[aloha2436]

> Is there a legit reason why they couldn't make these things upgradeable at all even on a studio machine?

For the SSD, no. For the memory, yes. The memory lives on the same chip as the CPU and the GPU, it's even more tightly bound than just being soldered on. The memory being there has legitimate technical benefits that make it much easier/cheaper for them to reach the extremely high memory bandwidths that they do.

[lloeki]

This, although it's not merely "easier/cheaper", it's "impossible" (unless you sacrifice a ton of performance)

Same reason as a) GDDR on dGPUs (I think I read somewhere that GDDR is very much like regular DDR, just with much tighter paths and thus soldered in) and b) Framework Desktop (performance would reportedly halve if RAM were not soldered)

SSD reasons I seem to recall are architectural for security: some parts (controller?) that usually sit on a NVMe SSD are embedded in the SoC next to (or inside?) the secure enclave processor or whatever the equivalent of the T2 thing is in Mx chips, so what you'd swap would be a bank of raw storage chips which don't match the controller.

[razakel]

Apparently upgrading the SSD can be done, but it's a weird form factor and you need another Mac to restore it.

[eigenspace]

The memory does *not* live on the same chip as the CPU and GPU, you appear to be thinking of HBM. Apple is using regular LPDDR5 RAM on separate chips, but soldered near to the CPU/GPU.

The soldering does serve a purpose though, the shorter traces allow for better signal integrity at higher speeds. This isn't something special about what Apple is doing though, Intel and AMD are doing the exact same thing with the exact same LPDDR5 chips on their respective APUs.

HBM is still almost purely reserved for datacentre GPUs.

[StingyJelly]

>it's even more tightly bound than just being soldered on

No. There is a reason for it but no, it's just soldered on the same carrier board as the APU, in order to be really close to it. Apple could have used a form factor like CAMM2 and it would have worked the same, be it at slightly higher cost. The reason is simply to kill upgrade options and cut manufacturing costs - same as for any other soldered ram.

[NetMageSCW]

I think it’s possible that Apple will support LPCAMM2 assuming it can done without risking the SOC but it is too cutting edge single vendor technology for them to be implementing it now.