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Apples poor performance
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[Bill Davis] “Nope. “
Yup. Sorry, Bill. Its a silly, pretentious metaphor with only a hair-width’s more value than “Buy low, sell high.” Oh course people want to be where the market is going to be. Duh.
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[Walter Soyka] “I think that the four defining characteristics of a workstation are performance, balance, reliability, and expansion capacity. “
Not sure what you mean by balance but I think utility (suitability to the tasks needed) is on the list. Off the top of my head:
Would it be disruptive to have Apple completely abandon the 8-bit graphics world they’ve clung to for so long and offer only 10bit and 12bit colour everywhere in hardware and software? And integrate with 3rd party or their own 10/12bit calibrated monitors produced by, say, Panasonic (no longer distracted by TVs) and Sharp for Apple? Too bad they didn’t begin with the 2012 27″ iMac but maybe in 2013/2014 after introduced by the next Mac Pro. And if they added scopes to the monitors?
Would it be disruptive for Apple to get ahead of the curve with 100Gbps optical Thunderbolt while others are still thinking if they should add 10Gbps copper Thunderbolt? Think that would make a difference in how everything interfaces and what can be done linking your components. But they need to take a greater role in ensuring there are things to connect to it, like they did with the Promise Pegasus RAIDs with 10Gbps TB.
Would it be disruptive if they reinvented the SSD in some fundamental way that addresses their current limitations for high-end use? Working with, say IBM or Sandisk, on new nano circuits (a way to make single-cell inexpensive?), new architectures, new intelligence/processors, to ensure huge densities with reliability and dependable speed across the unit whether new or well-used, in burst mode or streaming.
The biggest disruption I can think of doesn’t have a solution yet so not expecting that in 2013 of course, but it relates to how things are connected. We’ve had versions of hardware based implementations of increasing fast PCI interfaces for many years. Would it be disruptive if all that hardware, pins, logic was replaced by something else? If I was a young engineer, I’d be setting a goal to do this much differently, perhaps the ultimate triumph would be to do it wirelessly using spectrum that doesn’t exist today in communications and is harmless to life and can’t travel more than a few metres before its unintelligible (so Google can’t snoop it as they drive by) but I don’t know how to implement it or I’d be at MIT.
Well that was fun… you get the gist of how visionary either enhances something that exists beyond what is expected or bravely replaces what exists entirely.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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[Chris Harlan] “Bill. Its a silly, pretentious metaphor with only a hair-width’s more value than “Buy low, sell high.” “
Yeah, its certainly a shame that by internalizing a bit of it’s gestalt, Jobs couldn’t get more traction in the business world…
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[Bill Davis] “The whole point of the game is to score.”
No, the point of the game is to score more than your opponent, big difference. Winning 1-0 is a lot better than losing 10-9.
[Bill Davis] “Defense is a conservative tactic to prevent loss. Period. “
Wrong again, at least in sports like hockey, football and basketball where defense creates offense in the form of turn overs and fast breaks. In those sports, to invert a phrase, the best offense is a great defense. In baseball it’s true that the defense can’t score runs, but then again it’s a pretty unique game.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Bill Davis] “Skating to where the puck will be is a sensible strategy articulated by the games greatest player because he understood game deeply.”
There were four other people on the team actively trying to put the puck to where Gretzky would be. Throw in the goalie, too, when the puck comes his way.
The point of the aphorism is to think ahead. The point of my critique is to remind forward-thinkers that we all must somehow get from here to there — so there’s risk in thinking too far ahead, and there’s risk in falling too far behind while you’re working on the future.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Bill Davis] “Yeah, its certainly a shame that by internalizing a bit of it’s gestalt, Jobs couldn’t get more traction in the business world…
“I have know idea what that means. Do you? It DOES sound impressive, but it doesn’t make much sense. What does “it” refer to? The business world? Or the phrase “skating to where the puck is going to be?” I assume by “gestalt” you mean something like “wholeness” and aren’t referring to the therapy. Of course, you are being ironic about Jobs not getting traction, but how, in anyway, is this irony relevant to Job’s fondness for Gretzky quote that is nowhere near as deep as it sounds, but makes a good soundbite for a sales pitch. I don’t see how one has anything to do with the other.
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[Walter Soyka] “The point of the aphorism is to think ahead. The point of my critique is to remind forward-thinkers that we all must somehow get from here to there — so there’s risk in thinking too far ahead, and there’s risk in falling too far behind while you’re working on the future.”
Dang, Walter. You can turn a phrase.
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[Rick Lang] “Not sure what you mean by balance”
A balanced system does not bottleneck. If any single subsystem (CPU, memory, graphics, storage) is faster than the others, it is wasted. If any single subsystem is slower than the others, it wastes them.
[Rick Lang] “I think utility (suitability to the tasks needed) is on the list.”
But doesn’t utility vary? My workstation is really good for 3D renders, but really lousy for portability. So I have a laptop that’s really good for portability, but really lousy for 3D renders. I have to make different compromises for different use cases.
[Rick Lang] “Would it be disruptive to have Apple completely abandon the 8-bit graphics world they’ve clung to for so long and offer only 10bit and 12bit colour everywhere in hardware and software?”
No. You can get this today. Windows 7 has supported 48-bit color (16bpc) since 2008.
[Rick Lang] “Would it be disruptive for Apple to get ahead of the curve with 100Gbps optical Thunderbolt while others are still thinking if they should add 10Gbps copper Thunderbolt? Think that would make a difference in how everything interfaces and what can be done linking your components. But they need to take a greater role in ensuring there are things to connect to it, like they did with the Promise Pegasus RAIDs with 10Gbps TB.”
Maybe in markets where portability matters. However, remember that Thunderbolt encapsulates PCIe. Every Thunderbolt advance is underpinned by a PCIe advance. Thunderbolt makes it easy and external, but is this really disruptive in traditional workstation markets who don’t mind internal expansion?
Besides, Thunderbolt is not an Intel technology. Apple would need another period of exclusivity to have an advantage here.
[Rick Lang] “Would it be disruptive if they reinvented the SSD in some fundamental way that addresses their current limitations for high-end use? Working with, say IBM or Sandisk, on new nano circuits (a way to make single-cell inexpensive?), new architectures, new intelligence/processors, to ensure huge densities with reliability and dependable speed across the unit whether new or well-used, in burst mode or streaming.”
Yes. But Apple currently relies on the storage advancements of other firms, while they focus on engineering and manufacturing advancements.
Apple innovates like Walmart: the bulk of their innovation is totally invisible to the user, but provides the brand with their signature: cool usability for Apple, low prices for Walmart.
[Rick Lang] “The biggest disruption I can think of doesn’t have a solution yet so not expecting that in 2013 of course, but it relates to how things are connected. We’ve had versions of hardware based implementations of increasing fast PCI interfaces for many years. Would it be disruptive if all that hardware, pins, logic was replaced by something else? If I was a young engineer, I’d be setting a goal to do this much differently, perhaps the ultimate triumph would be to do it wirelessly using spectrum that doesn’t exist today in communications and is harmless to life and can’t travel more than a few metres before its unintelligible (so Google can’t snoop it as they drive by) but I don’t know how to implement it or I’d be at MIT.”
This would be very cool — but it would need to show benefit. It has to let me do something I couldn’t do before, or it has to let me do something I’m doing today faster. Things like convenience and size are trumped in this market niche by power and speed.
It also has to have broad support. If you only use Apple products, then it’s fine if Apple surprises you with a new technology. As soon as you add anything non-Apple to the mix, then it’s irrelevant unless they sacrifice their proprietary advantage and open up the technology.
I am not saying that Apple isn’t innovative — they are. I am not saying that the workstation market couldn’t use some innovation — it could. I am saying that the goals of performance computing haven’t changed much in forty years. I am saying that open standards have value. I am saying that I think the primary innovations in this space will continue to come from pure hardware developers like Intel, NVIDIA, and Samsung, and less so from more hardware integrators like Apple, HP, or Dell.
I don’t mean to come across so argumentatively, but I think I hold a different view on what’s important in a workstation than most folks here, and I think that different perspective drives our disagreements. I’d be curious to see if we’re on the same page about the past and present before we discuss our views on the future.
What would you say were the last few disruptive innovations that have occurred in the workstation market?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Pardon my stumble on the lack of knowledge ragarding 48bit graphics used with Windows! Back to the drawing board on that…
You’re not argumentative, you’re brilliant and enjoy a good discussion.
I need to run but the biggest innovation in workstations in the last decade or so has been their democratization. By that I mean generally lowering the entry point so that no longer are they the domain of a few universities as computing began and no longer a niche product requiring a mortgage on your home to equip your business (if we’re talking one workstation), with software that used to cost another mortgage and now is a year’s tuition at a junior college or even free (with limitations). It’s amazing how price and performance go in opposite directions and will continue to do so as the target audience widens. I think the high-end workstation technology of yesterday has become standard on an iPad or a phone. And what is targeted at the professional creative tomorrow will often impact the low end the day after tomorrow. That’s why it’s important that Apple remember the vision to serve the scientific and creative community: everyone benefits.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Wow, many thanks for the compliment, Rick.
I do agree that improving performance/cost ratio has been a (probably the) defining trend in computing since the dawn of the PC era (and likely before, but that’s well outside my personal familiarity) — but I don’t see it as disruptive.
(I also think that trend is about to reverse in some markets, giving us a V-shaped graph, but that’s perhaps a conversation for another time…)
Have a good weekend, and maybe we can pick this thread back up sometime next week.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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