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Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

(www.macrumors.com)
1080 points antipaul | 4 comments | 12 Nov 20 00:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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faitswulff ◴[12 Nov 20 04:22 UTC] No.25066407[source]▶
This really flips the argument that Mac hardware is overpriced and underpowered on its head. Now Apple computers are a premium product from a performance perspective, as well.
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torbital ◴[12 Nov 20 05:16 UTC] No.25066717[source]▶
But now they are locking down their software hard. So there is really no free lunch.
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the_lucifer ◴[12 Nov 20 05:25 UTC] No.25066753[source]▶
Someone here posted when the M1 powered Macs launched that they're essentially ASICs now and that made me do a double take. Since you cannot change the operating systems anymore, aren't these essentially ASICs?
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asimpletune ◴[12 Nov 20 06:12 UTC] No.25066992[source]▶
Not even close. An ASIC is a program on a chip. These are still general purpose, programmable computing machines.
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1. qeternity ◴[12 Nov 20 08:19 UTC] No.25067658[source]▶
An FPGA is a program on a chip. An ASIC is literally just a chip. Calling the M1 an ASIC is insulting to the Apple hardware team.
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2. guax ◴[12 Nov 20 09:59 UTC] No.25068263[source]▶
Yes, M1 is not just a chip, is a magical piece of the rib of steve jobs himself. I agree though its not an ASIC even though it have ASIC things inside of it, just like any other modern processor.

It is much more complete SoC then other procs which makes its performance even more impressive if this indications hold up, I am still very skeptical, nothing comes for free and the real world is a b

3. zaro ◴[12 Nov 20 10:01 UTC] No.25068277[source]▶
ASIC stands for application specific, and since thei IC is application specific - used only in certain hardware along certain software, it's kind of correct to call it ASIC.
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4. rusticpenn ◴[12 Nov 20 11:41 UTC] No.25068768[source]▶
I am unsure, since the application here is general purpose computing.