Apple M1: Apple Goes ARM

 

Apple M1: Apple Goes ARM

            Apple, as the company decided last year, has gone all ARM now. ARM – Advanced RISC Machines, is an American company that is the leader of manufacturing mobile CPUs. Qualcomm, Huawei, MediaTek, Samsung, any many other companies have their CPUs manufactured under ARM’s Kryo architecture. Even Apple A-series and A Bionic-series CPUs were manufactured by ARM. Although, Apple has been using Intel and AMD CPUs for its notebooks and Mac devices, now the trillion-dollar company has decided to go completely independent.

            Apple is making ARM based processors for all Apple devices now, which includes Mac, MacBooks, iPhones, iPods, Apple Watch and everything Apple. i.e. Apple is not going to rely on CPU heads such as Intel and AMD for processing power. The M1, their first CPU is already an octa-core CPU. 4 high power cores and 4 low power cores. Now, ARM CPUs are definitely NOT made for high end desktops or even laptops. ARM processors run mobile devices. Basically, ARM CPUs are like Intel’s U series processors, to run on lower power. Maybe even use the LPDDR (Low Power DDR) RAM. Now, Apple’s first custom made CPU for notebooks, the M1, runs on just 10W. Which is insanely good for an octa-core CPU, but will it be as good as the Ryzen 4800U or 4800H or 4900HS or any Intel processor?

            I highly doubt that.

 

M1 and What It Can Do

The Apple M1, Apple’s first desktop/notebook CPU, has been manufactured on a 5nm process. That makes the M1 the world’s first 5nm CPU. Apple has achieved something really amazing here. With 8 cores, 16 Billion transistors and a count of 11 Billion calculations per second. This is the fastest Apple CPU ever. It also has an 8 core GPU, it can run 25000 threads per second and is also the fastest GPU by Apple, ever.

The M1 has 8 cores, 4+4. 4 High performance cores and 4 power efficient cores, which sounds just like any Qualcomm ARM based CPU. Like the 8cx or 855, with 1 Cortex A77-prime, 3 Cortex A77 and 4 Cortex A55s. Apple hasn’t revealed the CPU structure yet but should be similar.

The CPU runs on 10W of power. That’s surprisingly low. Just 10W, home appliances run on the least of 15W. Intel U series CPUs, like the 10250U run on 15W. But they also have one hell of a processing power. Even AMD’s U-series APU’s run on 10-15W with next level CPU+GPU power. What Apple is trying to do here is surprising, different, insane, debatable and a lot more.

M1 v Current Generation Notebook CPUs

       Apple, on their company website Apple M1 display that the M1 is better than previous generation Intel CPUs. Now, before everybody goes crazy about this, do think about what Apple is saying here. And moreover, all the promises are only about CPU power, The GPU doesn’t even come close to Intel’s Integrated UHD graphics, let alone Apple competing with AMD’s Ryzen’s Raw GPU power.

 

When Apple says that the M1 has 3.5x better performance:

                The processor that is being compared here is the i7-1060NG7. Which is a 4 core, 8 thread CPU running on a 1.2 GHz base clock.

 

 

 

When Apple talks about 4 high-performance cores:

It is being compared to an 8^th generation, 2 core 4 thread Intel i3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Apple talks about 15x better Machine Learning performance:

It is again being compared to the 3-year-old i3 processor which is non-AI/ML focused.

 

What Apple is doing here is making promises that are true, but at what conditions? The conditions are that they are comparing their current product to the worse ones or old ones.

The processors they’re comparing the M1 to, are ones with lesser cores, or have gone off market. Going ARM was certainly not a bad decision. But necessary benchmarks of your current product should be provided. The new MacBook, M1 based, is going up for $900. 8^th generation i3 laptops go for 1/3 the price, even though they are notebook CPUs with powerful integrated GPUs. The M1 is a mobile processor running on just 10W.

The real reason Apple is comparing it to worse products is because the company knows that the M1 is only as good as any other Windows notebook out there if not worse.

Granted that the M1 is a revolutionary product but the way Apple is advertising it is like Samsung talking about its Mongoose cores being better than a Helio P60. It just doesn’t make sense.

 

 

Apple M1: What Apple Is Hiding…

            The M1 ensures that Apple is now never going to use Intel CPUs in its devices. Which is an amazing milestone for Apple. Intel’s dominance in the MacBook section has definitely gone away for now. But the M1 also means cheaper Apple products. The MacBook Air is now cheaper than the iPhone 12 series which is insane. But is the M1 really worth switching to?

            Apple hasn’t shown a single real benchmark. The 8 core CPU 8 core GPU MacBook Air is going up for $1149. Why not just settle for a previous generation MacBook Pro then?

Why be ripped off by the Apple hype?

Why buy a device that can’t give you the real power of an 8 core or 10 core Intel CPU that is almost as powerful as a desktop CPU?

           

            Apple has given more reasons to not to compare the M1 to other devices than the number of rules and regulations you have to obey in a school.

            The M1 has been experimented and measured in such a way that its performance looks cool and unreal, yet there’s a lot more to know.

Conclusion

       The M1 might be a great product, but do not blindly fall for it. Keep waiting until you get a real review of it, from authentic sources. Such as Linus Tech Tips, MKBHD, Austin Evans and the most recommended of all being Dave2D. If there is someone who you can trust for a real and unbiased review, it’s Dave2D. Therefore, you have it, another Apple controversy. Let’s see what the M1 holds for us in the future.

Author - Raihan

Click on the image below to know more about Apple M1 from our fav Dave Lee

Dave Lee aka Dave2D