
Apple Describes 7nm iPhone SoC - rbanffy
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333705&_mc=RSS_EET_EDT&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=link&utm_medium=EETimesDaily-20180913
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fhood
What are the honest chances that Apple is prepping to move off of x86 to ARM
for their computers? They are basically the undisputed leader in ARM
processors at the moment right?

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Razengan
The writing is definitely on the wall in a number of ways, including the
deprecation of "legacy" stuff like OpenGL and 32-bit.

I would guess that ARM Macs, if not some iPad+Mac hybrid, might come one year
after they finally release the UIKit-on-macOS API that they showed off at WWDC
2018.

I'm curious as to how they might solve x86 compatibility.

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SpikeDad
They already have a history of cross platform "emulation" from the PowerPC to
X86 move.

You know they've already figured it out and it's down to a business decision
not a technical one.

I could even imagine they've gotten Parallels involved - an ARM prototype
perhaps?

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basch
>powered by a 7nm SoC enabling up to 512 GBytes of memory.

What is the relation between 7nm and storage capacity? Is the nand 7nm?

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neolefty
Addressability — 512GBytes is 2^39 bytes aka 2^36 8-byte chunks. So each
memory address needs 39 bits, and each internal memory address bus needs
either at least 36 or 39 wires, depending on the context — too much for 32-bit
addresses.

In other words, going to 7nm makes it easier to route wide busses around the
chip. You could do the same thing on a larger process, but it's less space-
efficient.

