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  • Wairis - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    Yep, unfortunately not surprising.
    And I too like to aromatize the cost of chip development (fun typo last paragraph).
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    "And I too like to aromatize the cost of chip development (fun typo last paragraph)."

    I trusted you with one thing, Word, one thing!

    (Thanks!)
  • phoenix_rizzen - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Well, see, your first problem was trusting *anything* to MS Word. ;)
  • Deicidium369 - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Well he probably can't use a stone tablet and chisel.
  • FunBunny2 - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    "Well he probably can't use a stone tablet and chisel."

    yeah, but he could use linux, linux, linux.
  • eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    I find Gboard's autocorrect an even bigger offender. But then, I wouldn't dream of typing up an article in that (cr) app.
  • S.D.Leary - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    They have done this before. Remember that before the A12 chips, the iPad Pro models used the A10X. There will probably not be a new chip until around the time (or after) A14 ships.

    SDLeary
  • Alistair - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    no they haven't, the point of this article is that the A12Z and A12X are exactly the same silicon
  • DigitalFreak - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    People who sign their posts make me laugh.
  • HardwareDufus - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    You prefer to just 'drop the mic'?
  • jeffrey - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    The other article on the new iPad Pro (2020) lists the A12X as having an 8-cluster GPU in the table instead of 7-cluster.
  • Lord of the Bored - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    The A12X had eight GPU clusters. Apple disabled one and sold it as a 7-cluster design(as is very common in the graphics industry). The A12Z is exactly the same part.
  • jeffrey - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    Thanks Lord.., but AnandTech has updated the other article’s table now to have it be reflective of the 7 active clusters, so there’s that..
  • eek2121 - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    It likely operates at a higher TDP.
  • Samus - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    I was thinking it could be a higher clock speed too. Who knows. The problem for consumers is since Apple is unchallenged, they have no real incentive to push the performance envelope. Considering how things are going in the world, it wouldn't be all that shocking if they reuse lightning\thunder cores in the next iPhones.
  • BedfordTim - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Is it more a case of not needing more performance? The iPad Pro lives in a strange part of the market, way too expensive to be a tablet and yet not as useful as for work device as a Surface or MacBook.
  • s.yu - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Many would disagree that it's too expensive to be a tablet, specs are top notch after all, I also believe it runs the Adobe suite and many other media creation software better than Surface. It's worth the price as a high end digitizer.
    It's now more useful as a work device with the new keyboard and touchpad but I'm not taking the plunge until they fix bendgate or add a headphone jack and/or third C port to the keyboard. I can take one of these issues as a compromise but not both.
  • BedfordTim - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    Specs are top notch but that only matters if you can tell the difference. My Surface only gets used when I'm travelling as I find it just too small for serious use.
  • s.yu - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    That's very subjective, I used a 12.3" as a daily device for over 2 years. I believe most Surface users have similar experiences.
    And of course the screen, the speakers, the battery life and the wide support for apps all make differences. You don't even have an anatomy model on Windows as high quality as one that can be found on iOS.
  • Speedfriend - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    I have a Surface Pro and an iPad Pro and there is no comparison. The iPad Pro is a toy, with so many annoying software glitches when using it. The Surface is brilliant, just wish it had USBC.

    Adobe on the iPad is not the full version, it lacks much of the functionality
  • s.yu - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    Interestingly I have the opposite experience, Windows tablet mode is horrible so I just use regular mode with a stylus, and with little magnification. Even then there are strange glitches like BT refusing to connect automatically to a paired speaker which doesn't appear on my Android phone nor with other BT devices like the mouse and keyboard.
  • khanikun - Thursday, April 16, 2020 - link

    I had that weird BT glitch too, but it only affected my Sony SRS-X11. Literally my other BT speakers, Sony SRS-XB41, no problems. Creative Roar, no problem. Nor any of my BT headphones had issues. That's for my Surface Book 2. My old Surface Pro 3, never had ay issues though.
  • michael2k - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Yet Apple’s iPhones keep pushing the performance envelope despite being a couple years ahead of the competition for the past decade now.

    I think it’s okay that they recycle, reuse, and reduce too.
  • s.yu - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    I agree, especially in the tablet segment where the iPP is essentially unique. iPhones are arguably falling behind so I don't think they could afford to sit on their behinds there.
  • khanikun - Thursday, April 16, 2020 - link

    Not like there's much competition in the media consumption tablet market. Everyone just makes ultra thin laptops or convertibles using Windows. Few bother making Android tablets at all, while those that do really don't bother making decent Android tablets. They're usually 1-2 generations behind on the processors and don't bother ever updating Android on the things.
  • Santoval - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    Assuming clock speeds of both the CPU and GPU block are identical I don't think so. Better yields, a tighter binning and presumably a more mature stepping after 18 months of the release of the original also suggest that the TDP got (slightly) lower.
    So if the extra active GPU core is the sole difference its additional TDP load should be absorbed while retaining the same TDP. This is almost certainly doable, since Apple moved from 15 cores (CPU + GPU) to 16 cores in total.
  • eek2121 - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    Better multitasking performance? The A12X appears to be much better at multitasking.
  • nicolaim - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    "So there are fewer devices to aromatize the costs of chip development against, [...]."

    Something about this sentence smells wrong to me...
  • mrvco - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    You need to waft more and it will come to you.
  • kefkiroth - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    There must be a huge bump in refurb 2018 iPad Pro orders these days. Most people won't use the LIDAR capabilities, and the A12X is for most purposes almost identical to the A12Z. The time the 2018 models gets slow should be around the time the 2020 models feel slow. I recently picked one up after holding out with an old Nexus 9, and in some respects, it feels snappier than my 11 Pro.
  • André - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    The only difference is the amount of RAM available. The 2018 model only the 1TB model has 6GB of RAM. Now every 2020 model has 6GB.
  • s.yu - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    They need to sell the 2018 iPP refurbs cheaply enough. I don't know about the current market price but the 2018 model was priced higher than the 2020 models at launch so they need a more significant cut to make it make sense. Some may also appreciate the upgraded camera.
  • brucethemoose - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    Maybe Apple had some of those tablet SoC engineers working on a ARM Macbook chip?

    Given the slip ups in the x86 market over the past few years, it would've been the perfect time to pull the trigger. I'd be *very* interested to see how a couple of thier ARM cores stack up against Skylake and Zen in the same TDP.
  • watzupken - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    Its a shoddy iPad Pro refresh to be honest. If they want to release a new iPad, then make it a proper upgrade instead of just slapping some fancy rear facing camera array. Apple is increasingly recycling design, components, etc, over the years. For a premium price that they are charging, there is little reason for these to stay stale, especially when this is the top end tablet.
  • zepi - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    New pro is still better than the old one - better camera + more memory/SSD and prices stayed the same.

    Personally this will not make want to buy one, but it is not like anyone is forced to upgrade or entitled to bigger perf upgrades.

    Compare with your average yearly update of HP, Lenovo or Dell laptops. Nobody expects to upgrade their business laptop on a yearly or bi-yearly cadence. I think most larger companies have 36-48 month upgrade cycles.

    My guess is that iPad Pro aims for similar. If they release a small feature upgrade every 18 months and a new SoC + other things every 36 months, businesses won't complain.
  • s.yu - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Cheaper, for mid-high tiers. The base models stay the same though.
  • rpg1966 - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    It's (mildly) interesting, in that Apple has so much money they could just say "who cares if we spend a $xx million on an A13X", and yet they take what appears to be the more financially-sensible route.

    Yes, of course there's the "look after your pennies and the pounds will look after themselves" thing, but when you have *that* much money, it's still a (slightly) interesting insight into their thought process.
  • brucethemoose - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link

    Its reportedly more like $xxx million, and growing: https://semiengineering.com/big-trouble-at-3nm/

    Thats enough to eat into *Apple's* margins. And given those eye watering projections, this won't be the last shortcut they take.
  • flgt - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Interesting reading that article from 2018. Now GF’s is out. Intel might be next if their next node can’t match 14 nm in performance. Maybe only TSMC and Samsung left. Although the government may need to step in and help Intel if they want to keep any leading edge fabs in the US.
  • Deicidium369 - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    LOL you think Intel is going anywhere? They are not going to go fabless EVER - and some stuff like chipsets may be done on other foundries - but never their main IP. Performance from clock speeds is only 1 way to increase perf - Starting with Ice Lake, the completely new - post Skylake - architecture was released - Sunny Cove - increasing IPC by 30%+ and with Tiger Lake later this year - the 2nd revision is released - Willow Cove - with a probable similar increase in IPC. We don't know much about Golden Cove - but that will be the 3rd part.
  • Speedfriend - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    Intel 7nm is on track
  • rpg1966 - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Interesting, thanks. I wonder how that article would read if written today, with presumably a lot of advances made since then.

    Still, Apple has to spend the money sooner or later, for whatever the next iPhone needs. In these low-interest-rate times, delaying a spend doesn't really save you much.
  • brucethemoose - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    The tone on 3nm, aka "oh my God this is going to be *expensive*" hasn't changed much since then:

    https://semiengineering.com/tag/3nm/

    But yeah, during TSMC's own info dumps, "large customer" is almost a synonym for "Apple".
  • Deicidium369 - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Apple all but bankrolled the TSMC 10nm class "7nm"...
  • Samus - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    We are in an era where hoarding money is a tactically good business move. Apple is in one of the best financial positions of any company in the world because they are not locked into wining and dining their investors.
  • damianrobertjones - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Man... (or woman/other) the price of iPads is insane. Even the second hand eBay prices are absolutely crazy (For the 3rd Gen Pro). If anything, I feel that the prices are being kept artifically high by eBay's fake bidding system. Come on, you must have seen it by now!? The amount of accounts with under 10 feedback or 0 feedback.

    You'd also think that the (eBay) price, for a 3rd gen pro, would fall shortly after the next gen arrives. Nope, not here in the U.K.
  • brucethemoose - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Direct promotions aside, I haven't seen a decent price for a hot item on eBay in years. The sellers are all scalpers, and I have no idea who's buying their stuff.
  • playtech1 - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    This makes me wonder if an A14X model is going to be a bit delayed, hence the need for this (very) light refresh to tide over the range until 2021.
  • GC2:CS - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    OK but what about the improved thermals, and DVFS tuning ? What about potentially higher efficiency from better binning node after two years ?

    Any word on the packaging technique Apple employs for the RAM ?

    Regarding the die size... that thing is quite small, just a tad larger than 125mm A10 with 3x number of transistors. Maybe they want to bring down the iPad Pro line in price. So a mature and relativelly cheap chip would scale down better over the years. I can not see anybody complaining having just A12X in three years time. It would still be competitive with many upcoming notebooks.

    We will see about next gen.
  • Sahrin - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    It'd be interesting to know exactly when this decision was made. Presumably since they're the same silicon they're pin-compatible, so it could be the 14X was just straight up yanked and the decision made to go ahead with the old internals just a few weeks before it was to enter production (~90 days before launch maybe?).

    I'm wondering if it's because of iPad sales, or something else.
  • brucethemoose - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Not a chance. Testing and validation alone is going to take way longer than 90 days unless they rebrand the entire iPad.

    I bet the decision was made years ago, when they started developing the A13.
  • Sahrin - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    It does take longer than 90 days, but the 12X/Z design was already pre-validated because it's the same design. It's entirely possible that the 14X-based tablet was pushed back less than 6 months before launch - until mass manufacturing begins (~30 days before launch) they could do this if they are willing to sit on the CPU inventory (I agree, this is unlikely - but not impossible; nVidia e.g. is known to do this).

    It could also be that they're capacity constrained on 5 nm - remember, TSMC says that 5 nm is sold out; they could've gone through validation with the 14X, and then decided to allocate that capacity to the A14 and just continue production of the current gen hardware.

    The ~90 days is a *very* rough estimate of the time to process a wafer (~10 weeks to fabricate the wafer, then 2 weeks to cut and package) - it's probably a bit longer than this, but that's the ballpark.

    I agree your version is more likely, I'm just curious how close Apple was willing to cut it. Knowing the timing would tell us a lot about how they make decisions and what the critical factor was. Economics is the most likely answer, but also the least fun.
  • Quantumz0d - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    An ultra over hyped product which cannot do any basic compute but rather a media consumption device on top it lacks basic analog 3.5mm jack in the name of greedy wireless but rubbish piece of technology which has planned obsolescence. To make it worse it's very fragile and weak.

    They will ofc recycle their ARM processors, Google was a total idiot not to make Android tablet but chase their wild wet dreams of Apple type rubbish OS called Chrome OS which calls itself Linux yet nothing like Linux, has tons of Filesystem retarded-ness, Unfortunately all school kids use that dumb tech rather than a proper Linux machine or Windows, even Microsoft wants this Apple type junk ecosystem with walls thus Surface an x86 machine which cannot run Linux and same planned obsolescence with soldered and glued down parts, pure trash.

    A shame on computing itself.
  • The Garden Variety - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Hi Quantumz0d --

    I'm curious if you ever looked into some mental health support resources like I (and others) suggested a few months ago?
  • Deicidium369 - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link

    Ever have the displeasure of using Google Drive? Where a 1.5GB file might be listed as 1GB or 2GB - but never an exact size (Mega and 1fichier does)... or how it takes like 15 mins to zip up a couple files - rather than letting you line up files to download (like Mega and 1fichier do).... Google is lucky to get out of their own way - Chrome OS was an interesting but to my use case completely useless.

    I agree with all the kiddies only knowing Apple and other super dumbed down consumer tech - they will be the death of proper computing (got started 35 years ago with HP-UX/SunOS/IRIX/SCO)..

    But most of the other parts of your post are a bit kooky.
  • eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - link

    Reuse, reduce, recycle - Apple style. And, why not? Essentially no competition in the premium tablet space, more space for heat dissipation and larger battery.
    With those iPad pro specs, I wish even more that MS would have given it's Surface Pro 7s a bigger battery. At least for me, that 2-in-1 is the only real competitor for the iPad Pro, but it's battery life let's it down.

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