'Performance that can cover a wide range of prices' of Apple's M1 chip is trying to overturn the common sense of CPU



In November 2020, Apple's first SoC for Mac, the 'M1', was

introduced . This M1 chip will be installed in the new 'iMac' and new 'iPad Pro' announced in April 2021, but this M1 chip's remarkable point 'covers a wide range of prices' Extreme Tech, an IT news media, explains that you can do it.

Apple's M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model --ExtremeTech
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/322120-apples-m1-positioning-mocks-every-x86-cpu-amd-and-intel-have-ever-launched

Newly announced in April 2021, the iMac uses the M1 chip to reduce the size of the logic board and improve power efficiency, reducing the heat exhaust engine and making it the thinnest '11.5mm' housing ever. Realized.

Apple announces 'iMac' reborn with new design & M1 chip, ultra-thin and abundant color variations --GIGAZINE



There are three new iMac models: $ 1299 (¥ 154,800 including tax), $ 1,499 (¥ 177,800 including tax), and $ 1699 (¥ 199,800 including tax). These three models of the new iMac, the $ 799 (94,800 yen including tax) iPad Pro, and the $ 6,99 (72,800 yen including tax) Mac mini released in November 2020 are equipped with the M1 chip. However, as a noteworthy point of the M1 chip that can be seen from this point, ExtremeTech, an IT news site, points out that it can cover a wide range of prices.



For PCs with x86 CPUs, it was natural that 'the CPU will be different if the price is different'. Regarding this reason, ExtremeTech said, 'If the user is a high-end model PC, I expect that it will be equipped with a high-end CPU.' 'Intel and AMD both profit from the illusion that the CPU shapes the specifications of the PC. In addition to the commercial convention that 'the CPU performance has slowed down for many years, we still design the CPU according to the price to maintain profits', 'x86 CPU can cover a wide price range. Power consumption and performance cannot be achieved. '

For x86 CPUs, power consumption and performance are in a trade-off relationship. However, according to ExtremeTech, Apple's M1 chip achieved performance that simultaneously satisfied the two conflicting power consumption and performance with a total of 8 cores, 4 each of the high-performance core 'Firestorm' and the high-efficiency core 'Icestorm', 699 It covers all PCs in the price range of $ 1699. It seems that this is also due to the fact that the minimum specification requirements for CPUs have been set lower due to the slowdown in CPU performance improvement.



As mentioned above, in the case of x86 CPU, even if you say 'Ryzen 7' and 'Core i9' in a nutshell, there are multiple models. But as Apple is challenging this situation with the M1 chip, ExtremeTech said, 'AMD and Intel will have to somehow justify the situation with multiple models.' Apple says it's trying to break the common sense that 'if the price of a PC changes, so does the CPU.'

Strictly speaking, there are two models of M1 chip, 7 core GPU and 8 core GPU, and the current M1 chip is insufficient for the top model of Apple PC 'Mac Pro'. ExtremeTech expects the upcoming new Mac Pro to feature a 'high-end M1 chip' with 8 to 32 cores. With the advent of this high-end M1 chip, it can be said that there are multiple models in the M1 chip in a general sense, but ExtremeTech says, 'If there is, there are only three models.'

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in Hardware, Posted by darkhorse_log