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Apple Teases Apple Silicon Mac Pro at Spring Event

cmaier said:
No it’s not. It doesn;t matter that apple “hid” die shots. There are plenty of third-party die shots. And many of us CPU designers pointed out that the blob on the bottom of the die was an interconnect fabric to connect to one other die. There are no other hidden interconnect fabrics, and there is no way that the fabric we all knew was there can connect to multiple die without the creation of a new, very complicated, die to sit between the fabric and another fabric. That new die would be very tall, and two actually be necessary in all likelihood.
Click to expand...

Looking at die shots is like looking at blueprints for some people. I mean, if you know what you are looking at/for, the die shot is very instructive/illuminating, but looks like a mess for the average person. Sure, the large square 'pools' are obvious, but the rest is a mystery. In my early education, I was surprised how many people couldn't 'read' blueprints in my early goal for an architect degree/career. I could see the final results of the lines on paper, and was surprised at how many in the classes couldn't do it. I was horrified to find out that many builders can't too. Wow... But I've been fascinated by die shots forever, but am not an expert. My time at the IEEE peaked my fascination. It's 'a whole nother world'.
 
A fair bit of interesting information and speculation from Max Tech's latest video:

  • Mac Studio has one product number, regardless of configuration. Which means we have one more Mac desktop left to reveal per the ECC filing so this must be the Mac Pro and it must be previewed at WWDC in June.
  • Gurman is saying that "Jade4C-Die" is not going forward and Mac Pro's most-powerful SoC option will be based on the M2 architecture with up to 48 cores (so I presume this is the 12-core SoC that was first leaked last year).
  • Apple has a patent to stack SoCs and that the "M Mega Ultra Max Pro" for the Mac Pro would be two Ultras stacked on top of each other.

 
CWallace said:
A fair bit of interesting information and speculation from Max Tech's latest video:

  • Mac Studio has one product number, regardless of configuration. Which means we have one more Mac desktop left to reveal per the ECC filing so this must be the Mac Pro and it must be previewed at WWDC in June.
  • Gurman is saying that "Jade4C-Die" is not going forward and Mac Pro's most-powerful SoC option will be based on the M2 architecture with up to 48 cores (so I presume this is the 12-core SoC that was first leaked last year).
  • Apple has a patent to stack SoCs and that the "M Mega Ultra Max Pro" for the Mac Pro would be two Ultras stacked on top of each other.

Click to expand...
I wonder what kind of thermal hit the bottom set of SoCs would see with a stacked configuration.
 
diamond.g said:
I wonder what kind of thermal hit the bottom set of SoCs would see with a stacked configuration.
Click to expand...
It would be pretty awful. I proposed the following potential solution in 1996. By now there are much better solutions :)

A9996EFA-0BE6-446C-A32D-68D3C98685B6.jpeg
 
  • Wow
Reactions: PinkyMacGodess
cmaier said:
It would be pretty awful. I proposed the following potential solution in 1996. By now there are much better solutions :)

View attachment 1972339
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Yeah even AMD seems to be thermally constrained with just SRAM sitting on top of the die (reading reports that the 5800X3D can’t be overclocked due to the SRAM die breaking cause thermals). I can’t imagine an actual heat generating part sitting on top of another heat generating part not causing thermal issues.

It would be pretty cool to see though, no pun intended, lol.
 
CWallace said:
A fair bit of interesting information and speculation from Max Tech's latest video:

  • Mac Studio has one product number, regardless of configuration. Which means we have one more Mac desktop left to reveal per the ECC filing so this must be the Mac Pro and it must be previewed at WWDC in June.
  • Gurman is saying that "Jade4C-Die" is not going forward and Mac Pro's most-powerful SoC option will be based on the M2 architecture with up to 48 cores (so I presume this is the 12-core SoC that was first leaked last year).
  • Apple has a patent to stack SoCs and that the "M Mega Ultra Max Pro" for the Mac Pro would be two Ultras stacked on top of each other.

Click to expand...

That sounds a little nuts. From what I remember of the companies and researchers that have tried stacking dies in a package, it hasn't worked out so well. Not dies the size of a full processor. Even 'wafer scale' computers didn't work well at all, mainly due to heat as they were running more power back then, but hmm... And yet Apple is proving that larger dies work, and maybe they can pull of more magic. I wonder what the yields are going to be. It'll likely be very expensive. Like sit down and breath in a bag expensive. Is anyone actually selling anything with stacked dies yet? Stacking finished SOCs is one thing, stacking the internal SOC dies is another.
 
CWallace said:
A fair bit of interesting information and speculation from Max Tech's latest video:

  • Mac Studio has one product number, regardless of configuration. Which means we have one more Mac desktop left to reveal per the ECC filing so this must be the Mac Pro and it must be previewed at WWDC in June.
  • Gurman is saying that "Jade4C-Die" is not going forward and Mac Pro's most-powerful SoC option will be based on the M2 architecture with up to 48 cores (so I presume this is the 12-core SoC that was first leaked last year).
  • Apple has a patent to stack SoCs and that the "M Mega Ultra Max Pro" for the Mac Pro would be two Ultras stacked on top of each other.

Click to expand...

That's a cute little box. Does it come with wheels? :cool: It almost looks like a toy. I realize it's just a mock-up of what might happen. Still, it's cute...
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
That sounds a little nuts. From what I remember of the companies and researchers that have tried stacking dies in a package, it hasn't worked out so well. Not dies the size of a full processor. Even 'wafer scale' computers didn't work well at all, mainly due to heat as they were running more power back then, but hmm... And yet Apple is proving that larger dies work, and maybe they can pull of more magic. I wonder what the yields are going to be. It'll likely be very expensive. Like sit down and breath in a bag expensive. Is anyone actually selling anything with stacked dies yet? Stacking finished SOCs is one thing, stacking the internal SOC dies is another.
Click to expand...
AMD is selling stacked SRAM on it’s Epyc CPU’s. Maybe that isn’t the same thing though.
 
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