> Powered by A18 Pro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A18

So this is basically running on a phone CPU

I got excited for a moment thinking it might have an M4 or M5 chip, that would've made it interesting to tinker around with Asahi Linux.

But now it mostly just reminds me of a netbook. Its cool for people on a budget though, good to see Apple not just being this overpriced premium brand that it once was.

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coder543 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The A18 Pro performs about on par with an M4 in terms of single threaded performance, and a little better than M1 in terms of multi threaded performance.

The MacBook Neo has one of the fastest processors on the market for single threaded tasks, which is what has the most impact on how "fast" a processor feels for day to day usage.

Netbooks had processors that were glacially slow.

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jefftk 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I used a first-gen eeepc with Linux in college. I didn't have any problems with speed for normal use, though I ssh'd into servers for anything more intensive than running a browser.

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sva_ 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I actually used a netbook when I was in school, it wasn't all that bad.

People thinking I mentioned my (somewhat) disappointment about the CPU because it is also used in Phones, but actually what I meant is that I would be interested in doing some reverse engineering work to contribute to the Asahi Linux project for the M-chips if this was a cheap option to attain one.

But I don't really see doing that for the A18, personally; even though I don't doubt its a good chip!

	▲	dijit 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> I actually used a netbook when I was in school, it wasn't all that bad. The reputation problem was kind of baked in. Vista launched the same year netbooks did, and even though Vista was a disaster, "runs the latest Windows" is the smell test normal people use for whether something is a real computer. Netbooks didn't pass. The storage situation made Windows users miserable anyway. The SSD models had 4-8GiB of flash, and XP alone ate well over half before you'd done anything. So people bought the HDD variant instead, more space, sure, but spinning at 4,200rpm, which wasn't even the slow-but-acceptable 5,400 of a normal laptop drive. Then pile the standard bloatware on top of that. Bear in mind, people chose the HDD version because it ran Vista: the thing that made it a "real" computer. The SSD variant, the one that actually worked, got ignored for exactly that reason. Run Linux on the SSD variants though, and the thing was actually great.
	▲	piperswe 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I suspect Asahi Linux would appreciate work to support A18 Macs as well!

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j45 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That’s pretty impressive

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hennell 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think I'd put a phone CPU running netbook-like costing $599 still in the "overpriced premium brand" bucket myself.

(Not sure if that's really an apt description though, but then I was out as soon as I read they're neutering one of the usb-c speeds.)

	▲	simondotau 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		So long as you can use the slow port for charging, I think it’s an entirely tolerable trade-off. Remember, this is a machine for people with low technical requirements. It’s not a machine for someone who needs lots of high speed ports.

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sgjohnson 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Of course it’s an iPhone chip, which is why it’s got just 8 gigs of RAM. I think it’s the same exact SoC that went into the 16 Pro Max.

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sva_ 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There were some M-series chips with 8 gigs, iirc. There was a whole debate going on about that on the net when they were released. Not the M5 though, as it seems.

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sgjohnson 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I think the M2 was the last one they made with 8 gigs of memory.

	▲	nguyenkien an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It's M3.

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midnitewarrior 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This suggests someone may be able to install MacOS on an iPhone with some modification.

	▲	sgjohnson an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It's not the first Mac that has an iPhone/iPad chip. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_Transition_Kit And yes, absolutely. All you need is a bootchain exploit. However unlike in the old jailbreaking days when people found and publicized them for fun, these days they are worth millions. Apple will pay you $500k for sandbox escape into the kernel. If you nail the bootchain, it'll be in the millions. From Apple. And god knows how much such a thing would go for in the black market.

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stuff4ben 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The A18Pro is a very powerful CPU, besting even the M1 in single-core performance (about even in multicore). Saying its just a "phone CPU" is disingenuous.

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sroussey 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I do wish they used the A19 Pro which has better hardware based memory security.

	▲	Tostino 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They likely based this on the fab node with the best capacity to price ratio.