Yes there are a lot of factors that make the M series chips so impressive and their incredibly small node size (which is what they get from tsmc) is one of them. The choice of arm is another huge one.
And of course the kicker is that none of these cpus actually run x86 or arm. Haven’t done for decades, the machine code is compiled down to a chip specific bytecode at execution time. Bloat isn’t a problem because the cpu doesn’t run x86.
Are you talking about microcode? Because that is not at all analogous to compilation. I don’t think you have a good grasp of the hardware that you’re talking about.
At the end of the day, the processor does still “run x86”. The implementation detail of most instructions being microcoded doesn’t change that. The x86 isa is large, complex, and old. It has compatibility decisions that date back all the way to the Datapoint 2200.
the choice of arm is not impactful at all. you can try to explain why you think, i suggest avoiding the terms “large”, “complex”, “old” because none of that means anything. arm isn’t a spring chicken itself you know.
it also does nothing to explain why suddenly intel cpus are just as fast or faster magically as soon as they upgraded their chip fabs. are you :O suggesting that arm is as “large”, “complex”, “old” as x86 and that’s why it wasn’t able to compete with the young upstart x86 cpus that year?!
x86 could always compete in raw performance, but never in efficiency. If we were to compare two hypothetical cpus on the same node size, one arm and one x86, that can both run a program at the same speed; I guarantee you the arm one will use less power.
We can argue the pros and cons of x86 vs arm all day long but suggesting that the choice isn’t impactful is just wrong.
Oh boy!
Yes there are a lot of factors that make the M series chips so impressive and their incredibly small node size (which is what they get from tsmc) is one of them. The choice of arm is another huge one.
Are you talking about microcode? Because that is not at all analogous to compilation. I don’t think you have a good grasp of the hardware that you’re talking about.
At the end of the day, the processor does still “run x86”. The implementation detail of most instructions being microcoded doesn’t change that. The x86 isa is large, complex, and old. It has compatibility decisions that date back all the way to the Datapoint 2200.
the choice of arm is not impactful at all. you can try to explain why you think, i suggest avoiding the terms “large”, “complex”, “old” because none of that means anything. arm isn’t a spring chicken itself you know.
it also does nothing to explain why suddenly intel cpus are just as fast or faster magically as soon as they upgraded their chip fabs. are you :O suggesting that arm is as “large”, “complex”, “old” as x86 and that’s why it wasn’t able to compete with the young upstart x86 cpus that year?!
x86 could always compete in raw performance, but never in efficiency. If we were to compare two hypothetical cpus on the same node size, one arm and one x86, that can both run a program at the same speed; I guarantee you the arm one will use less power.
We can argue the pros and cons of x86 vs arm all day long but suggesting that the choice isn’t impactful is just wrong.
oh x86 has nothing to do with that, there have been terrible power efficiency arm cpus and efficient x86 cpus too.
but it’s nice to see the goalpost change suddenly ;) at least we agree that x86 and arm are effectively the same performance and demonstrable evidence
The goalpost never moved, you just didn’t understand what we were talking about :)
Why are you so confident about a subject you clearly know nothing about?
You can keep saying that if you like, if it makes you feel better. It’s clear we can’t have a conversation if this is your starting point.
It’s clear we can’t have a conversation if you think theres no difference between x86 and arm lol