By: Doug S (foo.delete@this.bar.bar), September 15, 2022 8:46 pm
Room: Moderated Discussions
--- (---.delete@this.redheron.com) on September 11, 2022 9:07 pm wrote:
> Rayla (rayla.delete@this.example.com) on September 11, 2022 4:34 pm wrote:
> > --- (---.delete@this.redheron.com) on September 11, 2022 12:51 pm wrote:
> > > 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)
> >
> > I'm skeptical that "Sawtooth" refers to a tool here; it seems more likely,
> > at least to me, that it refers to the Sawtooth mountain range in Idaho.
>
> Nice catch! One learns something everyday!
> I guess the whole point of the smaller core is that it gets smaller (less well-known) mountain ranges!
Starting on Everest doesn't exactly leave a lot of room for future growth taking the biggest one first. Unless A17 uses the Olympus Mons core lol
Especially considering that A16 big core appears to be for all practical purposes an A15 big core with little or no change, as all the speedup looks like it is coming from clock rate gain and the greater bandwidth of LPDDR5.
> Rayla (rayla.delete@this.example.com) on September 11, 2022 4:34 pm wrote:
> > --- (---.delete@this.redheron.com) on September 11, 2022 12:51 pm wrote:
> > > 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)
> >
> > I'm skeptical that "Sawtooth" refers to a tool here; it seems more likely,
> > at least to me, that it refers to the Sawtooth mountain range in Idaho.
>
> Nice catch! One learns something everyday!
> I guess the whole point of the smaller core is that it gets smaller (less well-known) mountain ranges!
Starting on Everest doesn't exactly leave a lot of room for future growth taking the biggest one first. Unless A17 uses the Olympus Mons core lol
Especially considering that A16 big core appears to be for all practical purposes an A15 big core with little or no change, as all the speedup looks like it is coming from clock rate gain and the greater bandwidth of LPDDR5.