
iPhone XS – A12 Bionic - tambourine_man
https://www.apple.com/iphone-xs/a12-bionic/
======
newfocogi
It was interesting to hear apple state that one of their goals for building
products was to make them last longer in order to minimize waste. People often
accuse hardware manufacturers, including apple, of intentional obsolescence. I
am interested to see if they actually change anything about their process,
software and hardware, to put any weight behind this claim, or if it is just
marketing doublespeak.

~~~
AndrewStephens
Apple are already pretty good in this regard - their devices are expensive but
made to last, and they directly support them for 4 or 5 years. The upcoming
iOS release is supposed to be focused on getting better performance on old
devices as well.

~~~
Narkov
> their devices are expensive but made to last, and they directly support them
> for 4 or 5 years

Do you think a $1,000+ phone lasting only "4 or 5 years" is really that good?

~~~
avianlyric
There’s a big difference between how long a device is directly supported for,
and how long it lasts.

Additionally many people would consider a laptop being directly supported for
5 years pretty good.

~~~
thisacctforreal
High Sierra supported 2009 Macs, but it looks like Mojave is going to be cut
off at 2012.

------
ulfw
I wonder if Apple/ARM has now peaked in performance too (same as what happened
with intel 4-5 years ago). "Up to 15% faster" is not noticeable outside the
realm of benchmarks.

~~~
valarauca1
Unlikely

Apple/ARM is developing their processors for a very narrow power budget
(mobile). While they have shown promise in benchmarks designed to compare
their peek performance while mitigating thermal issues [1]. The long term
consistent heat mitigation, and power draw limits consistent behavior.

Secondary performance gains from multi-tier caching (Apple does 2, Intel does
3, IBM does 4) and multiple channels of ddr which can greatly accelerate
application throughput.

In short. Apple's processors are designed for mobile first, and ARM can still
gain _a lot_ in terms of performance. While it is approaching compute/cycle of
Intel's processors it isn't there yet.

[1] What I'm trying to say is don't link GeekBenchmark that what ever mobile
process has >= the same number of BogoMIPS as a server class CPU. Geek
Benchmark throttles hard on mobile doing burst testing to avoid thermal
throttling, this effects the benchmark results negatively on server class
computers (as the test doesn't generate enough load to kick up the core clock)
and positively effects mobile (by avoiding dropping the core clock).

------
NicoJuicy
So, 80% of the ad is about augmented reality and applications?

I've never used any of that, we should have consoles for that.

The most thing I use my phone is for calling, sms, WhatsApp, Google maps and
Chromecast.

I don't see me as an augmented reality user

~~~
simonh
There’s not much point trying to sell on things everyone knows about and uses
already.

~~~
NicoJuicy
It is the origin of iPhone..

Everyone knew how to call and use a smartphone browser ( eg. Nokia ngage )

------
abhisuri97
Say what you will about hardware and chipsets...the website is downright
amazing.

------
regecks
Wherefore art thou iPhone SE? :(

~~~
raydev
It's called the Xr now. Given the niceness of the phone with that small of a
price tag (relatively small, of course), Apple's gonna leave the Xr alone for
3 years before they replace it with the next "flagship downgrade."

~~~
masklinn
> It's called the Xr now.

The XR is bigger than the XS. The price point is not why the SE was so beloved
(though it was probably a factor for many).

The XR is the new C, not the new SE.

~~~
raydev
That small size was certainly beloved by a subset, but I don't think Apple
would have made the Xr so large if the SE's sales were good.

------
lkurusa
This looks like an interesting processor and 7nm sounds great, however since
the process size became mostly a marketing term, is there a comparison of
Apple’s process sizes to that of GlobalFoundries and Intel?

~~~
wereHamster
> The Apple A11 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC), designed
> by Apple Inc. and manufactured by TSMC.

(source:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A11](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A11))

So really you're asking for a technology comparison between TSMC, GF, and
Intel.

Related to that, one should note that GF stopped pursuing 7nm.
[https://semiengineering.com/gf-puts-7nm-on-
hold/](https://semiengineering.com/gf-puts-7nm-on-hold/).

------
glhaynes
Remember a year ago when the notch was going to be Apple's downfall? I don't
think I've seen a single person mention it being on the phones announced
today.

~~~
Jtsummers
It doesn't hurt that many flagship Android phones have similar notches now.
The new phones have similar sizes to the prior years models, but larger
displays overall. Consequently, the notches don't have much impact. The
notches (in practice) are less annoying than most detractors had anticipated.

~~~
__sr__
All Android phones (with notches) have notches _in addition to_ an ugly chin.
The lack of other bezels is what made the notch on iPhone X acceptable (to me,
at least). The thought of a notch _with_ a chin (or worse, a forehead, or
both) is frankly irritating. Xiaomi probably did the best job building a near
bezel less phone with their Mix lineup — except for the front camera. If
Android phone vendors can’t work an iPhone X like display (no chin), why not
just build phones with a narrow forehead and no chin? The forehead could be
used for display connections and camera, sensors, speaker etc. Even a Galaxy
Note 8 like design (narrow chin and forehead) would be preferable to this
madness. Alternatively, they could do what Xiaomi did with Mix lineup.

~~~
dogma1138
Some have notches and a chin some do not, just as some are completely edge to
edge with no chin with a pop out camera and in screen fingerprint sensors.

------
qalmakka
I guess that if the current pricing trend holds, in 2030 the top iPhone will
cost like a small hatchback.

~~~
rezistik
If the rumors are to believed, in 2030 the top iPhone might _be_ a small
hatchback.

------
dman
Did they consider that some people might call this iPhone Excess?

------
timvdalen
Really, they went with "XS" for the biggest phone yet?

~~~
masklinn
It's actually XS Max. Like pepsi.

XS is the smallest of the three phones announced today.

~~~
twiceaday
No, it is the same size as the XR.

~~~
masklinn
It really is not. The XR is quite a bit bigger (150.9x75.7x8.3mm versus
143.6x70.9x7.7mm) and with a bigger (6.1" versus 5.8") but lower-quality
screen (326 DPI LED w/o 3D touch versus 458 DPI OLED w/ 3D touch).

------
Lind5
as designs shrink to 7/5nm and beyond, quantum effects are emerging as a more
widespread and significant problem, and one that ultimately will affect
everyone working at those nodes. [https://semiengineering.com/quantum-effects-
at-7-5nm/](https://semiengineering.com/quantum-effects-at-7-5nm/)

------
Svoka
I find it fascinating how Apple delivers 7nm processors, while reportedly
Intel is struggling with 14nm and delaying 10nm.

~~~
lostmsu
TSMC

------
gaius
“Apple-designed GPU” eh, this’ll be interesting.

~~~
simonh
That started with the A11.

------
daddyofive
can anyone do a brain dump on the ML part of the chip?

