If Apple M1 is as good as they claim

… does that settle the RISC versus CISC debate once and for all? Could the benefits be more to do with SoC than RISC though and if so does it even matter?

Takes me back to my interest in computer architectures :slight_smile:

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No this does nothing to settle the CISC vs RISC debate. The reality is far more complicated and nuanced.

I have no doubt that the M1 will be king in the sub 15W arena, but above that Apple will probably have a difficult time. They may try to stick a large number of cores into their higher end machines, though not all workloads benefit from this approach.

This article might be a good start if this sort of thing interests you.

I would also read/watch and follow Dr. Ian Cutress:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ian+cutress

Hope this helps,

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I’ll have a look at them both, thanks :+1:

it doesnt matter whats better, the apple m1 or chromebooks ppl keep buying closed ecosystems like apple, so we are “stuck” with it.

i comment what apple is doing, in parts, but the linux community needs to be louder and demand true software/firmware access to closed hardware, we should be able to install linux and if we can work together with hardware vendors like apple, even work together on creating a secure open source linux platform for SoC like Apple Silicon.

in the end the markets and end users are better off with true alternatives regarding their software choices on hardware, we cant keep producing and consuming “new” stuff, esp when vendors don’t like to support it any longer and otherwise perfectly hardware becoming obsolete down the line for really no good reason, same applies to repairability and data retrieval of course.

we are entering a total new encrypted era on hardware level, lets not make the same mistake we made with android and demand universal access, the right to choose your own software vendor on hardware.

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Apple is not in the computer business. Apple is in the SELLING computers business. They make no money off of hardware/software already purchased (consumed), thus engineered obsolescence is the mainstay on much of Apple’s hardware. The hope for Apple’s bottom dollar is the same gamble Commodore made with the price of RAM… The cost should come down and tech should become cheaper to manufacture. Expect to hear the same, “You can run all of your ‘legacy’ software on the new Apple! You stand only to gain by continuing to give us money and fund our own research to make tech cost effective for our company” routine… with SLOW ‘legacy’ emulation and eventual deadline to stop support and force users to purchase M1 versions of software licenses they’ve already purchased and repurchased from the LAST platform jump-ship.

I’m glad for the RISC development dollars. I’m happy that Apple is putting some stock into the game. I partly find it amusing that they are kinda funneled down this platform shift because of the radical success of Sony and Microsoft in the unrelated gaming field.

We’ve come a long way from S.Jobs insisting, “Our competitors have to use the displays that we reject.” (As if there’s a big Goodwill bin of displays that are first-come, first-serve from manufacturers. :stuck_out_tongue:

It will be a fun next few years as this play gets acted out again. But I must admit, its a lot easier to laugh from the other side of a Linux machine than to be stuck in the middle of the play like so many times before.

History has a funny way of repeating itself, doesn’t it? :slight_smile:

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My iPhone 6 just got a new iOS update last week. That is just over six years of OS and security updates. That beats every other smartphone brand on the market. I run openSUSE TW effortlessly on my daily driver 2009 MacBook Pro (dual core, 8GB RAM). If you go to a tech conference, MacBooks are a large chunk of the attendees. This usage doesn’t seem that far behind other brands. I’m not sure why Apple gets dinged for “engineered obsolescence” when other manufacturers usually follow suit with impunity.

Apple has usually been good with the emulation. Rosetta, the first one, was pretty competent to run the older PPC code on the Intel chips. Early reviews from tech peeps around the horn seem to be favorable towards Rosetta 2 emulation. The Adobe suite especially doesn’t seem to suffer much slowdown. Clint from LGR notes that he can edit 4K60 video without proxy without much of a problem on the new MacBook Air.

Now with this SaaS mentality which Microsoft and Adobe and others are using, there are no licenses which need to be repurchased. Unfortunately, I don’t see this transition doing anything major in moving macOS users to Linux. In fact, I could easily see it hamper Linux adoption.

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Ditto here with my iPhone 6s and 2012 MacMini. I think Apple is just a bigger target to bash on :man_shrugging:

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Those are great and valid points. I haven’t updated the work iPhone6 because of what happened to the iPhone5, and iPhone4 and… well, lets say stereotypes aren’t always randomly attributed to companies, but sometimes can have a valid basis. I hope your iPhone6 works solid and well for years to come.

Also, glad to hear that so many developers can cope with the alt and ctrl keys backwards on their laptop of choice. But unless the linux kernel guys get a passion for the new M1, the macbooks will likely stay older ones. (Which is perfectly fine, because linux runs like a dream on almost anything these days, right? :smiley: )

I apologize for ragging so hard on apple. I’ve just taken a bit too much of their coolaid over the years and found myself with a bunch of obsolete, unsupported, and burned out Apple computers/phones that can’t be repaired much less used for much in the current modern world. This is probably due more to my impulsive nature of buying into something too much and getting burned from marketing hype rather than refined hardware taste or setting industry design standards.

Now, whenever I hear Cook announce just about anything, I immediately get skeptical and suspicious. It’s just a knee-jerk reaction, like laughing at a joke or cringing at a political ad.

The nice thing about my android phones was how cheap they were to replace. iOS, on the other hand… its HOW MANY GIGS of an operating system? On an 8-gig phone or, anymore, even a 16-gig phone, small wonder iCloud storage is practically a necessity. I liked how the android phones allowed me an SD-card option, as well as a way to play my audio through so many car stereo systems.

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