What are ambitions for AS?

[Kierkegaarden]

Seeing what Apple has released a little more than a year after introducing the M1, and being blown away, I wonder if Apple has ambitions to get into markets that they are not in currently.

What if a data center/server farm decided to upgrade to AS — is this even possible? I’m thinking in terms of what a “Mac Pro” will offer on the future. What would it have to offer for this to happen, and what is the potential size of this market?

The other thought is how much this level of power plays into VR/AR experiences in the future. Maybe these systems are being released as a foundation for this?

 

[Gnattu]

What if a data center/server farm decided to upgrade to AS — is this even possible?

We already have a couple of Data centers hosting Macs, and move to AS is a very natural choice for those.
But if you mean the more general data center, Apple has to do this themselves first, otherwise I don't think such "decision" would be made for a normal data center. Apple's service (at least most of them) does not run on Apple hardware nowadays.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

We already have a couple of Data centers hosting Macs, and move to AS is a very natural choice for those.
But if you mean the more general data center, Apple has to do this themselves first, otherwise I don't think such "decision" would be made for a normal data center. Apple's service (at least most of them) does not run on Apple hardware nowadays.

Good point. Makes sense that Apple would need to take the leap first. They have to be seeing the potential with such a move.

 

[leman]

VR/AR is a certainty. The unprecedented power efficiency of these GPUs make them ideal for VR solutions, and there are not subtle clues in Metal that Apple is specifically developing them for VR (e.g. their implementation of variable rate rasterization is one dead giveaway).

I don’t think that Apple will be going after warehouse/server market. They have the CPU efficiency, but server computing is all about software and Apple does not have much to offer on that front. Nobody is going to use macOS on a server. Virtualized Linux is a remote possibility, but then you have production quantities, hardware form factor, ease of maintenance, I/O interfaces… still tons of work to be done if Apple goes there and much lower margins than what they are used to.

For now, their goal is likely to grab more of the premium personal and professional computing market. M1 is already the best chip - by a very wide margin - for software development and non-ML-based scientific computing, and it’s very good for some types of content creation. Once they add hardware RT and improve the GPUs a bit, it will be an undisputed champion for rendering and machine learning. On the consumer level, the M series is a versatile platform that can do it all - from basic home use to business computer use to entertainment to gaming. And it will improve over time. I expect the M series to continue delivering desktop-class burst performance and top-end mobile sustained throughput in compact packages, while the GPU will improve to match entry-mid-level dedicated gaming solutions.