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Apple Debuts Next-Generation M4 Chip
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It's a refined M3, with better memory bandwidth, better per core optimizations (we have to see how this will translate in benchmarks) and a couple more efficiency cores.
The NPU performance is more than twice faster.
I just about to say the same thing. With a new processor it takes a while to get yields where they need to be for a larger product category like laptops. Yield is key for profitability in this business.
I’d have to go back and check but hasn’t the iPad often been the first with new apple silicon and things like new WiFi standards
Maybe they will make a Logic Pro for Mac used the efficiency cores, currently it only uses the performance cores. Same with Ableton Live it only uses the performance cores.
Switching nodes requires redesign and retesting. The node that Apple was using was too expensive in production because of yield problems, but it was the best one when M3 was designed. With M4, they switched to a newer node that was ready for M4 and has better yield and is an improvement.
Thats the usual stuff I come here to see. Some comment about how a product they can’t quite get yet (m4) is superior to another product they don’t have (snapdragon arm pc), and being absolutely confident in the apple Mx always being better.
Assuming same clock: single-core will be the same, and multi-core will only go up <5% if that.
Some sources say 33-50%. $10 might be a bit low, but still would add up to quite a lot of money.
Apple received the information about the goFetch exploit from the security researchers on 5 Dec 2023. There is also an older, albeit less sophisticated but related exploit of the same component in the SoC that was disclosed back in 2022.
Wow. Maybe they brought the cost of M4 down below the cost of M1 and 2? Impressive. I'm guessing they had production problems with M4, though, if the vast majority of chips will be binned to only 3 cores. Unless of course they're just using the crap up on iPad Pro and will save the good chips for Mac...
Nobody: “if only the iPad had a better processor”
Apple: “here’s a new CPU for the iPads!”
Everybody: “iPad OS is still the problem”
Apple: “here’s a new CPU for the iPads!”
Everybody: “iPad OS is still the problem”
Uh, they DEMO'd the AI functionality (at least some of it). Yes, it's more than just hype.
Go look at the video, especially the Final Cut and Pro Logic sections; also the camera section.
Apple touted better per core optimization, so single-core should be improved as well. Anyway, will have to see if the clock rate in the iPads has been lowered for thermal reasons.
This omits very technical improvements that are possible, but difficult to explain to the public.
The most interesting of these would be the ability to tie together different processing blocks so that latency between them is much much lower.
Right now obviously you CAN move work from the CPU to the GPU to the ANE and back to CPU, but the cost for each transition is disappointingly high (so that, for example, if you have less than about a million points to process, it's almost never worth shifting a task from CPU to GPU).
A combination of technologies (including, eg, faster context switching; and having the OS synchronize scheduling of CPU, GPU, and ANE) could dramatically improve performance, beyond the obvious numbers.
If you could, eg train an NPU using the CPUs, GPUs, and ANE all simultaneously (something that right now you usually don't want to do because of the costs of data transfer and delays while you wait for the new target to finish what it was doing and switch to your task) this would be a very nice speed boost.
Similarly if it were much cheaper to move code from CPU to GPU and back, using each for what it does best.
Does M4 have such improvements? Who knows, but if I were inside Apple, that's one of the "company wide" projects I'd be pushing, needing involvement from the GPU and ANE teams, and on the OS side.
so basically, M3 with AI, not really an "M4" if you really expect a revolutionary new architecture based on the naming scheme?
macOS support for iPadOS is a BIG call. That would introduce sideloading, which would cut out Apples app store cash cow rort. I can't see it happening, well at least without macOS-for-iPad being heavily modified to prevent sideloading, which would mean there would be no terminal.
I’m betting the higher storage are binned M4 binned as well, compared to what go into the MacBook Air, and those are binned M4 pros, and those are just binned M4 Max.
