Yeah, but that was because when Apple went to Intel and said,”We’d like to have the performance of an i9, BUT in something small/light/thin.” Intel replied,”Ok, you’ll want an i3 for this, an i5 for that, an i7 for this other thing and an i9 for this one here.
There’s really never been a “good” reason for the low end to have such a stark performance difference from the high end. Well, maybe good for Intel and AMD, not so much for the consumer who has historically, had to settle for an i3.
You're referring to the practice of binning. Anything less than an i9 is actually a chip with some form of defect in it.
If Apple and TSMC can cut down on the flaws, then it may not even be economical to bin. Just throw out/recycle/make into jewelry the few that don't pass muster. The genius of that plan, if it can be done, is that you don't end up with one flagship model and 3 "also rans". Also-rans always water down the brand. It's a new world and Intel needs to understand this.
Let me put it this way. I have a taco truck and so does my competitor, let's call him Paco.
In my "Flight Plan Gourmet Taco (our specialty, by the way), they're made with freshly made ground beef, clean, washed lettuce, tomato, onion, and sour cream. My taco stand sells you 1 taco. Oh don't worry, they're HUGE tacos, you'll leave full and satisfied, I promise.
I make the tacos 10 at a time, 'cause there's never fewer than 10 people lined up anyway, even at breakfast! When I make 10 tacos, I make 10 GREAT tacos and I sell all of them at full price.
Now my competitor the next truck over, Paco, he's got a great truck too, and it's even wrapped with a great saying: "Paco's Tacos Inside!" His top-of-the-line taco is called the T9.
But now Paco, he's got a small QC problem. He makes his tortillas thinner than I make mine, so every 8th, 9th, and 10th taco he makes gets soggy and falls apart right at the bent part due to the warm, slightly greasy ground beef he uses. They're still good, but he has to sell those at a discount, or some customers will return them and he'll have to make more while people are still lining up. He calls them the "T8".
Okay, now there's also another small QC issue. Some of Paco's tacos have a little bit of...well, bird droppings, lizard droppings (we ARE in the south), or dead lady bugs in the lettuce. In his defense, there's only one or two of these in every batch of 10 that he makes. Paco really tries hard to make a great product, y'know!
Paco sells these as "Dogcos", and they're deeply discounted. Cocker spaniels seem to love the ladybug tacos the best.
For every 10 "Flight Plan Gourmet Tacos" I make, I sell 10 tacos. They're all fit for Human consumption and they're priced accordingly. You can give one to your dog if you like, but you'll still pay full price at my taco truck. After all, not every dog is a spaniel!
For every 10 "Tacos Inside" Paco makes, he sells 6 for humans, 3 more discount tacos for humans, and 1 for dogs. He needs special branding for the dog tacos; can't have those getting confused! All this costs money.
Who makes more money?
The IRS of course...wait, what was my point?
Oh yeah: If Apple and TSMC, working together, can avoid binning, they will reinvent the marketplace. If Intel wants to live in the marketplace, they will need to figure out how to improve their process and stop making so many failed tacos. Er, chips. Wait, now I'm hungry!
This is a great point. The M1 changes everything. In so many ways, I'm not sure anyone can predict the trajectory of how Apple releases Macs in particular. The M1 with 16GB RAM is already comparable to what, the higher end i7s from Intel? and it's running in a fan-less $999 MacBook Air. Crazy what Apple has done in a couple of years. They fixed the keyboard, gave us a monster of a processor in a Mac that is sub $1000.
Is it really a monster of a processor if it just does its job without also being a griddle for coin-sized pancakes?
