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Tag: Johny Srouji

  • Apple Unveils Its Latest Custom Silicon, the 5nm M2

    Apple Unveils Its Latest Custom Silicon, the 5nm M2

    Apple started WWDC 2022 with a bang, unveiling the M2, its latest custom silicon built on 5nm technology.

    Apple’s M1 revolutionized the computing industry and revitalized its Mac business, delivering top-end performance at a fraction of the power consumption as traditional desktop processors. After transitioning its lineup from Intel to the M1, Apple is now building on that success with the next-generation M2.

    “M2 starts the second generation of M-series chips and goes beyond the remarkable features of M1,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “With our relentless focus on power-efficient performance, M2 delivers a faster CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine. And along with higher memory bandwidth and new capabilities like ProRes acceleration, M2 continues the tremendous pace of innovation in Apple silicon for the Mac.”

    The M2 has 20 billion transistors, roughly 25% more than the original M1. As a result, the memory controller delivers 50% more unified memory bandwidth, coming in at 100GB/s. The new system-on-a-chip (SoC) comes with up to 24GB of RAM.

    Apple says the new chip is 18% faster in multithreaded performance than the M1 and provides nearly twice the performance of the latest 10-core PC laptop at similar power levels. Meanwhile, the M2 can match the performance of the PC chip while using 25% of the power.

    The M2’s GPU gets a significant upgrade, featuring up to 10 cores — two more than the M1. The new GPU delivers up to 25% more graphics power than its predecessor using the same power, or 35% more at peak power.

    Samsung recently made headlines for wanting to create a “dream team” to deliver an answer to the M1 by 2025. Apple’s latest WWDC shows the inherent challenge in competing with its custom silicon, as the company is improving it at a rapid pace.

  • Apple Peak Performance: The M1 Ultra and Mac Studio

    Apple Peak Performance: The M1 Ultra and Mac Studio

    Apple unveiled “one last chip” in the M1 family, the M1 Ultra, building on what has already been a powerhouse line of processors.

    The M1 is based on the same A-Series chips that have powered the iPhone and iPad for years, but scaled up to handle the demands of desktop computing.

    According to Apple’s Johny Srouji, the M1 Ultra features something the company has never talked about before…UltraFusion. This is Apple’s way of connecting two processor dies, a method that is much faster than the traditional way of simply joining two dies on the same motherboard.

    The M1 Ultra supports up to 128 GB of Unified memory, and has a 20-core CPU. The cores include 16 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency cores. In addition, the Ultra features a 64-core GPU.

    The Ultra’s design helps it offer 90% higher performance than leading PC chips at similar power levels. Put another way, the chip can deliver comparable performance while using 100W less power. Similarly, the Ultra’s GPU provides the same performance as leading GPUs on one-third the power, or the same performance as the very best GPUs while consuming 200W less power.

    The new chip will be used in an all new Mac, the Mac Studio. The Mac Studio looks very much like two Mac minis stacked on top of each other. The new computer is designed to offer the power and connectivity professional users need. When paired with the M1 Ultra, the Mac Studio is 60% faster than the Mac Pro with the 28-core Xeon option.

  • Apple Unveils M1 Pro & M1 Max Chips to Power New Professional Macs

    Apple Unveils M1 Pro & M1 Max Chips to Power New Professional Macs

    Apple unveiled the next evolution of its M1 custom chip architecture, the M1 Pro and M1 Max, delivering up to six times the performance of the M1.

    The M1 challenged the PC industry when Apple first unveiled it. The custom silicon was able to best most Intel chips, while using a fraction of the energy. Apple has now expanded it’s M1 lineup of chips with the M1 Pro and M1 Max, both which significantly improve on the original’s performance, while still offering best-in-class efficiency.

    M1 Pro offers up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth with support for up to 32GB of unified memory. M1 Max delivers up to 400GB/s of memory bandwidth — 2x that of M1 Pro and nearly 6x that of M1 — and support for up to 64GB of unified memory. And while the latest PC laptops top out at 16GB of graphics memory, having this huge amount of memory enables graphics-intensive workflows previously unimaginable on a notebook.

     

    Apple M1 Pro M1 Max CPU Performance - Credit Apple
    Apple M1 Pro M1 Max CPU Performance – Credit Apple

     

    Both chips have a 10-core architecture, with 8 high-performance cores and 2 high-efficiency cores. While the M1 Pro has a 16-core GPU, the M1 Max ups that to 32 cores. The M1 Pro can be configured with 32 GB of RAM, while the M1 Max can go to 64 GB.

    “M1 has transformed our most popular systems with incredible performance, custom technologies, and industry-leading power efficiency. No one has ever applied a system-on-a-chip design to a pro system until today with M1 Pro and M1 Max,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “With massive gains in CPU and GPU performance, up to six times the memory bandwidth, a new media engine with ProRes accelerators, and other advanced technologies, M1 Pro and M1 Max take Apple silicon even further, and are unlike anything else in a pro notebook.”

  • Apple Working to Replace Qualcomm Internal Modems

    Apple Working to Replace Qualcomm Internal Modems

    Apple is working on the next step toward manufacturing independence, beginning work on a replacement for Qualcomm’s modems.

    Apple has had a troubled history with Qualcomm for years. Apple accused Qualcomm of charging unfair prices for its modems, and turned to Intel as an alternate source. Many critics believed Qualcomm had violated antitrust laws, prompting the Federal Trade Commission to file an antitrust case against the company.

    While Qualcomm lost the initial case, it ultimately prevailed on appeal. In the meantime, Intel was forced to exit the modem business, citing Qualcomm’s business practices as the reason. In the meantime, Apple settled its legal battle with Qualcomm and ended up buying Intel’s failed modem business.

    Last October, we covered a story that suggested Apple was using the purchased Intel modem business to develop its own line of components, with plans to begin using them as early as 2022.

    According to Bloomberg, Apple has now begun working on its own modem.

    “This year, we kicked off the development of our first internal cellular modem which will enable another key strategic transition,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, in a town hall meeting with Apple employees. “Long-term strategic investments like these are a critical part of enabling our products and making sure we have a rich pipeline of innovative technologies for our future.”

    The move follows Apple’s decision to ditch Intel in favor of its own custom silicon, based on ARM chips. Apple, more than almost any company in the tech industry, is well-known for integrating its hardware and software. Building its own modems is another critical piece of that strategy, and will likely give Apple the ability to innovate even more.