The author has been using the M1 MacBook Air for more than half a year. I believe that many people, like me, feel that this laptop with an aluminum casing “feels like a mobile phone”, such as the incredible battery life and excellent single-thread performance. “Application responsiveness”, all the laptops that have been experienced in the past, including the original 12-inch MacBook with a rotten keyboard, and the 2019 version of the MacBook that was brought by Apple when it released the M2 a while ago. Air, did not have such a strong feeling.
In August last year, AMD’s vice president of product management and marketing, David McAfee, was blunt: “The biggest innovation of the M1 processor is to port the excellent battery life and power management of mobile devices to PC processors. Any x86 processor is currently energy efficient. , can not be compared with the M1. Therefore, the release of the M1 processor is a good incentive for the (processor) industry.”
Ten months have passed, and M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra and M2 have come out one following another, but no matter the past, present and known future, the x86 duo still has no processor products that can compare with Apple in terms of energy consumption ratio. There are many interacting factors behind this, supporting Apple’s absolute advantage. Not a single reason is the perfection of merit. The importance is as follows:
- Such as the closed ecosystem of “sealed glass bottle”:Under the general trend that the operating system holds the power of power management (the advent of ACPI is the best example), Apple holds both the processor and the operating system, and the two complement each other, which is the strongest backing and the most stable foundation.
- The first to use the world’s most advanced semiconductor process:Apple relies on the huge shipments of the iPhone to effectively share the high cost (very expensive) of introducing the most advanced process, such as the rise of the x86 processor in the personal computer market. Although PA Semi and Intrinsity, which form the backbone of Apple’s own processor research and development, seem to be very powerful, no matter how powerful they are, they cannot be so powerful that they are far ahead of all chip manufacturers in the world.
- Highly consistent and consistent product development goals:Looking back at the trajectory of Apple’s self-developed chips, it is always steady and steady step by step, concentrating resources to create a highly modular system single chip, and the advent of the M1 processor, which symbolizes the heart of the iPhone, as if it is gradually piled high enough to lead to the “personal computer”. The “Babylonian Tower of Heaven”.
To put it vernacularly, how did the x86 processor take advantage of the personal computer market to “come on” to the server field, and Apple Silicon will extend from mobile phones and tablets all the way to personal computers in the same way. The x86 processor has developed a low-power micro-architecture (Centrino platform Pentium M) that can get rid of the complexity of the x86 instruction set through the notebook market, and gradually dominate the contemporary data centers that are increasingly pursuing energy consumption ratios. Apple Silicon will follow the order. Take all the mobile phones and tablets “that set” and transfer them to the personal computer.
Back to the title, is it possible for Intel and AMD to create an x86 processor that rivals Apple Silicon? The author’s answer is “It is possible, but it is absolutely impossible” (as opposed to the “impossible, but not impossible” sentence in the movie “Impossible, but not impossible”). To say that the x86 duo technology is not in place, it is better to say that the processor micro-architecture design is to give priority to the high-profit server market, and to pursue the direction of the highest output rate. For example, SMT has multiple threads at the same time. ” and the main cause of “Ryzen M1”. In other words, the impact at the commercial level is far greater than the technical capabilities of the mesa.
IBM, who once wanted to promote Power Everywhere, is the best example. The high-end PowerPC processors derived from the IBM Power family are simply impossible to achieve the low power consumption and the goal of stuffing into the MacBook Air that Jobs expects. It has also become a cause for Apple to give up. The last straw for IBM to embrace Intel, which developed a series of energy-efficient x86 micro-architectures as early as the early 21st century, but theoretically enjoys the advantages of instruction set architecture” IBM Power, but must carry the heavy burden of high-end servers, Not to mention the inability to “optimize” mobile computing outright, let alone a specialized processor microarchitecture tailored to this need.
Maybe you will think: Doesn’t Intel have “Atomic Little King Kong”, and AMD also has the “Cat” x86 small core system? The latest version of the latter is almost certain to appear in the Zen 5 generation. But… Ruifan… When Intel and AMD held the industry-leading semiconductor process advantages, the years-long “x86 Boxer Rebellion” ended in tragedy (especially Intel’s mobile phone dream). If the x86 duo had the ability to make a small core with a “power consumption ratio” that was more beautiful than the ARM camp at that time, this article by the author would probably not appear in front of you today.
Not to mention anything else, the M1 and M2 are both “overtaking” the “big core” of the x86 duo in single-thread performance, “but now there is a mobile phone that can compete head-on with Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung in the mobile phone market. “x86 processor” is simply a wild fantasy. At this time, whoever dares to say such a thing, I can absolutely guarantee that his nose will grow longer.
In the end, looking back, Apple is still a closed garden behind closed doors, and it is unlikely to ask for trouble to sell its own Apple Silicon. The market share of personal computers is “that way”, and it is even less likely to return to the server market. (Xserve that few people know regarding), no matter how powerful the M series is, it is difficult to cause significant damage to the x86 duo. As for Microsoft, which has already shifted its business focus to cloud services, it is unlikely that the “third prince’s upper body” will invest heavily to start the ecosystem of Windows on ARM and even Windows Server on ARM. “Playing tickets” and “getting big” are two completely different things.
But just as AMD executives publicly praised “M1 is a good incentive for the industry” (to be honest, in the face of the huge impact brought by Apple Silicon, AMD’s attitude is far more tolerant than Intel), especially when it comes to squeezing toothpaste for years. Even Intel, which has the most advanced semiconductor process and the most innovative processor micro-architecture, does not know what it looks like. If Apple Silicon can inspire them to cheer up, it will be a good thing for all mankind. One bento is not enough, you can eat the second one. An AMD is not exciting enough, you can have another apple.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is well-known as a long-term Mac enthusiast, in addition to his extremely religious beliefs, so when Dell acquired EMC, which owns VMware, some media workers wondered whether he would switch to a Dell pen. I also wrote a report (After Dell-EMC deal, will VMware’s Pat Gelsinger need a new laptop? When Michael Dell buys your company, can you still use a Mac?), of course it didn’t, he worked at VMware The CEO continued to work on his Mac while working from home due to the pandemic, and shared photos of his work-from-home environment on Twitter. The author is also curious, as Intel CEO, is he still using the M1 MacBook? If so, what is his mood, facing the usual Mac, thinking regarding how Intel should take the next step?
Took a nasty fall skiing with the family over the holidays. Now learning the fine points of ACL surgery recovery! pic.twitter.com/yEcvgGWu0Z
– Pat Gelsinger (@PGelsinger) January 19, 2020
▲From the corner of the lower right laptop, it can be clearly seen that Pat Gelsinger uses the MacBook series products produced by Apple
This article was completed on the evening of June 11 with an M1 MacBook Air at Logos Coffee in Nangang. Thank you for watching. Next time, let us continue to discuss some of the major strategic mistakes made by Intel in the history, so stay tuned.
(Source of the first image:apple）
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