that the new A15 will be +50% better than the next-best competitor. The next-best competitor is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 – if we look up our benchmark result set, we can see that the A14 is +41% more performant than the Snapdragon 888 in SPECint2017 – for the A15 to grow that gap to 50% it really would only need to be roughly 6% faster than the A14, which is indeed not a very large upgrade. Apple also didn’t comment on any new ISA features such as Armv9/SVE2, so it seems that the CPU doesn’t feature it?

Back in early 2019, Apple had lost their lead architect (Gerard Williams III) and a portion of their CPU design team when several of the team went on to found and work at Nuvia, which was acquired earlier this year by Qualcomm. While I’m not certain, the time gap here certainly could match and the new CPU time to market, and be the first signs of that talent loss and team reshuffle. As a note, Apple went on to hire Arm’s lead architect Mike Filippo, likely working on a new CPU family.

elijahg said:

canukstorm said:

crowley said:

I feel like it's a little telling that they're saying 50% faster than rivals chips.  Only a couple years ago they wouldn't even mention rivals, they'd only be comparing Apple chips to the previous Apple chips.

This was a post I just by a semiconductor analyst.  Make of it what you will

https://twitter.com/dylan522p/status/1437886923972960263

This is the article he's linking to:  https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/apple-cpu-gains-grind-to-a-halt-and

If this is true, it would almost certainly affect the Mx too. Could be the reason we're yet to see an Apple Silicon 27" iMac or 15" MBP. However, I wouldn't quite use the doom and gloom wording the analyst did, "i.e. the future looks dim", since one missed speed bump in a line of 20 bumps isn't really much of a hiccup, and certainly no reliable indication of the future.

Considering the reports coming out of Apple that it's becoming a less attractive place to work, they really need to change tack if current policies are resulting in the loss of their best engineers.  Apple has some incredibly talented people, and HR should be bending over backwards to keep them - especially now Apple's 100% self reliant on their own engineers to keep the Apple Silicon ahead of x86 and other ARM vendors. The analyst claims "Apple’s Chief CPU Architect, Gerard Williams, as well as over a 100 other Apple engineers left to join Nuvia". If this is true, Cook needs to stop being so stubborn with crappy employee policies, like WFH, health benefits etc - it's very much a worker's market right now especially in engineering, and there are a lot of companies offering a lot of very generous perks.

AppleInsider said:

The Microsoft Surface lineup is a direct competitor to Apple's devices. While the Surface line started as a tablet-hybrid to compete with the iPad Pro, it has evolved into more capable laptop and desktop computers.

verne arase said:

bleab said:

This is straight up why I use Chromebooks instead of iPads: being able to install and run executable and arbitary code is an unconditional requirement. I mean for cheap stuff like the $80 Wal-Mart and Amazon Kindle Fire Android tablets that I just use as e-readers and for Netflix yeah fine doesn't matter. But anything that I pay real money for and use for work or school? Needs to run arbitrary code. That is why that "the tablet that can replace your PC" iPad commercials never applied to me, and the A12Z and M1 being faster than anything below an octacore Intel Core i7 didn't matter either. Can't run what I need means can't use it.

Apples and oranges ... a Chromebook is a (sorta) laptop, whereas the iPad is a tablet.

Mac laptops are not restricted in this manner.