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AnandTech Calls Apple's Fastest CPU Core Claim for M1 'Extremely Plausible' – MacRumors

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Apple on Tuesday unveiled a new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, making up the first wave of Macs powered by Apple Silicon, and AnandTech has since published a deep dive into Apple’s brand new M1 custom chip at the heart of the new machines.


The article begins by picking through the admittedly scant details that Apple’s event offered about the M1 chip’s design, yet manages to extrapolate some interesting tidbits regarding the processor’s packaging and architecture.

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Beginning with the M1’s unified memory architecture, AnandTech notes that the packaging style keeps the embedded memory off to the side of the compute die rather on top of it, ensuring the chips can be efficiently cooled, which suggests Apple is using a 128-bit DRAM bus similar to that found in previous A-X chips.

Apple says the M1 features four high-performance “Firestorm” CPU cores and four efficiency “Icestorm” cores. Examining an actual die shot shown in Apple’s M1 unveiling, Anandtech explains that the chip appears to have a 12MB cache – up from the 8MB of L2 cache featured in the A14 – which makes sense given that it’s now being used by four high-performance cores instead of two.

The article later goes on to compare the M1 performance to existing Intel and AMD processors and takes the A14 as a benchmark guide, while noting that with its additional cache, “we expect the Firestorm cores used in the M1 to be even faster,” suggesting “Apple’s claim of having the fastest CPU core in the world seems extremely plausible.”

Running the A14 through a series of benchmarks against a Rizen 9 5950X and an Intel i7-1185G7, AnandTech calls the results “mind-boggling,” noting that “the fact the A14 currently competes with the very best top-performance designs that the x86 vendors have on the market today is just an astonishing feat.” Taking into account a graph of single-thread performance gains over the last five years, AnandTech suggests that Intel has increased its chips’ performance by about 28%, while Apple has managed closer to 198% in the same period.

Apple’s performance trajectory and unquestioned execution over these years is what has made ‌Apple Silicon‌ a reality today. Anybody looking at the absurdness of that graph will realize that there simply was no other choice but for Apple to ditch Intel and x86 in favor of their own in-house microarchitecture – staying par for the course would have meant stagnation and worse consumer products.

The performance analyses conclude by noting Apple’s enormous power efficiency advantage, which is why the new M1 chip will be able to offer either vastly increased battery life, and/or vastly increased performance compared to the current Intel MacBook line-up. Apple has said it will take at least two years to transition its entire Mac lineup to ‌Apple Silicon‌. Going on its current performance trajectory, Apple’s forthcoming desktop-class chip designs are likely to look “extremely impressive,” AnandTech concludes.

The five-page deep dive contains far more details than we’ve summarized above, and is well worth a read. You can check out the complete article here.

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Meta Expands VR Operating System to Third-Party Hardware Makers – MacRumors

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Facebook parent company Meta today announced the upcoming expansion of Meta Horizon OS, a virtual and augmented reality operating system that will be available to third-party hardware manufacturers that want to design their own headsets.


Right now, Meta sells the Quest line of headsets, but the company wants to provide the software for third-party VR and AR products in the future, much like Microsoft offers Windows for all manner of third-party PCs.

Meta Horizon OS is the mixed reality operating system that Meta created for its own Quest headsets, and it has support for eye, face, hand, and body tracking along with passthrough, spatial anchors, scene understanding, and other features. There is a “social layer” that will allow the identities, avatars, and friends of users to move between virtual spaces on different devices.

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According to Meta, multiple companies are working on devices that will use Meta Horizon OS. ASUS ROG is developing a performance gaming headset and Lenovo is working on mixed reality devices for productivity, learning, and entertainment. Meta says that it is also creating a limited edition version of Meta Quest in partnership with Xbox.

With the expansion of Meta Horizon OS to third-party hardware manufacturers, Meta is making it easier for any developer to ship VR software on the platform by removing barriers between the Horizon Store and App Lab.

By creating an operating system that can be used by other hardware manufacturers, Meta is inserting itself into the growing AR/VR ecosystem and creating opportunities for it to outpace Apple in mixed reality development. Apple launched the Vision Pro headset earlier this year, but software is lacking given the high price and limited distribution of the device.

According to a report from earlier today, interest in the Vision Pro is already waning at Apple’s retail locations with fewer people requesting demos.

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Brian's Randoms from Sea Otter 2024 – Pinkbike.com

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There have been more launches in the past two weeks than any other two-week period I can remember since I started sweeping floors at Freedom Bike Shop back in 2001. Yes, that means I’m very old. It also means that after several years of delayed product releases, some brands have finally cleared out enough inventory to share what they’ve been working on.

The Pinkbike team came down to Sea Otter this year with mixed expectations, and there were definitely some weird vibes. Everyone is concerned for the remaining Kona employees, and more than one brand expressed that their plan is to #surviveto2025. But overall we loved catching up with everyone, the weather was great, and somehow there was even more gear to cover. The industry might be going through a tough time, but ultimately riding bikes is still ridiculously fun and bike tech is as interesting as ever.

And on that note, here are a few of the random things that caught my eye during the show.

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OutsideBrendan works smarter not harder, and dog Bubbie(?) is awesome.



I mistakenly thought it was a garage project kind of thing, but it’s a real brand with a promo video and everything.





And with that, it’s time to face my expense report. Until next year, Sea Otter!

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We tried these three beauty products this week. Here are our thoughts – Vancouver Sun

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Article content

Skin Caviar Eye Lift Serum

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They say: A luxury serum that firms, smooths and lifts the eye area. The dual-chamber product features the Swiss skin-care brand’s Cellular Complex to ‘restore youthfulness to the eye contour,’ along with a blend of caviar components.

We say: Our tester applied one pump of this serum to the eye area daily. Gently dabbed onto skin, the serum gave an instant boost of hydration. The liquid-serum formula was lightweight and non-sticky, providing an easy base for any additional skin-care or makeup products. With use, our tester reported fine lines and firmness were noticeably improved.

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$760 | Holt Renfrew, holtrenfrew.com

Marc Anthony

Strictly Curls Curl Envy Leave-In Conditioner

They say: A leave-in hair conditioner formulated for curly hair. Boasting strand-smoothing ingredients such as avocado oil, Vitamin E and shea butter, the spray can be used on course, fine, thick or thin curls to promote softness, fight frizz and lock in hydration.

We say: Our tester spritzed this conditioner on her ultra-curly, frizz prone coif. The spray format makes application easy and mess-free. Used both as a de-tangler on freshly washed hair and as a curl pick-me-up in between washes, she found it left curls looking formed, smooth and not stiff.

$12.97 | Mass retailers, walmart.ca

Three buzzed-about beauty products we tried this week.

Ghlee

Lip Balm 

They say: A nourishing lip balm that features antioxidant-rich ghee, along with mango seed butter and Vitamin E to hydrate lips. Available in Original, Rose, Chai, Mango-Papaya and Mint.

We say: This lip balm gives a dose of smoothing hydration with one swipe. Our tester loved the rose iteration, which boasted the scent of a fresh bloom. It’s the kind of balm you keep reaching for in your bag, she reports.

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