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Apple's Shifting Differentiation

(stratechery.com)
292 points kaboro | 3 comments | 11 Nov 20 13:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.656s | source
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AtlasBarfed ◴[11 Nov 20 16:08 UTC] No.25059489[source]▶
One difference between the PPC-> Intel switch is that there was a healthy anticipation of massive performance gains to cover emulation shortfalls.

That doesn't exist anymore. Emulation of an architecture for the Intel -> ARM switch can't rely on some big gains to cover for emulation.

I'd have been more excited if they had provisions for some hardware acceleration of Intel instructions. I'm guessing they can't do direction instruction --> microops translation in the ARM silicon, there's probably a thousand patents blocking that.

replies(1): >>25059945 #
1. klelatti ◴[11 Nov 20 16:46 UTC] No.25059945[source]▶
The opposite is the case.

> 2x faster CPU performance

> M1 delivers significantly higher performance at every power level when compared with the very latest PC laptop chip. At just 10 watts (the thermal envelope of a MacBook Air), M1 delivers up to 2x the CPU performance of the PC chip.

Which is precisely why they can make the move with Rosetta 2.

replies(1): >>25061828 #
2. asdff ◴[11 Nov 20 19:21 UTC] No.25061828[source]▶
2x performance of a 10w pc chip? iirc the most recent intel air was using a custom 12w chip.
replies(1): >>25062167 #
3. klelatti ◴[11 Nov 20 19:49 UTC] No.25062167[source]▶
It's a quote straight from the Apple website!