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A Deep Dive Into Apple's A13 Bionic Chip

Andrew Orr ·

Om Malik wrote a great dive into the A13 Bionic chip that powers the latest iPhones.

Apple’s new chip contains 8.5 billion transistors. Also, there are six CPU cores: Two high-performance cores running at 2.66 GHz (called Lightning), and four efficiency cores (called Thunder). It has a quad-core graphics processor, an LTE modem, an Apple-designed image processor, and an octa-core neural engine for machine intelligence functions that can run over five trillion operations per second.

Big numbers are amazing, and I still marvel at the fact that this chip can do five trillion operations per second. That is astoundingly fast. Five trillion seconds is 158,550 years. Just one trillion seconds ago (31,710 years) was before written history, before the pyramids were built.

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Science Journal Admits Those Bone Horns Were Wrong

Andrew Orr ·

Remember the study claiming smartphone usage caused bone horns to grow on millennials? The publisher now admits the conclusion was false. But other scientists say their correction is still false.

While the correction attempts to clarify the record on smartphones, it does not do anything to address the fact that the study’s main finding — that poor posture and age are connected to neck bone spurs — still isn’t supported by the underlying data…

“I actually think Nature should remove the original article as the correction has not proved their point,” said Sara Becker, a bioarchaeologist at the University of California Riverside.

Cool Stuff Found

Sayonara Wild Hearts Available on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4

Andrew Orr ·

When Apple said that Apple Arcade games were exclusive, it meant that they won’t be on Android. But these games can be released on other platforms. Like Sayonara Wild Hearts which was shown at Apple’s keynote. It’s available for Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 for US$12.99. In Sayonara Wild Hearts, players follow a young woman after she experiences heartbreak and finds her other self dubbed “The Fool” in an alternate universe. Play as The Fool and journey through a custom-written pop soundtrack, chase scores, and set out to find the harmony of the universe hidden away in the hearts of Little Death and her star-crossed allies: Dancing Devils, Howling Moons, Stereo Lovers and Hermit 64. Additionally, you can get physical copies as well as a vinyl record at iam8bit.com.