iPhone 14 Pro and Redesigned MacBook Air Reportedly Stuck Using Technology Behind A15 Chip

[TallManNY]

Buyers will barely care. If it is time to get a new Mac or iPhone, then it is time. If you've waited more than two generations on the iPhone, then it will be a significant upgrade. If you are using an Intel chip based Mac, it will be a significant upgrade.

If all Apple is able to do is keep the price to the buyer the same as last year, that alone will be a major accomplishment.

 

[IamTimCook]

No one is claiming that. Everyone is talking about transistor count.

Article seems to allude that the M2 isn’t coming the year because because N3 isn’t ready.

 

[t0rqx]

This is, as far as I know, in recent years they use “marketing” to brand a 1 year old processor and fooling consumers that is a new chip by upgrading the name. Last time they did this was with the Apple Watch S7 which is a S6 processor?

These tricks are and should not be Apple. This is sad.

 

[bobmans]

Pretty sure N5P is better than N4.
N4P and N3, which would offer improvements, aren’t ready yet.

 

[w4rm]

In before Apple starts manufacturing their own silicon with their own fabs because Apple is complaining that TSMC is just "too slow" for their needs...

So we’re back to square one, just like the intel days. I thought the promise of Apple Silicon was the dawn of a new era where Apple owned the full vertical. And we’d get faster Max upgrade cycles.

But it’s been 18 months since MBA M1 and there’s still no upgrade.

How easy would it be for Apple to do what TSMC does in-house?

 

[4743913]

wait. are you telling me Gurman was wrong?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Not a huge deal, the A14/A15/M1 have plenty of performance for most. We don't need nor could we expect 20% YoY uplifts every year in perpetuity.

Actually, let's recall some of the rationalizations we slung to each other when Apple announced going from Intel to Silicon:

• Without having to wait for Intel to deliver new chips, Apple will be able to update Macs much quicker than only annually or so
• Without having to pay the fat Intel premium, new Macs can be more powerful and cost less.
• Without having to deal with Intel incompetencies in upgrading chips, Apple will be able to deliver huge power upgrades year after year.

...and of course...

• Updating Intel Mac software will be just a flip of a switch in the compiler

Now certainly, nobody could anticipate Covid effects and global responses back then, so none of that is really taking a hard poke at Apple (sans maybe bullet 2) but still.

I suspect the bulk of "us" certainly DID expect a more robust upgrade schedule and big power jumps generation to generation.

Those around for the last transition knew that bullet 4 was an outright lie some of us were spinning to the rest... else that must be one super-heavy switch to throw, given we're almost 2 years in now and there's still plenty of non-native Mac Apps.

And I never doubted where the "savings" of that Intel premium would go. ???

I own M1 Ultra and glad that I do but it seems we should be on M2- and anticipating M3 soon- by now... and not by painting a 2 in place of a 1 on mostly the same chip technology. It appears M1 basically rules the roost until perhaps 2023 now. Thankfully, Intel and the graphics card makers have basically been stagnant during this whole time.

 

[Kazgarth]

That's quite slow release cycle.

If they release M2 in late 2023 that would be exactly 3 years since M1 debut.

For comparison Intel updates their line up every year.

AMD every 1-2 years.

 

[greenbreadmmm]

Update the m1 to DDR5 and call it m1x. BAM.

Save M2 for 3nm and we done.

 

[Wildkraut]

So we’re back to square one, just like the intel days. I thought the promise of Apple Silicon was the dawn of a new era where Apple owned the full vertical. And we’d get faster Max upgrade cycles.

But it’s been 18 months since MBA M1 and there’s still no upgrade.

How easy would it be for Apple to do what TSMC does in-house?

It's not difficult for Intel, Apple & Co do that in-house, they probably do already.
The problem starts when you try to do this at a large scale with a low scrap rate, and currently TSMC is best at this.

 

[aumvats]

If I remember the March keynote well, they clearly said M1 Ultra is the last in the lineup of the M1 family, so either Apple goes stupid here over their own words if they release a new M1 variant or these rumours are just confusing. Apple knows this quite well that the way M1 has been perceived globally, M2 needs to be a huge hype creator in the industry or it will be like giving the gearing up ARM SOC competition a lead if the M2 offers minor improvements over M1. Interesting stuff.............

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Wow! That will be confusing for the buyer.

Buyer: Which is the sliver one? That’s the one I want.

 

[tubular]

Nobody knows anything, part 342

 

[windowsblowsass]

Didn't most of the chip engineers leave Apple for Nuvia or whatever?

No they did not.

Also that's irrelevant to TSMC getting new nodes ready

 

[B_mark_R]

This helps explain to those who haven't been paying attention to TSMC's lithography roadmap.

Yeah, that's a lot of anticipation over M2, but in reality, Apple's roadmap is limited by what TSMC can offer. If N4 offers only 5% reduction in logic area, it means Apple cannot add more transistors (or performance) to M1 or A15. MacBook Air and mainstream iPhone 14 are relatively cheap models, so Apple won't put in big chips.

This means we're getting another variant of M1 in 2022 MBA, maybe something with more graphics cores. I'd predict the same with A16 - it'll be a boosted A15 with more GPU only - but marketed as A16 for optics.

What do you mean by "Boosted" ?

 

[windowsblowsass]

So we’re back to square one, just like the intel days. I thought the promise of Apple Silicon was the dawn of a new era where Apple owned the full vertical. And we’d get faster Max upgrade cycles.

But it’s been 18 months since MBA M1 and there’s still no upgrade.

How easy would it be for Apple to do what TSMC does in-house?

To become the absolute best chip fabricator on the planet? Not very easy.

 

[JPack]

So we’re back to square one, just like the intel days. I thought the promise of Apple Silicon was the dawn of a new era where Apple owned the full vertical. And we’d get faster Max upgrade cycles.

But it’s been 18 months since MBA M1 and there’s still no upgrade.

How easy would it be for Apple to do what TSMC does in-house?

It's impossible to own the full stack. Apple doesn't even own assembly or manufacturing.

In terms of replicating TSMC, again impossible. If it were possible, Intel wouldn't have lost the race and become a TSMC customer. There's not enough talent in the U.S. for developing leading edge lithography.

EETimes - TSMC’s Culture Clash at Arizona Fab

Will Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) management & workers find a middle ground as the chip giant’s newest AZ fab ramps production?

www.eetimes.com

 

[aumvats]

When car makers use the same engine year after year, it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

In cars it's not just about engines, there is a lot of heck other things but when it comes to laptops & phones there are quite very few changes to be made. Ya, for sure they could launch a touchscreen M1 MBA and no one would complain

 

[Bug-Creator]

That’s because the gov’t doesn’t impose speed limits on computers like they do with cars… yet

Whats these "speed limits" your talking bout ?


Nevermind, just another BS thread bout speculations that will either be forgotten in 8 days or to chest pumping if they were right by accident.

 

[JPack]

What do you mean by "Boosted" ?

Slightly higher clock, more cache, more GPU mores, but same Firestorm and Icestorm cores.

 

[now i see it]

Kuo can confirm that ShrimpApplePro got inside knowledge from CupcakeBananaSlice who retrieved it from his factory spy BuffaloIcecreamSurprise

 

[fourthtunz]

I mean this will make the choice harder, if benchmarks are not that good. I don't care about the names of the cores .
Example: was planning to update my M1 MBA to a M2 MBA. This news makes the decision more complicated.

For me upgrading my MB air might be as much about ram, ssd and ports.
I got the least expensive air right at launch to see if I'd like it
and its great but could use more of all of the above.
A faster processor will be great though!

 

[anthogag]

The buyers don’t care about the chip. They don’t care. They go after the money. That’s the first priority

The “Pro”s care about the chip…?

 

[fourthtunz]

Do people really think Apple’s plans have changed since March when the Senior VP of Hardware Engineering said that the Ultra was the last M1? There are not going to be any new M1s. I have no trouble believing that the M2 is a minor update on the M1 but there won’t be any new M1s. I’m also very skeptical that Apple would introduce a new MacBook Air more than 18 months after the M1 MBA with the same SoC. Logic says that having an M2 with the A15 or A16 CPU and GPU cores is going to be requirement by Apple’s marketing.

It's the same thing only different

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

The “Pro”s care about the chip…🤨

Even then, they care about the camera and battery life.