blastdoor

About

Username
blastdoor
Joined
Visits
338
Last Active
Roles
member
Points
6,913
Badges
1
Posts
3,878

Reactions

5.2KLike168Dislike414Informative

  • Apple is pouring money into Siri improvements with generative AI

    blastdoorblastdoor
    Given Apple’s repeatedly stated desire to own key technologies, I wonder if they will eventually have apple servers running on apple silicon for AI training. Sending all that money to google/ms/AWS and, indirectly, nvidia/amd/intel seems very un-dude.
    williamlondonwatto_cobraAlex1Nbyronl

  • Apple & ARM's iPhone & Mac chip partnership will continue for decades

    blastdoorblastdoor
    verne arase said:
    jdiamond said:
    Apple is also part of the RISC V consortium. As soon as Apple announced Macs as having “Apple Silicon” and not “ARM-based CPUs” I knew it’d be a possibility that they’d always remain open to other ISAs.  If RISC V continues on its current trajectory— and continues to attract all the talent — it may happen by 2035–40. 
    I completely agree.  Apple's not going to get caught again being tied to an ISA.  The agreement with ARM is likely just to guarantee terms on Apple using ARM for the next 20 years - Apple could drop at any time like they did with Imagine and GPUs.
    Apple doesn't license processor IP from ARM - just the Instruction Set Architecture.

    AFAIK, there is nothing in the ISA that limits Apple - in fact it's rumored that ARM designed ARMv8 at Apple's request so Apple could create Apple Silicon's deep pipeline out-of-order execution model (which ultimately resulted in the up to eight simultaneous execution unit of Apple's Firestorm processor).

    There's nothing magical about an instruction set - provided it doesn't limit deep pipelining by doing old-gen stuff like ARMv7's inclusion of condition code execution in every other instruction.

    The only advantage of something like RISC V is licensing - and Apple's already got all that covered.
    Exactly — well said.

    RISC-V is attractive for people who can’t get access to ARM, either because they can’t afford it or because they are forever friends with a genocidal sociopath. Apple has neither of those problems. 
    tmaywilliamlondonchadbagtenthousandthingswatto_cobra

  • Apple & ARM's iPhone & Mac chip partnership will continue for decades

    blastdoorblastdoor
    So those 10 companies will collectively own about 15 percent of ARM? 

    Presumably some will have a larger share than others. 

    I’m a little surprised to see AMD on the list, given that they have no ARM based products (sfaik). But maybe they have plans? I know at one point the “K12” was supposed to be ARM-based, but it was scrapped to focus on Ryzen
    h2pwatto_cobra

  • Businesses increasing Apple hardware buys because of longevity & reliability

    blastdoorblastdoor
    My employer is slavishly devoted to Microsoft. I think the only way we will stop being Windows only is if Microsoft discontinues Windows and tells everyone to get a Mac. 
    watto_cobrajony0

  • Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple's 'sweetheart deal' with TSMC is no such thing

    blastdoorblastdoor
    btw, Apple does have a great deal with TSMC. It works like this -- Apple pays TSMC billions of dollars and in return TSMC lets Apple make chips using the most advanced manufacturing process while everyone who pays less money has to wait. 

    It's kind of like this sweetheart deal I have at a local restaurant -- I go there a lot, spend a lot of money, and they are nicer to me than they are to most other customers. 
    pscooter63williamlondonwatto_cobra