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by robotresearcher 2046 days ago
I'd tolerate that if it runs usefully faster every day. Could save money overall.

There are several parts in a workstation that are already monolithic packages. Most GPU+GRAM cards, for example.

1 comments

So you're talking about taking a $300 CPU chip and turning into a $500 or $800 chip depending on how much RAM is on the SOC. But the fact still remains that the vast majority of the RAM sits idle while the CPU processes through relatively small chunks of it at a time, which is what cache is for. If anything I'd rather see more cache RAM on the CPU itself than having to pay for a CPU + RAM on the same SOC. The performance gain from combining CPU + RAM on the same "SOC" is not that great enough to warrant doing that as an approach for all computers - Apple is doing this mostly because it saves them money. There's a lot of push back from power users about expandability not even being an option anymore. But 99% of Apple's customer base doesn't have any need for expandability or power-user features, or having the fastest silicon available because they only use it for facebook, facetime, or a few other basic applications. And that's fine. I won't be buying one though.