685: The Ability to Be Hotterhttps://atp.fm/685
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685: The Ability to Be Hotter
https://atp.fm/685Farewell, Mac Pro.
@atpfm the "mistake", from a Mac Pro perspective, Apple made was going with a monolithic architecture design as opposed to a chiplet architecture design.
AMD has been ruining Intel in the PC chip performance at all levels of the CPU industry in part *because* they chose chiplets as their design paradigm.
They have released in the last two years a couple of white papers that may be of interest:
Chiplet discussion:
https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/solutions/technologies/chiplet-architecture-white-paper.pdfGPUs using chiplets:
https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/instinct-tech-docs/white-papers/amd-cdna-4-architecture-whitepaper.pdf -
685: The Ability to Be Hotter
https://atp.fm/685Farewell, Mac Pro.
@atpfm i’m having trouble getting reliable numbers on what kinds of laptops school districts across the country are buying. My personal experience across three states, 12 districts, and a couple of hundred schools is that very few buildings are still buying Chromebook. And it is entirely because they physically breakdown, not because of device management.
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@atpfm i’m having trouble getting reliable numbers on what kinds of laptops school districts across the country are buying. My personal experience across three states, 12 districts, and a couple of hundred schools is that very few buildings are still buying Chromebook. And it is entirely because they physically breakdown, not because of device management.
@atpfm so instead of a $200 Chromebook, schools are buying the $500 Lenovo Yoga4. And there is no comparison between that device and the MacBook Neo.
Additionally, school ITs are not encouraging, per se, but they are making it easier for students to bring their own devices. Hot swapping because you left yours at home isn’t an issue: you just get a crappy Lenova for the day. But your MacBook can get into all of the school stuff relatively quickly
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@atpfm the "mistake", from a Mac Pro perspective, Apple made was going with a monolithic architecture design as opposed to a chiplet architecture design.
AMD has been ruining Intel in the PC chip performance at all levels of the CPU industry in part *because* they chose chiplets as their design paradigm.
They have released in the last two years a couple of white papers that may be of interest:
Chiplet discussion:
https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/solutions/technologies/chiplet-architecture-white-paper.pdfGPUs using chiplets:
https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/instinct-tech-docs/white-papers/amd-cdna-4-architecture-whitepaper.pdfApple's monolithic designs made sense, and scaled up to well to the Max.
With the M5 Pro/Max, Apple is now on heterogenous chiplets, but Apple's not scaling multiples of them (I think it is just a CPU die and a GPU die).
We don't know how they'll scale up to Ultra (or even Quadra... my preferred term), without designing NEW chiplets.
With the M7 and M8 we'll see if Apple gets to multiple CPU dies and multiple GPU dies to allow true efficient scaling.
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@ianRobinson @atpfm I was reading about how audio professionals are going to be in a bind, because Thunderbolt apparently has some detectable latency that PCIE sails through.
This will never happen, but I’d love to see a Mac Studio with a PCIE receptacle on the bottom that could connect into a card enclosure with a widdle interface poking out of the top.
@Eric_Neue @ianRobinson @atpfm
Beyond latency concerns, this doesn't solve the Thunderbolt bandwidth problem (being 1/4 of max PCIe slot bandwidth).
What I think Apple needs to do is:
- Add "bonded multiple cable connections" to the Thunderbolt spec to allow 2-4 Thunderbolt cables between a Mac and a PCIe card slot chassis.
- Then ship such a chassis for $1999
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Apple's monolithic designs made sense, and scaled up to well to the Max.
With the M5 Pro/Max, Apple is now on heterogenous chiplets, but Apple's not scaling multiples of them (I think it is just a CPU die and a GPU die).
We don't know how they'll scale up to Ultra (or even Quadra... my preferred term), without designing NEW chiplets.
With the M7 and M8 we'll see if Apple gets to multiple CPU dies and multiple GPU dies to allow true efficient scaling.
@dschaub @atpfm oh yes, for the majority of their line, a monolithic design likely makes sense (see the first whitepaper I referenced, early on, for a discussion of the downsides of chiplets). That's why I specifically referenced relating to the Mac Pro.
I do posit they ran into the issues with their monolithic design prior to the Mac Pro: their ultra fusion interconnector meant they got some of the disadvantages of chiplets without the yield & process benefits of true chiplets.
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@dschaub @atpfm oh yes, for the majority of their line, a monolithic design likely makes sense (see the first whitepaper I referenced, early on, for a discussion of the downsides of chiplets). That's why I specifically referenced relating to the Mac Pro.
I do posit they ran into the issues with their monolithic design prior to the Mac Pro: their ultra fusion interconnector meant they got some of the disadvantages of chiplets without the yield & process benefits of true chiplets.
Anyway, I think Apple's trajectory is good, so the M6, M7, and M8 should be fine.
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Anyway, I think Apple's trajectory is good, so the M6, M7, and M8 should be fine.
@dschaub agreed.
I'll be interested to see if they go down a similar route to amd of having chiplets on "legacy" processes for tasks that wouldn't benefit from miniaturisation (like I/O), while keeping the remaining CPU and GPU functions on the bleeding edge, or if they will stick to monolithic chiplets.
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685: The Ability to Be Hotter
https://atp.fm/685Farewell, Mac Pro.
@siracusa@mastodon.socia,
Here is some external storage you may appreciate.
https://www.owc.com/solutions/thunderbay-flex-8
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685: The Ability to Be Hotter
https://atp.fm/685Farewell, Mac Pro.
@atpfm
Marco: “They use the term ‘the big island’ because that’s more descriptive”I’ve always thought that “Long Island” was also fairly descriptive.
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685: The Ability to Be Hotter
https://atp.fm/685Farewell, Mac Pro.
I’m with you in the spirit of your post-show. However 9 Supreme Court justices over-rule in this case. Which for all visible purposes it would appear Long Island is an island. It has legally been clarified as and deemed a peninsula.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/76297/sort-bogus-reason-long-island-isnt-considered-island
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
