If the M1 proves anything at all it’s that ARM 64 can and will be a performance chip not just a chip that is strictly intended for low power devices. I think that’s what the M1 will finally signal to all the other vendors, even though many have been saying this for a long time it’s proof in the wild that you can build desktop class ARM chips.
My other thought is I wonder if this will open up the idea of vendors support specific co-processors analogous to how Apple has things like the T1, some offloading to a specific chip for ML etc.
This is exciting if more vendors do this, I predict the first one to do it in an open way will win the day long term as it will be attractive to all upstream manufacturers like Dell etc
I don’t think we know that for sure yet. Firstly, Apple has access to better chip technology. That gives them extra room and extra speed for free (actually, for a lot of dollars)
Secondly, AFAIK, nobody has attempted something similar with a different CPU. It is possible (but IMHO not likely), that a similar approach as the M1 (optimize a system , not individual chips), but with x64 (or x86, or MIPS, or RISC-V) would outperform the ARM version.
“Desktop-class” is a moving target, so if that were the case, the M1 wouldn’t be called desktop class anymore.
My other thought is I wonder if this will open up the idea of vendors support specific co-processors analogous to how Apple has things like the T1, some offloading to a specific chip for ML etc.
This is exciting if more vendors do this, I predict the first one to do it in an open way will win the day long term as it will be attractive to all upstream manufacturers like Dell etc