[HN Gopher] Apple AMX instruction set (M1/M2 matrix coprocessor)
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       Apple AMX instruction set (M1/M2 matrix coprocessor)
        
       Author : rostayob
       Score  : 185 points
       Date   : 2022-09-05 10:06 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | scarface74 wrote:
       | What is the "non proprietary" alternative and why should Apple or
       | it's users be forced to wait on consensus?
       | 
       | This is the same reason that Apple wasn't saddled with the
       | horrible PC "standards" before USB became ubiquitous.
       | 
       | Not to mention even today, Bluetooth is a shit show outside of
       | the Apple ecosystem as far as handoff an ease of pairing.
        
         | stephc_int13 wrote:
         | Apple Bluetooth is not much better than run-of-the-mill
         | Bluetooth, to be fair.
         | 
         | Bluetooth is one of the rare cases where they should have come
         | up with something different and better.
         | 
         | (Just kidding, Bluetooth is an abomination and a very weak
         | protocol)
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We detached this subthread from
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32723422.
        
         | viraptor wrote:
         | One of the non-extreme solutions is publishing the doc for the
         | extension + explicit usage grant on any related patents. They
         | don't need to go full standardisation route before the first
         | release. It would still be a proprietary extension under their
         | control, but not a haha-screw-you proprietary.
        
           | aseipp wrote:
           | ARM literally doesn't allow public instruction set extensions
           | by compliant license holders. Apple is presumably only
           | allowed to do this precisely because they do not sell or
           | otherwise offer their CPUs with any other software, with any
           | other documentation, which hides this implementation detail
           | entirely from all users, and I assume this allowance is
           | worked directly into their specific ARM Architecture License.
           | 
           | Apple themselves designed probably half (or more) of the
           | ARMv8 standard themselves. I assume they are pretty aware of
           | what avenues are available to them in this case.
        
           | samwillis wrote:
           | Apple are religious about interoperability within their
           | platform, making it easy and reliable. If they were to do as
           | you suggested with some of their proprietary tech, there will
           | be products that implement it badly. To the user they would
           | have no idea who's at fault, and would probably blame the
           | tech in general, damaging Apple.
           | 
           | Standardisation, in combination with certification to use the
           | "label", ensures that people developing on top of their
           | innovation do so well enough that it doesn't damage the
           | brand.
           | 
           | (Somewhat less relevant to an instruction set, and not
           | something I particularly agree with)
        
             | viraptor wrote:
             | This doesn't really make sense. There are already systems
             | implementing connections to Apple stuff badly due to lack
             | of documentation. The situation would only improve with the
             | publication. For example we already have most of m1
             | hardware reverse engineered in Asahi - that's not going
             | away. We've had things like air drop and earbuds charge
             | state RE'd too. We'll get amx libraries as well soon.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | "Apple's stuff" is there hardware + operating system.
               | 
               | The benefit of buying "Apple stuff" is the integration
               | between their software and hardware ecosystem.
        
               | viraptor wrote:
               | Yes, and... That seems irrelevant to the point of my
               | post?
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | It's relevant because
               | 
               | > For example we already have most of m1 hardware reverse
               | engineered in Asahi - that's not going away. We've had
               | things like air drop and earbuds charge state RE'd too.
               | We'll get amx libraries as well soon.
               | 
               | You're trying to use Apple hardware with non Apple
               | software.
               | 
               | If you put Windows on an x86 Mac, do you expect the same
               | experience (or battery life) that you get if you're
               | running MacOS on an x86 Max?
        
             | stephc_int13 wrote:
             | >interoperability within their platform
             | 
             | Isn't this called an oxymoron?
        
               | Jcowell wrote:
               | No I've seen platforms where interoperability is non
               | existent but it's still a platform.
        
               | samwillis wrote:
               | Quite right, I should have said "ecosystem" really. And
               | obviously this comment, about Apple in general, was a
               | little off topic as a reply to the parent. I know what I
               | was trying to get at, but didn't convey it well in this
               | context. Oh well.
        
         | nicoco wrote:
         | You managed to be down voted while praising Apple on
         | Hackernews, that's quite the achievement.
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | Nah, HN very much downvotes posts showing that maybe a
           | company that controls the entire ecosystem may give users a
           | better experience than a "consensus" of industry experts with
           | an "open" standard.
        
         | semi-extrinsic wrote:
         | > Not to mention even today, Bluetooth is a shit show outside
         | of the Apple ecosystem as far as handoff an ease of pairing.
         | 
         | I see people mention this, and I don't get it. I have a bunch
         | of el cheapo Bluetooth audio adapters (car/garage/bathroom),
         | one Bose headset, one Jabra headset, one chi-fi headset, one
         | JBL speaker. They just work.
         | 
         | Very occasionally on my Android phone I have to pull down the
         | system tray, click the little arrow next to Bluetooth and
         | select the device I want. But in those few ambiguous situations
         | there is no tech apart from clairvoyance that would allow the
         | phone to know my intentions without my input.
        
           | tpmoney wrote:
           | Are you using multiple devices with each bluetooth product,
           | or are you using multiple bluetooth products with a single
           | device? In my experience the latter is mostly the same across
           | Apple and non-apple. Where Apple's experience seems to be
           | noticeably better is using an apple bluetooth product with
           | multiple devices.
           | 
           | For example, I recently tried to switch from some airpods to
           | a pair of Anker liberty earbuds. I have 4 devices that I
           | regularly use the headset with, an iPhone, an iPad a macbook
           | air and a work laptop. The airpods switch almost without any
           | effort on my part between my personal devices, connecting
           | automatically to whichever of the devices I am currently
           | interacting with when I take them out. On the occasions when
           | that doesn't happen, selecting them from the bluetooth menu
           | connects them without issue. For my work laptop, because it's
           | not registered with my personal accounts, the airpods don't
           | connect automatically but after pairing them once during the
           | initial setup, when I select them in the menu, they connect
           | reliably and quickly.
           | 
           | By contrast the anker earbuds apparently are only able to
           | store connection information for two devices at a time. While
           | I can pair them to all 4 devices, when I take them out, they
           | will always connect to whatever the last device they were
           | connected to, and if I connect from the bluetooth
           | menu/settings on the device, they will only connect to the
           | second to last device they were connected to. For the other
           | devices, they will attempt to connect and eventually timeout.
           | Even though the device still has the earbuds registered, the
           | only way to connect it to device 3 or 4 is to delete it from
           | the device, and go through the entire re-pairing process, at
           | which point the earbuds will stop connecting to what is now
           | the 3rd to last device they were connected to.
        
             | drewg123 wrote:
             | That's odd. I have a pair of airpods pro shared with an m1
             | mbp, and an iphone. The airpods seem to randomly connect to
             | 1 of the 2 devices, almost never the one I want them to
             | connect to. This is the same experience I've had with other
             | BT devices.
             | 
             | The only good BT experience I've had is my Bose QC35ii
             | headphones, which can connect to multiple devices at the
             | same time.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Seems kind of limited and you have to use the "Bose app"
               | for complete functionality. Are there apps for the Apple
               | Watch? My AppleTV? And I still have to pair them to each
               | device and they only switch between the "two most recent
               | devices".
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | I have a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone, an AppleTV and an Apple
           | Watch.
           | 
           | If I'm on my iPad and playing something and put my AirPods
           | Pro in my ear, sound automatically gets sent to my AirPods.
           | The same happens with my Mac and iPhone. It doesn't happen
           | with the AppleTV since multiple people might be watching.
           | 
           | Also once I pair my headphones to one device on my account,
           | it's automatically paired to all of my devices. The initial
           | pairing process for my phone and iPad is just open the case
           | the first time and a pop up shows up.
           | 
           | On the other hand, if I'm on my iPad watching a movie and get
           | a call on my phone, it switches over automatically. It then
           | switches back when I go back to my iPad. If I take one AirPod
           | out of my ear to gear someone, video pauses automatically on
           | whichever device I'm using.
           | 
           | Then there are the little touches like being able to control
           | headphone options like noise cancellation and special audio
           | from my phone, iPad, or TV, seeing battery remaining and
           | automatically being registered with Find My.
        
             | semi-extrinsic wrote:
             | I get the same on Android on almost all those things. The
             | only thing I don't have is whatever "Find My" is. For
             | controlling headphone options I have a couple of dedicated
             | apps on my phone, but if you have to touch that more than
             | once per month it's a clear symptom of bad headphone
             | design. (For example the Jabra headset I use at work has a
             | dedicated physical button for toggling noise canceling.)
             | 
             | The upshot is that I suffer zero vendor lockin. I bought
             | Airpod equivalents from Aliexpress, the FIIL T1 Lite for
             | $35. They are little marvels of Chinese engineering that do
             | everything I need and actually sound great - they
             | frequently outperform $100+ earbuds both in reviews on
             | blogs and according to casual Reddit commentary. Since I
             | only use them when out and about, it's not possible to
             | experience any audio quality upgrade unless I sacrifice
             | practicality and go with some closed-back over-the-ear
             | cans.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | You get almost the same thing as long as you use third
               | party apps, still have to change settings manually, etc?
               | Do you also have to install the same app on your phone,
               | tablet, watch, streaming device and your computer?
               | 
               | When you pair to one device, do they automatically pair
               | to all of your devices?
               | 
               | All Apple headphones work as standard BT headphones on
               | non Apple devices. I fail to see any "vendor" lock in.
               | 
               | As far as price, you can also pick up a pair of $50 Beat
               | Flex headphones that have most of the same functionality
               | with Apple devices.
               | 
               | I assure you those $35 "AirPod equivalents" don't have
               | the noise cancellation, spatial audio, transparency mode,
               | or microphone quality that the AirPods Pro have.
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | I get the same thing out-of-the-box. I get tap-to-pair,
               | noise cancellation, spatial audio, transparency mode
               | _and_ a better microphone than the Airpods (can use a
               | higher-quality codec than AAC). Settings stay on-device,
               | too.
               | 
               | Airpods were a neat party trick maybe... 5 years ago?
               | Wireless audio isn't complicated nowadays though, I've
               | tried at least a dozen Bluetooth headsets that embarrass
               | the Airpods Pro (often at a lower price point).
               | 
               | The last thing I want to do is stop people from buying
               | overpriced headphones though. If Airpods make you happy,
               | then by all means, buy them. You're mostly paying a
               | premium for iCloud integration though, which I'd frankly
               | pay extra to avoid.
               | 
               | Shit though, if you want proof that Airpods are a
               | downgrade from regular headphones, just compare the audio
               | quality: https://youtu.be/N6Y_Q7RYmmY?t=360
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | You can pair your headphones seamlessly to seven devices
               | without unpairing? Yes I have a phone, tablet, watch,
               | computer and two AppleTVs - one in the bedroom and one in
               | my home gym.
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | Yep. Multipoint connection will tether to any availible
               | devices, and then switch between whichever ones are
               | actively playing. Works like a charm, don't even need an
               | AppleTV to pair it with my display.
        
               | semi-extrinsic wrote:
               | I only have to use a third party app to change the
               | settings on the headset (like equalizer and noise
               | canceling level). For my devices I have no need to change
               | these more than a couple of times per year, at most. For
               | my Bose QC35 I think I've never touched the app after
               | first configuration. Those settings are stored in the
               | headset, so once I've set them they stay the same
               | regardless what device the audio streams from.
               | 
               | The vendor lock-in is by definition there if there are
               | any special Apple features. If there is no vendor lock-
               | in, there is neither any special Apple-exclusive magic
               | features that justify the price premium?
               | 
               | I know my FIIL buds don't have active noise canceling.
               | They are IEMs and give about 20 dB passive noise
               | reduction which is more than enough. The microphone
               | quality is decent, but for any longer calls I use my
               | Jabra which has a proper mic.
        
             | doikor wrote:
             | > If I'm on my iPad and playing something and put my
             | AirPods Pro in my ear, sound automatically gets sent to my
             | AirPods.
             | 
             | And for me apple decides to do these switches on its own
             | without my input at times when I do not want this to
             | happen. I have not found a way to disable this yet.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212204
               | 
               | But is there ever a time that you said "I really wish I
               | had to pair my headphones to each of my devices
               | individually and had to adjust settings by clicking on a
               | button on my headphones and decipher the various beeps"?
        
               | cebert wrote:
               | This is really annoying in a family household. I use my
               | AirPods connected to my phone when I am cleaning the
               | house, cutting the grass outside etc. My son and daughter
               | love to watch videos on the iPad. My AirPods randomly
               | switch to the videos they're playing on the iPad without
               | me ever asking for that to happen. It irritates me that
               | Apple does this.
        
               | jshzglr wrote:
               | Can't you just make a separate profile on the iPad for
               | your kids.
        
               | aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
               | What kind of videos are they watching?
        
               | peyton wrote:
               | You can disable this feature on just your iPad from the
               | Bluetooth settings.
        
         | vbezhenar wrote:
         | Apple did not even bothered to implement proper codec support
         | for their flagship airpods. When I enable mic, audio quality
         | goes to zero. Where's their proprietary standards when they're
         | needed?
        
           | Reason077 wrote:
           | Wow, Apple's own headphones have that issue as well? I
           | thought it was just my Sonys that did that!
        
             | gruez wrote:
             | That's the case for all bluetooth headphones. The reason is
             | that when microphones are enabled, the codec gets
             | downgraded to some crappy one (presumably to free up
             | bandwidth because there are two audio streams?).
        
               | Reason077 wrote:
               | The issue isn't really bandwidth - it's about the host
               | and device agreeing on a suitable codec.
               | 
               | On a Mac, my Sony headphones will fall back to the SBC
               | codec if the mic is active. Fine for voice, but
               | music/video/gaming sounds terrible. On Android, however,
               | they will negotiate bi-directional AptX or some similar
               | modern codec, so the quality is much better.
        
               | sudosysgen wrote:
               | Fun fact though, on Linux you can force high-bitrate SBC
               | on almost any headphone to get almost the same result as
               | AptX.
        
               | srrr wrote:
               | SBC and aptX have the same quality (at the same bit
               | rate). You are most likely talking about SBC XQ and aptX
               | HD: http://soundexpert.org/articles/-/blogs/audio-
               | quality-of-sbc... & https://habr.com/en/post/456182/
        
           | pohl wrote:
           | Isn't that more of a bluetooth issue? You're switching from
           | one audio stream to two. Each now has only half the available
           | bandwidth, at most.
        
             | vbezhenar wrote:
             | That's bluetooth issue indeed but Apple could have
             | implemented some proprietary extensions when both devices
             | are Apple ones.
        
               | pohl wrote:
               | I see. So they're damned if they embrace a standard, and
               | they're damned when they don't.
        
         | umanwizard wrote:
         | I agree which is also why I'm very disappointed that the EU is
         | forcing Apple into the absolutely horrible USB-C standard.
         | 
         | People can buy android phones if they want to. Why remove
         | choice?
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | I wouldn't go that far. While I don't agree with the EU
           | forcing the USB-C "standard"[sic] on private companies, it's
           | time for Lightning to die. Apple is already moving to USB C
           | on iPads with only the low end iPad still being Lightning.
        
             | cesarb wrote:
             | > the USB-C "standard"[sic]
             | 
             | There's no reason for scare quotes, USB-C _is_ an official
             | standard. IEC 62680-1-3:2021
             | (https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/66588) is USB-C, and
             | IEC 62680-1-2:2021
             | (https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/66589) is USB PD.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Okay, still the same thought experiment. Pick up a random
               | USB C cable. Now tell me:
               | 
               | How much power can it deliver?
               | 
               | Does it support data and at what speed?
               | 
               | Does it support video over USB C?
               | 
               | If I bought a cheap USB power only 5W cable and got the
               | hypothetical iPhone 15 Pro Max with USB C support that
               | could charge faster with a 20W cable, do 10Gps data
               | transfer and video over USB C, wouldn't I still end up
               | throwing away the USB C cable I got with the $100 Android
               | phone contributing to eWaste? Isn't that the entire
               | argument about forcing Apple to support USB C?
               | 
               | What happens when I buy a cheap USB C cord from the
               | convenience store? Will it support "standard USB C".
        
               | tadfisher wrote:
               | If that USB-C cable only supported 5W, then it does not
               | meet the spec and must not carry USB-IF branding. At a
               | minimum, USB-C cables must support 20V/3A and optionally
               | support 20V/5A.
               | 
               | I get you on the rest of the issues, because the
               | simplified USB-IF branding (Hi-Speed, SuperSpeed,
               | SuperSpeed+, etc) crucially _isn 't printed on the cable
               | itself_. Moreover, the constant renumbering of the
               | standard means manufacturers often forgo the consumer-
               | facing branding and market devices/cables with the latest
               | standard, which means nothing regarding what capabilities
               | a device/cable supports.
               | 
               | USB-IF needs to be better at enforcement, for sure. In
               | the meantime, I just just Thunderbolt cables for
               | everything that needs advanced capabilities and pack-ins
               | for everything else.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | How do you explain to the average consumer that even
               | though all of these cords have USB C ends;
               | 
               | - the white cord that came with my old MacBook Pro 13
               | inch
               | 
               | - the little cable that came with my Beats Flex
               | 
               | - the cable that came with my Anker battery.
               | 
               | - any random overpriced USB C cable that you pick up from
               | the convenience store or the bodega.
               | 
               | Are really USB C cables and that none of them support
               | data?
        
           | sebzim4500 wrote:
           | Clearly Apple doesn't think the USB-C standard is so horrible
           | since they are using it everywhere else in their ecosystem.
        
           | tchaffee wrote:
           | Some things deserve to be standardized. Electrical plugs
           | being a great example. Removing choice is a feature. WiFi
           | standards are another example. It's tough to understand
           | exactly where to draw the line, but making computer cables
           | all standard seems like a worthy goal. I can see a future
           | when any device from displays to external drives to your
           | phone can all use the same cable. That would be a nice
           | feature where removing choice would be the better outcome.
           | 
           | Out of curiosity, what's horrible about the USB-C standard?
        
             | scarface74 wrote:
             | Thought experiment, you pick up a random USB-C cord, now
             | answer a few questions.
             | 
             | How much power can it deliver?
             | 
             | Does it do data and if so, at what speed?
             | 
             | Does it support video over USB and if so, at what
             | resolution?
        
               | tyrfing wrote:
               | The superior experience with an Apple branded Lightning
               | cable and charger: 5 watts, USB 2.0 speed, and no. Now
               | that's progress!
        
               | umanwizard wrote:
               | 20 watts, actually.
               | 
               | But anyway, the point isn't whether lightning is better
               | than USB-C. It's about whether USB-C is good enough that
               | we want to accept being locked to it for all time. If
               | Apple wants to invent a better connector, they can't,
               | assuming this European regulation goes through.
        
               | tchaffee wrote:
               | > for all time.
               | 
               | That's a strawman. Standards evolve and new standards
               | come along. 2G -> 3G -> 4G -> 5G. Well look at that.
               | 
               | > If Apple wants to invent a better connector, they can't
               | 
               | Not true. If Apple is willing to share, they can invent
               | all they want and propose a new standard.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | So they have to wait on a consensus. Wait for all vendors
               | to agree. Wait for a government body to approve the new
               | standard and _then_ they can implement the new "standard"
               | and still have it be as convoluted and half ass like USB
               | C?
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | They didn't have a problem doing that with Thunderbolt, I
               | don't see why it would become a problem _now_ all of the
               | sudden.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | They didn't wait on industry consensus. They basically
               | worked with one company - Intel - and put the port on
               | Macs. They definitely didn't have to wait on the
               | government to give them permission.
        
               | tchaffee wrote:
               | > So they have to wait on a consensus. Wait for all
               | vendors to agree.
               | 
               | Yes, just like 5G. Interoperability is sometimes worth
               | the tradeoffs so a nuanced view is needed instead of a
               | reductive "standards bad, competition good".
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Or on the other hand iMessages is far better than SMS and
               | RCS.
               | 
               | Then you have Google who alone introduced three
               | incompatible messaging apps in one year. It must be part
               | of the promotion process for Google SWEs and PMs to
               | introduce a new messaging app.
        
               | kmeisthax wrote:
               | 1. The same or more power than Lightning
               | 
               | 2. The same or faster than Lightning
               | 
               | 3. Either none or higher quality than Lightning
               | 
               | I don't need to see the specific cord - Lightning only
               | carries USB 2.0 and compressed video streams through a
               | weird proprietary protocol. The base spec for USB-C
               | cables is USB 2 and low-speed charging - i.e. equivalent
               | to Lightning for everything but video out.
               | 
               | The main complaint about USB-C that people have is that
               | there's no consistent labeling for the cheap-o base-spec
               | cables versus the ones that actually have high-speed data
               | lanes in them. This doesn't matter for the USB-C vs.
               | Lightning debate, since charging and data will be the
               | same or better and video requires a special cable or
               | adapter in either case.
        
               | WhyNotHugo wrote:
               | Much as I like USB-C this is far from accurate.
               | 
               | My JBL speaker will only charge with a USBA -> USBC
               | cable, but not with USBC->USBC.
               | 
               | I've a couple of cables that will charge headphones or
               | other devices, but won't show data devices (like an
               | external SSD, webcam, etc).
               | 
               | I've some cables that won't charge my laptop, however,
               | other cables on the same charger do charge that same
               | laptop.
               | 
               | Maybe some of these devices and cables are non-compliant,
               | but they're what we see in the real world, regardless of
               | what the spec says. USB-C is a mess. I still need
               | distinct USBC cables, and need to remember which ones can
               | charge which devices.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | 1. Some USB cables only support power up to 5W
               | 
               | 2. Not all USB C cables support data some or power only.
               | 
               | 3. But USB C is suppose to be a "standard". I can't just
               | assume any USB C cable is going to work with either my
               | portable USB monitor or an iPad Pro that has a USB port
        
               | philistine wrote:
               | Industry bodies vary in quality; USB-IF is notoriously
               | bad at UX. They focus on providing opportunities to
               | participate in their newest standard. That's why you end
               | up with monstrosities like renaming USB 3.0 to USB 3.1
               | Gen 1 and adding USB4 2.0 instead of simply calling it
               | USB5, like it should.
               | 
               | Cables and docks, once again to give opportunities to
               | participate to as many players as possible, only have to
               | implement few elements of the standard to be branded.
               | 
               | Apple and Intel basically used the Thunderbolt standard
               | to get rid of this mess. Thunderbolt 3 and 4 are forcing
               | implementation of all the optional elements of USB to be
               | branded. So if you want to have a sane experience with
               | USB-C, stick to TB ports, docks and cables.
        
               | tpm wrote:
               | You are right, but the current topic is standardising on
               | USB-C for power delivery. So in that case only the first
               | question applies. And funnily enough that question is the
               | same for every power cable and plug. Even simple wall
               | plugs and extension cords can burn out if a device draws
               | too much power.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | How is the "current topic" only about power delivery.
               | What happens when I plug my hypothetical iPhone with
               | USB-C using a "standard" USB-C cable into my computer to
               | transfer my 4K video?
               | 
               | What happens _today_ if I pick up any random "standard"
               | USB-C cable and try to charge an iPad Pro 12 inch or any
               | other iPad that has a USB-C port, try to connect it to a
               | video source that a USB source or connect it any USB-C
               | device?
        
               | tchaffee wrote:
               | > How is the "current topic" only about power delivery.
               | 
               | Because that's what the law covers. All phone *chargers*
               | must be USB-C compatible. And they must all interoperate.
               | You must be able to buy a phone without the charger, so
               | you can re-use your old one.
               | 
               | https://single-market-
               | economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/electrica...
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | How does that help reduce ewaste if you still don't force
               | standardization on the type of USB C cable being sold -
               | ie a cable that supports 100W PD, video over USB C, and
               | data? What are the chances that the $100 Android phone is
               | going to come with a cable that supports the "standard"?
               | What are the chances that your random convenience store
               | is going to be selling cords that support "the standard"?
               | 
               | And your quoting the law showing that the government also
               | didn't know enough to consider all of those questions
               | proves how incompetent the government is at writing laws
               | concerning technology.
        
               | tchaffee wrote:
               | I answered your question, and now you've moved the
               | goalposts... but I'll answer some more.
               | 
               | > How does that help reduce ewaste if you still don't
               | force standardization on the type of USB C cable being
               | sold - ie a cable that supports 100W PD, video over USB
               | C, and data?
               | 
               | The vast majority of people don't need that cable. Most
               | people plug their cable into the wall socket (oh dear
               | another government standard!) and recharge their device.
               | 
               | > And your quoting the law showing that the government
               | also didn't know enough to consider all of those
               | questions proves how incompetent the government is at
               | writing laws concerning technology.
               | 
               | I think this is a competent start. Industry was asked by
               | the EU to self-regulate on this, and industry failed. I'm
               | glad the government stepped in and in a few years I'll be
               | able to grab any random USB-C cable to charge a wide
               | variety of devices. Progress marches on.
               | 
               | In general, the EU has been very successful at writing
               | laws around technology. Look at the mobile phone
               | networks. I can travel anywhere in Europe and it just
               | works. And my roaming charges are also kept lower thanks
               | to laws. Lots of great technology laws out there if you
               | could neutrally assess things instead of always reaching
               | for "government bad".
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Most people would be okay with a 5W cable to power a huge
               | battery on the large iPhones? Try this, plug in a large
               | phone with a cable that only supports 5W and has 20%
               | battery life. Now start a video call using Zoom. Guess
               | how long the your phone will last.
               | 
               | The EU didn't enforce a law to have an industry standard
               | for cell phones, a private consortium of company's did.
               | 
               | I'm not "moving text goalposts". The explicit aim of the
               | EU wanting to enforce a standard was to reduce eWaste. If
               | you have a chord that doesn't support data, power
               | delivery at an appropriate wattage and video - something
               | that the iPads that have USB C already do and the
               | hypothetical iPhone will, you will still be throwing away
               | cables just like I threw away all of my "standard" USB C
               | cables that came with various devices and got some that
               | supported 100W PD, 10 GBps data and video over USB C.
               | 
               | The 100 section 11 chapter GDPR that did nothing but give
               | the world cookie pop up's shows the incompetence of EU
               | law makers better than anything.
        
               | tchaffee wrote:
               | Read the law more carefully. Chargers, cables, and the
               | specified devices must all be interoperable, and they
               | cannot slow down the rate of charging. You seem to be
               | wrongly assuming that the current state of the art will
               | not change with the new laws.
               | 
               | > The EU didn't enforce a law to have an industry
               | standard for cell phones, a private consortium of
               | company's did.
               | 
               | You're wrong. I worked in the EU for mobile phone
               | companies helping make them compliant with some EU
               | regulations. Just for example, EU law specified an
               | industry standard for roaming charges. Roaming charges
               | were absurd before the law and different in every country
               | - to the point that everyone feared answering a call
               | while in another EU country. Sometimes companies succeed
               | at good standards without government regulations.
               | Sometimes they fail and the government should step in.
               | 
               | > I'm not "moving text goalposts".
               | 
               | You did. You asked why the discussion was focused on
               | power. I answered that. Goal achieved. That wasn't good
               | enough for you after you learned why the discussion was
               | focused on power. So you moved the goalposts and came up
               | with a new complaint. That's exactly what moving the
               | goalposts look like.
               | 
               | > The 100 section 11 chapter GDPR that did nothing but
               | give the world cookie pop up's shows the incompetence of
               | EU law makers better than anything.
               | 
               | You're wrong again. I use those cookie pop-ups to refuse
               | everything but the necessary cookies. That's not
               | "nothing". GDPR has done so much good in protecting our
               | privacy and forcing companies like Google and Facebook to
               | adapt. Excellent.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Mandating roaming charges is completely different than
               | mandating 4G and 5G protocols.
               | 
               | You keep focusing solely on "charging" when USB C powered
               | phones and iPads that already support USB C also carry
               | data and in the care of the iPad data using the
               | "standard" for video over USB C. Seeing that the EU
               | didn't mandate any of they shows why the government has
               | no business involved in technical standards.
               | 
               | The "goal" of the EU regulation was to reduce ewaste. The
               | proposed regulation fails because you still have to
               | replace your cable if you want your phone to transfer
               | data.
               | 
               | Google and Facebook didn't have to adapt their business
               | at all because of the GDPR. You want to see what an
               | effective policy for increasing privacy looks like? One
               | private company - Apple - introduced a pop up that gives
               | users the ability to opt out of tracking and everyone
               | including Facebook that lives or dies by ads announced
               | billions in reduced revenue.
        
               | tpm wrote:
               | What happens today if I pick up any random USB-C and try
               | to charge my non-Apple phone is that it charges, in some
               | cases fast, in others slow. I don't have to carry around
               | a special cable. I would expect the same from Apple, once
               | they implement it. As for the data stuff, I'm sure they
               | will manage somehow.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Try your definition of "slow" on a iPhone 12 Pro Max
               | using a cord that only delivers power over 5W. Better
               | yet, try charging an iPad 12" Pro (that does have a USB C
               | port) with a USB C cable that can only do 5W. Now try to
               | use that same "standard USB C" cable to charge a 16 inch
               | MacBook Pro.
               | 
               | Of course that standard cable is not guaranteed to
               | support data at all.
               | 
               | So much for a "standard".
        
               | tpm wrote:
               | iPhone 12 Pro Max has smaller battery than my 5y old
               | Nokia, so I would not worry about that.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | And how long do you think it would take to charge?
        
               | celsoazevedo wrote:
               | > What happens when I plug my hypothetical iPhone with
               | USB-C using a "standard" USB-C cable into my computer to
               | transfer my 4K video?
               | 
               | Your phone will charge and you'll be able to transfer
               | your 4K video. Isn't lightning still limited to USB 2
               | speeds? If so, then it won't be any slow.
               | 
               | USB-C isn't a problem for Macs and iPads that use it, so
               | not sure why it would be a problem on the iPhone.
               | 
               | (I didn't understand your second question.)
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Not all USB-C cords support data and those that do
               | support data support data at different speeds. Some USB-C
               | cords support data but don't support video over USB-C. I
               | travel a lot and soon will be doing the "digital nomad"
               | thing.
               | 
               | I travel with this portable monitor:
               | 
               | https://a.co/d/aFeMMK1
               | 
               | You can plug it into a computer and get video and power
               | with one USB C cable. But you have to have the "right"
               | USB C cable. Video over USB-C is "standardized". But not
               | all cables support the standard.
               | 
               | Ironically, you can have the same issue today. Some cheap
               | third party Lightning cables don't support data and they
               | don't work if I plug up my monitor to my Mac for a third
               | monitor using Duet (I can't use the Mac built in
               | capability because of an incompatibility with corporate
               | mandated malware).
               | 
               | The iPad Pro should also work with my monitor. But still,
               | you have to have the right "standard" USB C cable. You
               | would have the same problem With a hypothetical future
               | USB C iPhone.
               | 
               | I'm assuming you didn't know about how some USB C cables
               | don't support all of the standards. If _you_ didn't know
               | - someone who posts to HN and I assume knows more about
               | technology than the average person - what chance does the
               | average consumer have or the people making laws to force
               | USB C to be the standard?
               | 
               | That is not meant to be an insult. I thought all USB C
               | cables were the same until two years ago when I got my
               | first modern MacBook for work.
               | 
               | I'm not saying Lightning is better than having a USB C
               | port on the iPhone that supports the maximum power
               | possible on the iPhone, with higher speed data rates and
               | video over USB C. Apple agrees and that's why almost all
               | iPads now have USB C ports.
               | 
               | But that doesn't mean that you will just be able to pick
               | up a random USB C cable and it just works.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >Isn't lightning still limited to USB 2 speeds?
               | 
               | It supports USB3
               | 
               | https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-
               | to-us...
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | Tuna-Fish wrote:
           | How is USB-c horrible?
        
             | scarface74 wrote:
             | Before I standardized on the cables below, I had USB-C
             | cables in my laptop bag that:
             | 
             | - were power only up to 100W. But couldn't do data.
             | 
             | - could do power up to 60W and data at USB2 speeds. But
             | they couldn't do video over USB-C. I have a USB-C powered
             | portable display that can do power and video directly from
             | my laptop.
             | 
             | - a USB-C cable that can do power, video, and data. But I'm
             | still not sure how much data and power it can deliver.
             | 
             | - a few smaller USB-C cables that came with my Beats
             | headphones and my Anker battery. I don't know what they can
             | do.
             | 
             | I finally threw away all of my cables besides my MagSafe
             | cable and standardized on these for mobile devices (cheaper
             | and not as thick).
             | 
             | https://a.co/d/7e3gH9u
             | 
             | But these are truly "universal".
             | 
             | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093YVRHMB
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | strangemonad wrote:
             | The physical form factor of the "type C" connector is great
             | but that a good example of how broken things are is that
             | anyone can stick that type of connector on pretty much
             | anything - might be usb 1, might just be power delivery,
             | might be usb 3.2, might be real thunderbolt, might be
             | thunderbolt-esque paie framed over usb 3.2 messages, this
             | is before even getting into the wild world of hdmi 1.4 and
             | display port over usb 3. This mess is assuming that the
             | vendor implemented things correctly or is using a compliant
             | controller chip, reality just gets even worse.
             | 
             | A simplistic interpretation:
             | 
             | Because the consortium wanted to get everyone on board,
             | they allow pretty much any part of the spec to not be
             | complied with. In theory there are various profiles the
             | should be adopted but in practice that hasn't happened.
             | 
             | What happens when I plug in a c-type plug? You just can't
             | say... and I mean you REALLY just can't say. Will high
             | power delivery and hdmi work (I'm looking at you broken
             | Nintendo switch usb-c implementation), will you get
             | thunderbolt packets wrapped over usb 3.2? Will you even get
             | high speed? Is the cable active or passive? Will this cable
             | give me high speed data? Will this >3ft cable give me high
             | speed charging or just _silently_ stay at 5v and ~1amp
             | because the resistance on the middle pin is too high on
             | that particular cable.
             | 
             | To placate many vendors who wanted to because to produce
             | cheap crap and flood online stores, many parts of the spec
             | do this all without active protocol handshaking and simply
             | fail silently.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >The physical form factor of the "type C" connector is
               | great
               | 
               | At least for phone charging, I find it worse than
               | lightning. It's way too loose (whereas lightning is
               | snug), and I'm always worried about the plastic bit
               | sticking out on the female side is going to break.
        
         | WhyNotHugo wrote:
         | > Not to mention even today, Bluetooth is a shit show outside
         | of the Apple ecosystem as far as handoff an ease of pairing.
         | 
         | I wish my iPhone's bluetooth worked as well as my Linux laptop.
         | I've no idea why Apple gets so much praise for it's bluetooth,
         | it's not "the worst", but it's not very good either. Is Android
         | really _that_ bad?
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | Are you using Apple or Beats headphones? If not, BT is going
           | to suck regardless.
        
       | coder543 wrote:
       | Doesn't M2 add support for SVE2 as well?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | aseipp wrote:
         | No, there are no publicly available chips with SVE2 support at
         | all; the closest you can get is SVE1 on Graviton 3 from AWS.
        
           | dougall wrote:
           | Yeah, M2 doesn't. But I think there are some phones using the
           | Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that have SVE2.
        
             | aseipp wrote:
             | Oh wow, that's quite impressive. I assume they're just
             | using a 128-bit datapath like NEON? Thanks for the
             | correction.
        
               | dougall wrote:
               | Yep, still 128-bit.
        
       | sufiyan wrote:
       | I don't get why other chip manufacturers don't go this same
       | route. For example AVX is done on the same core that also
       | supports integer math. Many companies have a separate GPU but AVX
       | seems to always come prepackaged.
        
         | guipsp wrote:
         | There is a cost to moving data to another chip(let). I think
         | this is the main reason
        
         | viktorcode wrote:
         | Qualcomm most likely will go this route (proprietary
         | instructions) as this now officially blessed by Arm. I'd bet
         | we'll see that in their 2023 chips.
        
           | ndesaulniers wrote:
           | Isn't ARM suing Qualcomm?
        
       | 16890c wrote:
       | So what software actually uses this / what compiler supports this
       | if it's neither supported nor documented by Apple?
        
         | garblegarble wrote:
         | Applications use it via a higher level interface: Apple's
         | Accelerate framework[1]
         | 
         | 1: https://developer.apple.com/accelerate/
        
           | peaslock wrote:
           | Speaking of which, is anyone aware of example code using the
           | LSTM? I've been trying to get this to work, but there seems
           | to be information missing e.g how to setup the input/output
           | descriptors and how to manage input data: https://developer.a
           | pple.com/documentation/accelerate/bnns/us...
        
         | Someone wrote:
         | It's just like with private APIs. It's functionality that they
         | don't know (?yet?) whether they want to support it in the
         | future, but they do provide calls that use them indirectly.
         | 
         | There also could be bugs in the hardware that they carefully
         | programmed around.
        
           | scarface74 wrote:
           | Why do people act as if "private APIs" (which is somewhat of
           | a contradiction in terms) is nefarious? An API is something
           | that is publicly documented that the vendor promises to
           | support where the behavior won't change.
           | 
           | Raymond Chen has been blogging for close two decades about
           | all of the hacks that MS had to put into Windows because
           | vendors used undocumented APIs.
        
             | grishka wrote:
             | There are two ways of dealing with apps using private APIs
             | though: Microsoft indeed goes out of its way to maintain
             | backwards compatibility, sometimes at the expense of
             | sanity, but Apple breaks stuff -- this API is private for a
             | reason, you had to reverse engineer how to call it, and you
             | knew your risks when you decided to use it, so if your app
             | breaks, you get to keep both pieces.
        
               | KerrAvon wrote:
               | Yes, and I suspect this is informed by Apple historically
               | having APIs that were much more open and prone to what we
               | would know call abuse by developers -- but was then just
               | cleverly taking advantage of the environment -- during
               | the Apple II/early Mac era.
        
             | matthewmacleod wrote:
             | I agree that people tend to get a bit too worked up about
             | it, but I don't think it's a contradiction in terms as such
             | - an API is really just _any_ interface where two distinct
             | pieces of software interact in some way. It doesn't need to
             | be formally described or published or anything like that,
             | and the idea of a private API is pretty common generally.
             | 
             | Where it starts to piss people off though is where those
             | private APIs are used to allow first-party software access
             | to platform features that third-party software doesn't get.
             | For some applications that's not so bad, but in the case of
             | a general-purpose operating system platform or similar it's
             | kind of an anticompetitive move and we should complain when
             | companies do it.
        
               | scarface74 wrote:
               | Once you make an API public, no matter how badly designed
               | it is, you have to support it forever.
               | 
               | I would much rather an API be private, let the company
               | dog food it and let their internal employees use it, and
               | then make it public. It also gives them the freedom of
               | completely changing the internal workings.
               | 
               | The extensions API and the Siri integration for third
               | parties are great examples. The Siri intent based API is
               | very usable and reminds of the Amazon Lex based API - the
               | AWS version of the consumer Alexa skills SDK.
        
         | michelb wrote:
         | Here are the docs:
         | https://developer.apple.com/documentation/accelerate
        
         | kennywinker wrote:
         | Presumably first party software that qualifies. I'm thinking
         | siri, or their AR stuff. It's possible it's also used by
         | something like CoreML where there is a public facing framework
         | that utilizes this under the hood.
         | 
         | I have no special info, these are just guesses.
        
       | zeristor wrote:
       | Is this a repost the other day, I thought that was too good have
       | been missed out.
       | 
       | Also I'm keen to see if this 60Gb.a-1 near field wireless data
       | link for Apple Watches for diagnosis will be able to be used in
       | some sort of MagSafe/usb for iPhones.
        
         | altairprime wrote:
         | (This isn't a post about near-field, Watches, MagSafe, or USB;
         | perhaps this comment was meant for another post?)
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | saboot wrote:
       | Is there a comparison with other fast cpu methods of matrix
       | multiplication?
        
         | corsix wrote:
         | https://www.corsix.org/content/contrasting-intel-amx-and-app...
         | compares this with Intel's AMX
        
         | dougall wrote:
         | On M1, for single-precision, one AMX P-unit is ~1.64 TFLOPs,
         | one P-core is ~102 GFLOPS. So ~16x core-for-core. But you have
         | four P-cores for every AMX P-unit, so more like 4x. And for
         | double-precision that shrinks to 2x (~410 GFLOPs to ~51GFLOPs).
         | 
         | (This is a simplification that doesn't include the E-cores, nor
         | the AMX E-unit, but their contribution isn't huge. I suspect
         | AMX throughput may have doubled on M2, but I haven't verified
         | that.)
        
           | Firadeoclus wrote:
           | That's a pretty huge amount of processing power hidden away!
           | Are these experimentally confirmed performance numbers?
           | 
           | So this is 16x16 single precision fused multiply-adds at
           | 3.2GHz with a throughput of one per clock, right? (16 x 16 x
           | 2 x 3.2e9 = 1.6384e12) And does using fp16 quadruple
           | throughput again? That would put AMX well above the GPU for
           | fp16 matrix multiplication! (2.6 TFLOPs fp16/fp32 for 8-core
           | GPU, 128 multiply-add per core at 1.278GHz)
           | 
           | How does it compare in terms of power, can it sustain 3.2GHz
           | indefinitely or does it hit power/thermal limits fairly
           | quickly?
        
             | dougall wrote:
             | Correct, yep. These are theoretical numbers, measured in
             | cycles from a P-core (with no loads/stores), real-world
             | performance tends to be a little less (~93%): https://twitt
             | er.com/stephentyrone/status/1455665595677085697
             | 
             | FP16 only doubles throughput rather than quadrupling.
             | 
             | I haven't looked at power/thermals, so I can't really
             | comment. (Though it's possible it's always running a bit
             | under 3.2GHz, since I was measuring in clock cycles - that
             | might be part of the 7% difference.)
        
         | moonchild wrote:
         | IIRC I measured something like 10-50% performance difference
         | (don't remember exactly, but it was somewhere in there), vs a
         | reasonably well-regarded blas implementation. This was for
         | dgemm specifically; I don't know if the story changes for
         | smaller floats.
        
           | saboot wrote:
           | Not too bad, I do scientific computing and choose
           | Intel/Nvidia as their APIs for accelerated math operations
           | are documented and supported for developers.
           | 
           | I've been paying attention to what Apple has been pushing
           | with their M1/M2 chips, and I'm pretty tempted to try it out,
           | but unless these features are documented and supported I
           | can't feel comfortable writing programs relying on them.
        
             | mhh__ wrote:
             | The API apple wants you to use is documented and presumably
             | is here to stay.
             | 
             | That doesn't help if there's some edge case you'd need
             | access to the raw ISA but still.
        
               | Someone wrote:
               | Also, BLAS is part of that interface (https://developer.a
               | pple.com/documentation/accelerate/blas)
               | 
               | Of course it is a black box in that you can't
               | (realistically) try and speed it up. You still run the
               | risk of Apple's priorities being different from yours.
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | OTOH the interfaces are standard. Using Accelerate
               | instead of the standard BLAS is just a compiler switch.
        
             | kergonath wrote:
             | They are not supported directly, but you can ue them
             | through the Accelerate framework, which has an optimised
             | BLAS and FFT implementations (amongst many other things).
        
         | bfgoodrich wrote:
         | SGEMM / DGEMM using AMX2 (the first M1 has AMX2. The A14 has
         | AMX1) is approximately 100% faster than the same running with
         | NEON, which is already a specialized vector math system.
        
       | sposeray wrote:
        
       | ladyanita22 wrote:
       | Which compiler would be required for this
       | (https://github.com/corsix/amx/blob/main/aarch64.h)?
       | 
       | I understand the limitation is not at the OS side, as nothing can
       | be done there, but at the compiler-side (I mean that the Apple-
       | supplied compiler doesn't compile against the AMX instruction
       | set, so you'd need a compatible one that, I understand, doesn't
       | exist).
       | 
       | Or is it just undocumented and you can actually get it to work
       | with a Standard xcode and macOS installation given the headers
       | provided?
        
         | dagmx wrote:
         | Compilers wouldn't target it. You'd get to it via
         | https://developer.apple.com/documentation/accelerate
        
         | dougall wrote:
         | This header works with standard Xcode/macOS, by taking
         | advantage of inline assembly in a slightly-cursed way (turning
         | register names into numbers and encoding the instruction
         | itself).
        
           | corsix wrote:
           | Slightly cursed is how I roll. I would like to know where the
           | trick first originated from though (I found it at
           | https://github.com/yvt/amx-rs/blob/main/src/nativeops.rs#L22
           | rather than inventing it de novo)
        
             | ndesaulniers wrote:
             | This happens often in the Linux kernel to continue to
             | support older assemblers for newer instruction set
             | extensions.
             | 
             | The x86 retbleed mitigation uses .inst to trick the
             | hardware instruction decoder...different instructions are
             | encoded/run than what is speculatively decoded.
        
       | stephc_int13 wrote:
       | Knowing the history of Apple an open standard and given their
       | success with their implementation of the ARM64 ISA, it is
       | unfortunately highly probable that they will follow the
       | proprietary route once again.
       | 
       | Indeed, they are already doing it, we're lucky they weren't in a
       | dominant position when TCP/IP or HTML were invented.
        
         | GekkePrutser wrote:
         | Well, they _did_ create OpenCL.
         | 
         | But yeah it's ages ago and they've kept everything proprietary
         | since then :(
        
         | Terretta wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)
         | 
         | What I liked about this is that Apple realized it makes more
         | sense for someone other than them to develop and supply tech
         | for something like Thunderbolt, co-engineered with Intel for
         | Intel to do it (and eventually open it, royalty free).
        
         | dweekly wrote:
         | Re: the "lucky" remark: they certainly tried! Remember
         | AppleTalk and HyperCard?
        
           | KerrAvon wrote:
           | This is seriously ahistorical revisionism. There was no
           | universal networking standard in the 1980's, and there
           | certainly wasn't anything universally suited for networking
           | on microcomputers, especially not with the zero-configuration
           | usability that Apple wanted. Remember that TCP/IP was largely
           | a plaything for academics until the early 1990's, and Apple
           | had to create zero configuration and multicast DNS before
           | they could consider deprecating AppleTalk for use on small
           | LANs.
        
             | stephc_int13 wrote:
             | I think that if Apple had been as powerful as they are now
             | back then, they would have pushed "their" tech more
             | aggressively and refused to support "inferior" protocols.
             | 
             | Really, we've been lucky that it was Microsoft and not
             | Apple that was the dominant player in the 90s.
             | 
             | And I am far from a Microsoft fanboy, but I think that
             | Apple hubris has always been there, and their contribution
             | have to be mitigated in some way to stay on the positive
             | side.
        
         | aseipp wrote:
         | There isn't any standard matrix multiplication instruction set
         | so there's nothing to standardize over. Machine-learning driven
         | instruction sets (of which MM instructions are motivated by,
         | but not exclusively for) like this have been generally bespoke
         | because the field moves relatively quickly compared to
         | hardware. Every vendor generally follows some basic principles
         | but the specifics are dependent on the workloads and models
         | they expect e.g. quantization or how they expect to split
         | models across accelerators. And ARM does not allow public
         | proprietary instruction set extensions to ARM cores, one of
         | their defining architecture features is that licensees
         | literally are not allowed to do this.[1] The only reason Apple
         | was allowed to do so in this case is likely 1) They negotiated
         | it as part of their AAL (probably for a lot of money) and 2)
         | They do not publicly document or commit to this feature in any
         | way. It could get deleted or disabled in silicon tomorrow and
         | Apple would be able to handle that easily, and in every other
         | visible way they have a normal ARM64 complaint CPU core (there
         | is the custom GIC and performance counters and some other
         | stuff, but none of those violate the architectural license and
         | are just IP stuff they chose to work on themselves.)
         | 
         | So actually the thing you're complaining about is prevented by
         | ARM themselves; Apple cannot publicly commit to features that
         | would fragment the architecture. They don't have to do
         | everything identical either, though.
         | 
         | [1] They have publicly said they will allow some future Cortex
         | cores to contain custom instructions, but it is quite clearly
         | something they're very much still in control over, you won't
         | get a blank check, especially considering almost all ARM
         | licensees use pre-canned CPU cores and IP. You'll probably have
         | to pay them for the extra design work. There are no known
         | desktop/server-class CPUs that fit this profile on the current
         | ARM roadmap, or any taped out processor, that I am aware of.
        
           | brigade wrote:
           | > There isn't any standard matrix multiplication instruction
           | set
           | 
           | The Scalable Matrix Extension supplement was released last
           | year. Though obviously AMX predates it, having shipped in
           | actual silicon 3 years ago.
        
             | msbarnett wrote:
             | In addition to being too new, Scalable Matrix Extension is
             | for Armv9 - the M1 and M2 are Armv8 architectures
        
           | stephc_int13 wrote:
           | History will tell, but I have a bad feeling about "Apple
           | Silicon".
           | 
           | They would not use that naming if they intended to support
           | the official ARM ISA in the long run.
           | 
           | The only thing that would prevent them for going the
           | proprietary route is if they can't.
        
             | skavi wrote:
             | Apple Silicon is no different from Qualcomm Snapdragon or
             | Samsung Exynos.
        
               | aesh2Xa1 wrote:
               | Does Apple license theirs to other platforms?
        
               | kmeisthax wrote:
               | No, and given ARM's hostility to Qualcomm's acquisition
               | of Nuvia they probably would pitch a fit if Apple started
               | selling silicon to third-parties.
        
               | AprilArcus wrote:
               | I suspect, given Apple's pivotal role in founding ARM
               | holdings, that they have as close to carte blanche with
               | respect to the ARM IP as one could imagine.
        
               | komadori wrote:
               | Huh, I hadn't realised Apple had been one of the
               | investors when ARM Holdings was spun out of Acorn
               | Computers. It seems their interest was in the Newton
               | using ARM chips.
        
             | catach wrote:
             | > They would not use that naming if they intended to
             | support the official ARM ISA in the long run.
             | 
             | Given Apple's marketing priorities, my guess is that the
             | intent you speak of had zero weight in their naming
             | decisions either way. They have no interest in raising the
             | profile of ARM chips in general, and every interest in
             | promoting their specific chips as amazing.
        
           | AprilArcus wrote:
           | > The only reason Apple was allowed to do so in this case is
           | likely 1) They negotiated it as part of their AAL (probably
           | for a lot of money)
           | 
           | Apple fronted the cash that created ARM holdings in the first
           | place, so yes, they invested quite a lot of money (well,
           | relative to the other senior partners Acorn and VLSI and
           | later investors), and ARM was hardly in a position to tell
           | them "no".
        
         | Reason077 wrote:
         | > _" we're lucky they weren't in a dominant position when
         | TCP/IP or HTML were invented"_
         | 
         | TCP/IP and HTML became dominant _because_ they were open
         | standards. Should they have been proprietary, they would have
         | floundered and something else would have emerged instead.
        
           | fattire wrote:
           | > TCP/IP and HTML became dominant because they were open
           | standards. Should they have been proprietary, they would have
           | floundered and something else would have emerged instead.
           | 
           | Anyone remember AppleTalk?
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk
        
           | rjzzleep wrote:
           | I guess people have forgotten, that Webkit came out of KHTML
           | from the KDE team and that Apple was a nightmare when it came
           | to contributing code back. They just released a huge dump of
           | the whole thing.
        
             | klodolph wrote:
             | I remember this... it was just a fork. Projects get forked.
             | It's unfortunate from some perspectives, but from other
             | perspectives you can understand why forks happen.
             | 
             | When you have a long-running fork, especially one that is
             | so active, merging it naturally becomes a nightmare. This
             | is expected and ordinary.
             | 
             | The Linux kernel gets forked by Android vendors and others
             | _all the time._ A lot of the changes never make it
             | upstream, for various reasons. At least the story ends a
             | bit better for KHTML  / WebKit.
        
               | rjzzleep wrote:
               | Every single Apple patch to GitHub projects is done by
               | the same single indistinguishable user account. This
               | isn't just "some long-running fork". It is Apple culture
               | to actively prohibit contributions to open source
               | projects unless 5 managers sign off on it.
        
               | cma wrote:
               | They really don't like people "poaching" their
               | employees/wildlife. Remember they illegally collided to
               | stop other large tech firms with Apple board members from
               | cross recruiting.
        
               | GekkePrutser wrote:
               | I think that's collusion not collision :) But probably a
               | case of "Damn You AutoCorrect" :)
        
               | KerrAvon wrote:
               | No, it's usually just overzealous lawyers. Remember that
               | Apple is still a pre-dot-com company and -- like
               | Microsoft -- retains vestiges of those attitudes.
        
             | chalst wrote:
             | This isn't quite the same thing. Apple are really terrible
             | at cultivating open source - more obvious than KHTML is the
             | fiasco that resulted from Apple's half-hearted efforts to
             | kindle a community around Darwin - but my impression is
             | that they have been decent enough with the kind of openness
             | that standards processes need.
        
               | jojohohanon wrote:
               | I was disappointed in how the Dylan project ended up.
        
               | GekkePrutser wrote:
               | Were there ever really interested in Darwin being a
               | thing? I've been following Mac closely since OSX and I've
               | never seen it getting any limelight.
        
             | pjmlp wrote:
             | They don't even remember how vertical integrated they were
             | before OS X came to be, how would they remember that?
        
             | KerrAvon wrote:
             | I don't get this criticism; this is a case where open
             | source _worked_. People complained about it. Apple cleaned
             | up their act on it a bit, but still maintained WebKit as a
             | fork. And Google forked WebKit when they decided they
             | didn't want to play in Apple's sandbox anymore. This is how
             | it's actually supposed to work. It gets messy sometimes
             | because humans are involved.
        
           | smoldesu wrote:
           | ActiveX would like to have a word with you.
        
             | KerrAvon wrote:
             | DECnet, Token Ring, Novell, X.25, et cetra, would like to
             | have a word with you.
        
             | GekkePrutser wrote:
             | ActiveX was never 'dominant' really. It was always a
             | duopoly with Java (and in many use cases also with flash!)
             | and a pretty niche one at that (corporate software and
             | crappy webcams)
        
               | Tijdreiziger wrote:
               | South Korea begs to differ:
               | https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/business/korea-
               | internet-e...
        
             | fezfight wrote:
             | Yes, that attempt to EEE the web was thwarted thankfully.
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | Right. If the government hadn't stepped in to encourage
               | Microsoft to play nice, we might live in a world where
               | "the web" simply means Internet Explorer.
               | 
               | I'm beyond the point of negotiating with the people on
               | this website. Apple is due in for exactly the same
               | treatment, it's only a matter of time before the US eats
               | their favorite crow.
        
               | fezfight wrote:
               | If it wasnt clear in my reply, I agree with you.
               | 
               | But as an aside, don't let this site get to you too much.
               | There's a lot of arguing for sport that goes on here.
        
               | KerrAvon wrote:
               | Look, as someone who was rooting for MS to lose big time
               | back then, I would have been happy for that to be true.
               | But MS lost through hubris, not the antitrust settlement.
        
               | GekkePrutser wrote:
               | > If the government hadn't stepped in to encourage
               | Microsoft to play nice, we might live in a world where
               | "the web" simply means Internet Explorer.
               | 
               | I kinda doubt that. As soon as Microsoft had a virtual
               | monopoly on the browser market, they let IE go stale for
               | years. Hardly any feature development, hardly any bug
               | squashing. Terrible security. By the time the browser
               | choice thing in the EU and the antitrust thing in the US
               | happened, the rot had already set in and everyone was fed
               | up and yearning for a browser that didn't suck. Google
               | drove their Chrome truck right into that gap.
               | 
               | If IE had actually been a decent browser, no amount of
               | "choose your browser" screens would have been enough to
               | sway people from it. Just like they cling to Chrome now
               | because Google is too smart to make that mistake.
               | 
               | PS FWIW I don't like and hardly use chrome but
               | technically as a browser it's great, I just don't like
               | Google's attitude to privacy.
        
               | aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
               | Instead we live in a world where the web means Chrome.
               | How wonderful!
        
               | pjmlp wrote:
               | WebAssembly....
        
               | jchw wrote:
               | WebAssembly is an open standard and I don't really see
               | how it's any bigger a problem than asm.js or obfuscated
               | JS already was.
        
               | fezfight wrote:
               | Agreed! Would be nice to reverse the tide on that stuff
               | though. C'est la vie.
        
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