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Apple's 'M2' Next-Gen Mac Chip Enters Mass Production, Expected to Debut in Redesigned MacBooks Later This Year
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It's helpful having the M1 out there, you can see if 16G is 'ok' in the new CPU environment. The M2 will have to have more, but will the do memory controller on-package, or try to fit a lot more RAM onto the package? And what about GPU cores? I can't believe they are manufacturing this now and everyone is still guessing what it is.
There's probably news of this on Tom's Hardware, but the site appears to be down(🍸🙀)
There's probably news of this on Tom's Hardware, but the site appears to be down(🍸🙀)
This is likely to be the case going forward as well. The supply chain for the chips is much simpler than for their product assemblies, and most folks working at TSMC will have no idea what's going on inside the chips even if they're working on the production line. So there are inherently far fewer opportunities for leakage.
It makes things a lot more fun, as opposed to the iPhone which we pretty much know everything about in advance these days.
I agree on all points. So much of the fun of waiting for a highly anticipated product is speculating and dreaming about what it can have. If you know everything about it, its a lot more boring!
Well, they'll know what node/process those chips are being built on (5nm, n5p/5nm+, 3nm) etc.
I don't think that's much of a secret anyway. What's really interesting is what's inside.
The real question is: will the M2 support dual external monitors like my old Intel MacBook Air did, or has Apple decided to reject dual-monitor users permanently? M1 is useless for me since I connect to 2 monitors and actually do work (coding, ML research, etc.) instead of just watching youtube all day.
That’s the farthest thing from “the real question.”
Still seems like an interesting question, though. Will the updated version of Apple's lowest-end chip (which is what I assume he meant by "M2"), also have the current two-display limit (which, for the Air, means the internal display + 1 external)?
Based on this it seems the two-display limit is due to connectivity rather than GPU power, in which case it seems reasonable to expect that limit will be increased on the M2 (https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/h...ternal-displays-apple-silicon-m1-mac-3799794/). OTOH, given the Air is fanless, maybe Apple doesn't want too many displays connected to it.
Of course, if that poster needs more power, he always has the option of the future 13" MBP with a higher end "M1X" chip, which should certainly be able to support more than two displays.
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That is an important issue. In my office, I would be happy to introduce MBAs. But as half of the staff uses two monitors, this is impossible. Every comparable priced Windows-Laptop supports 2 monitors, so Apple is in this very point substandard, as great as they are in other regards.
It’s a temporary issue. The devices converted over to M1 are low end devices. Chillax everyone - machines with more I/O are coming.
I didn't think that was the question—I assume everyone is aware of that.
Rather, the question (I thought) was whether, for those that like the Air's especially compact form factor (and low-end price), the next-gen M2 Air will retain the M1's display support restriction—or if it it will (like the Intel Air) be able to natively support two external displays.
I.e., the question wasn't whether higher-end M-series devices will have more display I/O. Of course they will. It's whether the next gen low-end devices will have more display I/O—specifically, if Apple's next-gen low-end Air and Mini will equal or better the display support they offered when they were powered by Intel. My guess is they will.
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well, if that’s the question, then that is indeed a different question than I assumed. No way to know - perhaps this is one way Apple is differentiating higher from lower-end products.
Since Apple was happy to have their older Air and Mini support three displays (two external for the Air), my guess is they didn't feel a need to limit capability in that way for product differentiation. Instead, I thougt that—for whatever historical reasons—they weren't able to incorporate more I/O into the M1 chip and also bring it to market when they did. So (again, my guess) is they will be building more I/O into the M2.
Well, I assume this year's high-end CPU is next year's low-end CPU, so it's likely.
Returning to the "M1X":
We've all been speculating about possible upgrades to the CPU and GPU, but I've not seen any discussion of what changes there may be (or there will need to be) to the other components of the chip, namely the specialized blocks devoted to image processing, video processing, and audio processing, as well as a 16-core neural engine. Any thoughts on whether there will be corresponding upgrades in these as well?
I'm specifically wondering which of these blocks will need to have their processing capacity upgraded in direct proportion to any upgrades in the processing capacity of the CPU and/or GPU (to avoid bottlenecks), and which operate more independently.
This is indeed the question. Taking my office as an example: We are on a tight budget. If we would go Mac (we are PC now), it would mean to go base model MBA - the fantastic M1 fulfils our needs concerning computing power. But as mentioned, as long as Apple´s cheapest notebook, MBA base, does not support dual monitors, this is no option. As you say, maybe the next generation MBA will do better.
Time will tell...
I am not so sure. I can see a hypothetical MnX always being the high-end CPU and the Mn the low-end, with the prior year's M(n-1)X and M(n-1) sticking around as lower-budget options of each.
A MacBook Pro based on MnX and a MacBook Air based on M(n+1) could be similarly priced. If this is your budget you get to choose the Pro for more RAM, more cores and better IO, or the consumer system with an updated architecture, potentially faster cores and new features.
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Rumor has it they're redesigning their Air (on the one hand, that seems a bit early, since it's less than three years old; OTOH, they might want to finally merge the 2015 MacBook and 2018 Air designs together now that they're on ARM, and do their vision of what the new consumer laptop should be.
If so, I wouldn't be surprised to see the existing M1 MacBook Air to stay around for a year or two as a $899 model, and the new one to start at $1199.
Plus, as a business, ones that are officially supported by Apple, and not going to be broken by a subsequent update.
It is possible that the M1, being a test release, was priced low. A company that charges $100 for a phone cover has kept the prices of the current M1 lineup low because they were looking it as a proof-of-concept. I doubt the M2 machines will be so cheap. They know that they can hype these machines as much as they want because they cannot be compared with anything else as everything is proprietary now. Just a thought.
Yep!
I agree
Time to turn the screws and get going towards another trillion
Nothing is enough