By: --- (---.delete@this.redheron.com), September 11, 2022 12:51 pm
Room: Moderated Discussions
Eric Fink (eric.delete@this.anon.com) on September 9, 2022 5:26 pm wrote:
> me (me.delete@this.me.com) on September 9, 2022 4:41 pm wrote:
> > > I dint think there is much pointing to pessimistic conclusions. If Apples claims are correct, they have
> > > obtained a 7-10% improvement in single core at 20% lower
> > > power usage as well as 20% improvements in multi-core
> > > (presumably at the same power usage). These are rather significant a year-to-year improvements.
> >
> > Apple didn't claim anything other than it's faster.
>
> They explicitly stated “20% lower power”.
>
It's never clear whether codenames have a deeper significance or not, but people may find it interesting that the A16 core codenames are Everest and Sawtooth.
First obvious point is that we have a clear break. We had wind names till we ran out of winds, then weather-related names, culminating in Avalanche+Blizzard for the A15 (which certainly *sound* like they're broadcasting "these are chips designed with energy foremost").
The new names could represent nothing, but this does not feel like when Apple pivoted from cat names to California names; we weren't running out of weather-related words.
So to my eyes this is another piece of evidence for the proposition that Apple is rethinking their CPU lines (and differentiating them more – mountains for P-cores, tools for E-cores?)
Maybe someone will pick up another CPU codename in a macOS build, which might clarify if there is a third separate line (stars? rivers? whatever)
(And, FWIW, the larger naming scheme is undisturbed. The A16 SoC as a whole is Crete, just like previous SoCs have been islands.)
> me (me.delete@this.me.com) on September 9, 2022 4:41 pm wrote:
> > > I dint think there is much pointing to pessimistic conclusions. If Apples claims are correct, they have
> > > obtained a 7-10% improvement in single core at 20% lower
> > > power usage as well as 20% improvements in multi-core
> > > (presumably at the same power usage). These are rather significant a year-to-year improvements.
> >
> > Apple didn't claim anything other than it's faster.
>
> They explicitly stated “20% lower power”.
>
It's never clear whether codenames have a deeper significance or not, but people may find it interesting that the A16 core codenames are Everest and Sawtooth.
First obvious point is that we have a clear break. We had wind names till we ran out of winds, then weather-related names, culminating in Avalanche+Blizzard for the A15 (which certainly *sound* like they're broadcasting "these are chips designed with energy foremost").
The new names could represent nothing, but this does not feel like when Apple pivoted from cat names to California names; we weren't running out of weather-related words.
So to my eyes this is another piece of evidence for the proposition that Apple is rethinking their CPU lines (and differentiating them more – mountains for P-cores, tools for E-cores?)
Maybe someone will pick up another CPU codename in a macOS build, which might clarify if there is a third separate line (stars? rivers? whatever)
(And, FWIW, the larger naming scheme is undisturbed. The A16 SoC as a whole is Crete, just like previous SoCs have been islands.)