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User predictions for Apple Prosumer Silicon (M1X, M2 etc.)
- Thread starter leman
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He did and I will prove it.
"Now more powerful iterations of the company’s silicon are coming to the Mac line. They’ll have more graphics and computing cores, boosting speeds for everyday tasks and such intensive work as video editing and programming."
That's the M1X
"For a redesigned, higher-end MacBook Air planned for as early as the end of the year, Apple is planning a direct successor to the M1 processor."
That's the M2.
source: Apple (AAPL) Readies MacBook Pro, MacBook Air Revamps With Faster Chips - Bloomberg
Nothing there says that the mbp’s won’t have new cores. In fact, the MBA he alleges is the “direct” successor (M1x). An M2 is obviously not a “direct” successor.
You are confused. A10 direct successor was the A11. The A10X was an iteration of A10.
Therefore M2 is the direct successor to M1. M1X builds up on M1 by adding more cores.
Then in 2022 MBP 14" & 16" will get M2X.
Where did he say that? He mentioned the next iteration of Apple Silicon, not M1 specifically.
He also said that the next MacBook Air will have the successor of the M1.
Clearly, what we'll get in high-end MacBook Pros will be different, but it doesn't mean they will use the same cores as the M1.
No. A10x is a “direct” successor to A10 because it is the same cores. A11 is only indirectly related to A10.
Your reading renders the word “direct” meaningless.
Moreover the first Gurman quote is about Apple silicon and the second is about M1. He chose those words carefully. Mbps get “an iteration of Apple silicon” (that is, not M1). MBAs get a “direct successor to M1” (M1 with more cores)
Anyway, I’m not saying I have a source just because I designed CPUs forever, but if I did have a source, the source would be saying that these MBPs have a new core design, which will later be found in the A15 as well.
It depends on the definition of "successor". If we mean "replacement", then the A11 is the successor of the A10, but the A10X isn't.
Ok we will see, my bet is on MBP SoC will be called anything but M2.
lets see hopefully next week.
That's not the M1X, that's your interpretation.
True. And while I am being a little silly, the point is anyone can read Gurman’s article to mean whatever they want it to mean.
When your platform libraries are written using Objective-C, and Swift has to bridge it’s standard library types to Foundation types on top of that, it isn’t that surprising. Swift on Apple platforms, for better or worse, is tied to Obj-C for the foreseeable future.
Thankfully it isn’t the case for Swift on Linux/etc.
I’ll be honest, I thought this was satire or something until I saw the code. Interesting, though.
This branch predictor already exists in A14 though. It has been mentioned by Apple employees on Twitter half a year ago.
The question is whether the leaks are true - Apple has been known to drop fake leaks in the past.
Some parts (like doubling up on Performance cores and going to up to 32 GPU cores) are pretty common sense scale ups of the Apple Silicon architecture. Others like dropping two of the efficiency cores make less sense.
One thing I admit to being interested in seeing is how the upscaled GPU block performs - based on the current GPU cores if this thing scales linearly we could be looking at M1 being the fastest GPU out there - integrated or discrete.
Some parts (like doubling up on Performance cores and going to up to 32 GPU cores) are pretty common sense scale ups of the Apple Silicon architecture. Others like dropping two of the efficiency cores make less sense.
One thing I admit to being interested in seeing is how the upscaled GPU block performs - based on the current GPU cores if this thing scales linearly we could be looking at M1 being the fastest GPU out there - integrated or discrete.
I think you are reading a bit too much into all of it. The first part (about MacBook Pro) simply says that they are going to use faster chip. "More powerful iterations" can mean literally anything, from scaled-up M1 to next-gen cores to a completely different family of cores.
The MacBook Air part is more clear, it should get a next iteration of low-powered silicon (M2). But it does not exclude the MBP getting a chip that is based on M2 technology somehow.
So it looks like next week at WWDC21, we'll see the 14/16" Apple Silicon MBP and maybe a new Mac Mini with high cores "M2", and the 13" MBA/MBP and the M1 Mac Mini to get the low cores M2 at the end of 2021.
Mac Pro and maybe an iMac Pro? to get a super high cores M3 next year at WWDC22.
At this point, it looks like the M1 is done doing it's job. Not more derivatives coming out of it.
Mac Pro and maybe an iMac Pro? to get a super high cores M3 next year at WWDC22.
At this point, it looks like the M1 is done doing it's job. Not more derivatives coming out of it.
I will keep my short and sweet:
- 14-inch and 16-inch redesigned MacBook Pros announced
- ports included: USB-C Magsafe power port, HDMI, SD card slot, and 2 additional USB-C, Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports (1 on either side), and headphone jack
- 1080p camera (same one as on the recently released iMacs)
- redesigned Magic Keyboard with the design and style being in line with the Magic Keyboards of the redesigned iMac
- TouchID sensor is the same one and style as on the Magic Keyboard from the iMac
- under the hood: M1X SoC (who knows how many CPU cores, GPU cores, RAM, etc). No M2. M2 is coming out next year. M1X will be a derivative of the M1 with just more CPU/GPU cores, more PCIe lanes for more Thunderbolt ports, and higher capacity RAM support.
- display: no
MicroMini-LED, just your typical 60fps LED-LCD IPS displays because all of the efforts for producing the Micro-LED displays are going towards the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Apple won't admit it publicly, but they are supply-constrained with this new display technology and can't afford to produce more displays for any more SKUs. - release: 14-inch releases in late July-early August so that it makes it in time for the Back-to-School season, 16-inch releases in late August-early September, right before the annual iPhone event during the 2nd week of September.
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Added you to the #2 crowd
That's very detailed, exactly what I wanted to see. I've added your prediction under #5, since this is the thread focusing on the microarchitecture.
Personally, I agree with most of your prediction, aside from the chip used and the port selection (there is no way Apple will offer USB-C ports that don't support thunderbolt on their prosumer machines).
See my earlier reply in this thread. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...umer-silicon-m1x-m2-etc.2298203/post-29959337
Mark Gurman *did not say* that the next MBPs will have an "iteration of the M1" in his article (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ook-pro-macbook-air-revamps-with-faster-chips).
The Macrumors article used those words, not Gurman. The article stated "Now more powerful iterations of the company’s silicon are coming to the Mac line". That's probably where Macrumors got the idea of an iteration of Apple Silicon. M2 would be an iteration of Apple Silicon - it doesn't say anything about it being a variant of M1.
We'll see what the truth is soon enough, hopefully at WWDC.
Sounds good, but I think the leak showed us that there will be 3 additional USB-C/TB-ports. I would also add that they don’t change the keyboard style to match the iMac as this would mean rounded corners on the edges, which doesn’t make much sense in a MacBook. Micro-LED will definitely not come this year, there’s a small probability that they add Mini-LED like on the iPad Pro.
I was discussing this earlier with Leman. Looks like linear scaling would enable the most powerful rumored AS GPU (128 cores, predicted for the Mac Pro) to about equal the fastest NVIDIA chip designed for similar tasks (the RTX A6000). Yes, the RTX A6000 specs a little slower based on the following crude comparison, but by the time the 128-core AS GPU comes out (if it does), NVIDIA will certainly have something faster:
But it won’t. It will be based off the a14. I would bet anything. These chips have long ramp up cycles. They’re not going to debut a new architecture in a large Mac chip before the smaller Mac chip or even the smallest chip which is the iPhone chip. Not happening.
Even if it was based off new cores I don’t think they would call it the M2. What would they call the successor the the M1 then if they already used the M2 name? The thermals of the higher end chip we’re talking about would be too much for the M1 products. The successor to the M1 will have the same amount of cores (or maybe slightly more, Gurman said the next Air will have 10 GPU cores I think) as the M1 and will be called the M2.
Ramp up is irrelevant. There is no rule that prevents them from introducing karget chips first.
As to your second part, that’s why I am speculating that the prosumer chips will have a completely new branding. My money is on Apple P1 ?
I just don’t see them doing a new architecture on Mac before iPhone, specially less than 12 months before the last iPhone. If they do a new architecture I would assume it would be on a new refined 5nm TSMC node and if it is then iPhone will get it first because it has priority. I think the higher end chip will be the same architecture and same node as the M1.
The naming scheme is also something I’m wondering about. I was thinking they would do a new letter but I also think they might want to keep the M name because it has such a good reputation. M1X makes sense for a higher end chip but I’m not sure what they would name a higher end chip for the Mac Pro. Only Apple knows at this point. What ever ends up being it won’t be M2.