Elon Just Won the Compute War (Nobody Noticed)

We are living in the future.

New Advanced Chip Fab

On Sat, May 9, 2026 at 12:31 PM Larry wrote:

(1401) New American Chip Factory That Terrifies TSMC - YouTube

Processor on my 2009 i7 iMac:       i7- 860

Processor on my 2017 i5 iMac:       i5- 7500K
Processor on my 2017 i7 iMac:       i7- 7700K
Processor on my 2020 i7 iMac:       i7-10700K

The first iMac was 45 NM.  The next three are 14 NM.  

My complaint about the time period from 2010 to 2020 is that advances in processors seemed to be very slow.  The i7-10700K is only twice as fast because it has twice as many cores.  It wasn't until Apple came out with the M1 that we saw a big change.

The Ryzen 9 7940hs processor on my Minisforum computer is 4 NM.  In theory, it is about 60% faster than the  i7-10700K, but I think that the mini-computer thermal throttles.  Maybe the iMac does too, but it has a big cooling system relative to the compactness of the all-in-one computer.

Compact computers tend to use laptop parts.  The "M" in M1 is for "Mobile".  iMacs use smaller versions of memory and storage, and so does my mini-computer.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

x86 vs ARM difference explained for Beginners

The last time I looked at x86 machine code was about 35 years ago.  Apparently, it has gotten much more complex.  

ARM processors are typically not compatible with x86 software, with some exceptions, which can be a problem.  

Apple has created powerful processors that use less energy.  That's a good thing.  Low power processors meant for mobile devices like laptops and tablets are powering Mac desktops.