Apple seems to have delivered a masterpiece of a CPU chip in the M1.
If reporting is to be believed, this first iteration of the chip is a revelation.
It seems to be delivering unprecedented performance especially in gaming.
If so, this presents a conundrum for Microsoft in the gaming space.
Right now, Microsoft uses specialized AMD CPU and AMD GPU in the Xbox.
If the M1's performance scales as is projected, whither Microsoft?
That sort of raw performance means Microsoft now has to flex its muscles on this matter.
Microsoft has two choices, as I see it: 1) commune with AMD and see if the AMD roadmap obliterates any and all inklings of [gaming] grandeur by Apple, and/or 2) create their own CPUs using an ARM core.
The easier option, for now, is for Microsoft and AMD to come up with x86 CPUs that move the needle.
Conversely, with the heavier lift, using an ARM core, may allow Microsoft to do some new things not currently possible with x86, namely a vastly better thermals.
Then again, the M1 may have shown AMD ‘the way’, by letting AMD be able to designate some cores as low-power units, for basic housekeeping, and the rest of the cores as vroom-vroom performance cores.
Suffice it to say, exciting times are back in the currently staid world of CPUs.
© 2002 – 2020, John Obeto II for Blackground Media Unlimited
