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Apple Silicon

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What is Apple Silicon?

During its WWDC 2020 keynote, Apple officially confirmed its transition from Intel chips to its own Apple Silicon for the Mac. In addition to details for developers, Tim Cook announced that the first Mac with Apple Silicon would ship to consumers by the end of this year.

Apple M1

At its ‘One More Thing’ event in November, Apple officially announced its first Apple Silicon processor designed specifically for the Mac, dubbed the M1. The M1 chip features an eight-core design alongside a powerful Neural Engine and GPU, offering dramatic efficiency and performance improvements for the Mac.

With Apple controlling the processor in a Mac, it can offer significantly better software optimization than others like Intel. In the case of the Mac, this means that macOS 11 Big Sur is optimized specifically for the M1 processor. By creating the silicon themselves, Apple has much more control over how well macOS and a Mac hardware perform together. Even without touching on the technical specifications of the new M1 chip, the improved optimization in macOS should make for dramatic performance and reliability improvements.

Apple Silicon M1 performance

Using Apple Silicon in the Mac also means that the Mac can now run iPhone and iPad applications. While developers can opt-out of this, it means that you’ll be able to find iPhone and iPad applications in the Mac App Store for the first time.

  • iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac through the Mac App Store
  • Rosetta 2 translation allows you to run apps made for Intel Macs on Apple Silicon, and sometimes apps perform better in Rosetta with Apple Silicon’s M1 than they do natively with Intel, Apple says.
  • Universal apps are apps built for Apple Silicon and Intel processors and are downloadable from the Mac App Store or from the web.

When it announced the new M1 processor during the special “One more thing” event from Apple Park, Apple touted that it’s the “first chip designed specifically for the Mac.” It’s built using a 5-nanometer with 16 billion transistors, and Apple says it was designed “for Mac systems in which small size and power efficiency are critically important.”

As such, the M1 features industry-leading performance per watt. This is why the first Apple Silicon MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models are able to offer such notable improvements in battery life compared to their Intel predecessors.

Apple Silicon M1

Apple Silicon’s M1 chip is an 8-core CPU with four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. The high-performance cores each provide industry-leading performance for single-threaded tasks, and Apple says they are “the world’s fastest CPU cores in low-power silicon.”

Apple also says that the four high-efficiency cores deliver “outstanding performance at a tenth of the power.” In fact, the high-efficiency cores are so powerful themselves that they deliver similar performance to the dual-core Intel MacBook Air while being much more efficient.

In total, Apple says that the eight cores work together to provide “incredible compute power for the most demanding tasks and deliver the world’s best CPU performance per watt.”

M1 GPU

But the M1 doesn’t stop there: it also features up to an 8-core GPU, which can execute 25,000 threads concurrently. Apple says that this means the M1 can handle “extremely demanding tasks with ease.” According to Apple’s data, the M1 has the “world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer” with 2.6 teraflops of throughput.

Apple Silicon Neural Engine

The M1 chip also brings Apple’s industry-leading Neural Engine to the Mac for the first time. The M1 Neural Engine features a 16-core design that can perform 11 trillion operations per second. Apple has used the Neural Engine in the iPhone and iPad since the A11 processor was introduced in 2017. Neural Engine was something designed specifically for machine learning tasks like video analysis, voice recognition, artificial intelligence, photo scanning, and much more.

What’s next for Apple Silicon?

The M1 chip is just the beginning of a “new family of chips designed specifically for the Mac.” Again, the new M1 processor is designed specifically for lower-power machines where efficiency is especially important. Over the next two years, Apple will likely release new Apple Silicon chips for the iMac, Mac Pro, and higher-end MacBook Pros.

Intel Meteor Lake chips may be made by TSMC, as it seeks to rival Apple’s M1 chips

Intel presentation slide on Meteor Lake chip plans | Intel Meteor Lake chips may be made by TSMC

Intel last week provided an update on its 14th-generation Meteor Lake processors due to launch next year, but it seems that there may have been a crucial change to the company’s plans.

Intel has said as recently as last week that it would fabricate the chips itself, using a 7nm process, but a supply-chain report today claims that the company will instead outsource the work to TSMC, so it can benefit from the same 5nm process used for Apple’s M1 chips …

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Most M1 Mac Thunderbolt 4 ports don’t support the 10Gb/s transfers of USB 3.1 Gen 2, show tests

Photos of M1 MacBook Pro ports | Most M1 Mac Thunderbolt 4 ports don't support 10Gbs transfers

Pro users of M1 Macs have reported disappointing transfer speeds with external SSDs, and tests appear to show that most M1 Mac Thunderbolt ports don’t support USB 3.1 Gen 2 – which means they don’t offer the maximum 10Gb/s transfer speeds that would be expected from Thunderbolt 4.

The tests were conducted on a 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max, and a 2022 Mac Studio M1 Max …

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Apple’s M1 Ultra GPU comparison with Nvidia was misleading – Macworld

Apple's M1 Ultra GPU comparison with Nvidia was misleading

When Apple compared the M1 Ultra GPU performance to what was then Nvidia’s most powerful graphics card, the company’s chart and quote were technically true, but rather misleading, says Macworld.

Apple gave the impression that the M1 Ultra outperformed the Nvidia RTX 3090, but this was not the case – and will be even less so now that Nvidia has launched the 3090 Ti …

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Mac Studio with M1 Ultra beats 28-core Intel Mac Pro in Geekbench score

M1 Ultra

Apple on Tuesday introduced Mac Studio, which comes with the powerful M1 Max chip by default. However, the company also offers a more expensive model with M1 Ultra, a new Apple Silicon chip that is even faster than the M1 Max. To give us a better idea of that performance, a Geekbench test shows that Apple’s latest chip beats the 28-core Intel Mac Pro.

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What might we expect from M2 Mac benchmarks? Extrapolation may provide a clue

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There have been a number of reports of an M2 Mac this year, including the slightly odd idea of an entry-level M2 MacBook Pro model sitting below the M1 Pro and M1 Max models. We’ll need to see whether that happens and wait for M2 Mac benchmarks if it does.

But a new piece today suggests that we may be able to get a reasonably good idea of M2 Mac benchmarks by extrapolating…

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TSMC reports record profits, has big expectations for next few years

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Apple chipmaker TSMC has reported record profits for the holiday quarter, comfortably beating analyst expectations. The company has also reported year-on-year revenue growth of 24.1%, a quarter of it generated by Apple.

TSMC, which makes Apple’s A-series and M-series chips, says that it has big expectations and big plans for the next few years …

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Apple engineering director responsible for leading M1 transition departs for Intel

As Apple continues to transition the Mac to its own Apple Silicon processors, Intel isn’t looking the direction. As first reported by Tom’s Hardware, Apple’s director of Mac System Architecture, Jeff Wilcox, is departing the company to join Intel. At Intel, Wilcox will become an “Intel Fellow” and service as the chief technology officer of the design engineering group.

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Microsoft and Qualcomm special deal coming to an end could mean Windows for M1 Macs

While Apple has always offered Windows support on Intel Macs, new machines with the ARM-based M1 chip can only run macOS natively. The reason may be related to a special deal between Microsoft and Qualcomm that is finally coming to an end – and this means that Windows could finally be available natively for M1 Mac users.

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MacBook Pro Diary: Apple Silicon MacBook Pro doubles my Intel battery life

M1 Max Apple Silicon MacBook Pro battery life

My shiny new 16-inch Apple Silicon MacBook Pro claims two big advantages over its Intel predecessor. First, the performance of the M1 Max. Second, power efficiency, aka battery life.

For my personal usage patterns, the two are quite distinct. The time when I want power is for video editing, when I’ll almost always be sat at my desk hooked up to a large monitor. When I want battery life, my typical usage is very different…

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Comment: 1 year after the M1 chip, Apple has really changed the computer industry once again

It was November 10, 2020, when Apple announced its first ARM-based chip designed for Macs. Months after it was confirmed that Macs would get Apple-made SoCs, the M1 chip was introduced with the promise of not only reinventing the Mac but changing the entire computer industry. A year later, it’s safe to say that Apple has successfully accomplished this.

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Poll: Which anticipated Apple products most excite you?

Anticipated Apple products for 2022

With September and October Apple events out of the way, there are still some unannounced but eagerly anticipated Apple products to come by some point next year.

The September event saw the company announce the iPhone 13 lineup, Apple Watch Series 7, iPad mini, and the iPad 9. October’s Unleashed event added the long-awaited 14- and 16-inch M1 MacBook Pros, AirPods 3, and new HomePod mini colors.

But that still leaves us waiting for a number of as-yet unannounced products …

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2021 MacBook Pro music video uses built-in mics, camera, and … Photo Booth

2021 MacBook Pro music video

A British singer-songwriter has recorded a unique MacBook Pro music video. Using her new M1 Max model, she recorded it using the machine’s built-in microphones and webcam!

Mary Spender used Logic Pro, which is a pretty demanding app, yet was able to do all the work on battery power – while screen recording at the same time – without the fans kicking in …

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M1 Pro and M1 Max deep dive

Apple execs go in-depth on new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in ‘Upgrade’ podcast interview

The new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips inside the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models have proven to impress reviewers and consumers alike. Apple executives Tim Millet and Tom Boger recently joined Relay FM’s Upgrade podcast to talk in-depth about the new chips, the state of the Apple SIlicon transition, and more.

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MacBook Pro Diary: M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro first impressions

M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro first impressions

My shiny new Mac arrived on Friday, so after a couple of days of fairly extensive use, it’s time to give my M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro first impressions.

I haven’t used it for anything too taxing as yet, so this piece covers what I think of the design, the screen – including that infamous notch – the heat management, and an early look at real-world battery life …

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Dropbox M1 support is in testing, but won’t be available until next year [U]

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Latest update: Dropbox says Apple Silicon support in the works – see bottom of piece.

Dropbox M1 support still hasn’t arrived, even after Apple launched its new MacBook Pro models that run on more powerful versions of the chip. Worse, the company claims there isn’t yet enough support for the idea to make it a priority. (This statement was made by a company forum rep who was unaware of the position.)

The Mac app only runs on M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max machines under Rosetta, which reportedly kills the battery and uses a gig of memory …

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Former Mac chief and Windows head both stress vast scale of Apple’s lead over Intel

Apple's lead over Intel

Apple’s lead over Intel when it comes to laptop chips is undeniable, even by the US chipmaker itself. A deep dive showed that the new MacBook Pro competes against even the best desktop PCs powered by Intel chips, with a similar story emerging against ultra-high-end GPUs.

There have, though, been those suggesting that the lead is either slim or temporary. Two high-profile names dispute this claim: former Mac chief Jean-Louis Gassée, and ex-Windows president Steven Sinofsky.

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Apple execs talk new MacBook Pro, end of the Touch Bar, and offer advice to Google in new interview

With the Apple Silicon transition in full swing following this week’s announcement of new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, Apple executives say there is still a lot more to look forward to. In a new interview with Wired, Apple’s Johnny Srouji, John Ternus, and Greg Joswiak talked in-depth about the new MacBook Pros, what the company learned from the 2016 MacBook Pro refresh, and more.

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MacBook Pro Diary: Ordering an M1 Max MacBook Pro was an easy decision, despite the price

Ordering an M1 Max MacBook Pro was an easy decision

It’s felt like a long wait from the M1 MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, but the M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro models are finally here. The predictions I made back in May were both correct: I was indeed unable to resist the 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the price did indeed hurt!

Most of the rumors turned out to be correct – including the late one of a display notch to house an improved camera within much smaller bezels …

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