Ethan Zuo

I know it’s not the focus of the video, but it’s great to see that the PMIC is cooled via a thermal pad at least. I wonder if the M1 is undervolted to fit the iPad’s power and thermal constraints as well.

It’s a nice little detail that the SoC is cooled from both the front and the back. Does the PMIC also get cooled by a heatsink?

Yes, thermal paste can be used. I strongly recommend Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, as it’s the second-best-performing non-metallic thermal paste on the market (the only better performer is Kryonaut Extreme).

This comment aged like fine wine with the launch of the M1-based iMacs.

Samsung making less repairable earbuds: “It’s evolving, just backwards.”

Adhesive pull tabs are wonderful. I wonder why Apple won’t use them on their Macbooks (and why more electronics designers aren’t using them as well). They’re low-cost, very convenient, take up very little space, and are satisfying to pull.

I wonder how Apple manages to keep thermals under control. Usually, the top of the SoC is cooled in most phones, but it looks like the only method of cooling this device is through the back of the logic board. I know it works, but it just doesn’t seem like the best solution.

According to WD and Tom’s Hardware, the SN550 actually uses Host Memory Buffer (HMB), which allows the drive to utilize system memory (set at 64 MB for the consumer version, but we don’t know how much it is for the Xbox Series X). Also, I would think that Microsoft has done lots of optimization to make sure the drive performs as well as possible.

The tweeter in the Xbox 360 was used for making the startup noise when you pressed the power button. I would have liked to seen it present in this Xbox as well, but oh well.

Microsoft usually doesn’t make money on their Xbox consoles, since they already make enough money from their cloud service and selling data of Windows 10 users—in fact, they actually lost $125 for every original Xbox sold. But that’s good for the consumer, since we have what’s basically a beefy Zen 2/RDNA2 high-end gaming PC (in terms of hardware) at that price.

I’m really interested in the PS5’s cooling. Sony definitely made a big deal about the liquid metal thermal interface in one of their videos. I think they put a black sponge around the die to keep excess liquid metal from spilling everywhere though. Definitely worth taking a look at.