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M5 Apple Silicon Chip Reportedly Enters Mass Production
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Yeah, I just bought MacBook Air M1 just yesterday.
(I bought it in 2020 when it was very new and 16GB version wasn't even available in my country, so I had to go with the 8GB version).
I'm still using it for real.
Are we sure they will ever make another Studio or Pro?
(Pro in particular)
(Pro in particular)
All the chatter about new devices presupposes that the tariff war does not get worse and nothing leaves China bound for the USA.
After the election, it did not take a crystal ball to see tariffs putting Apple products prices much higher and or stoppage of those products coming to us. We ordered the M4 series of processors for all members of the immediate family in early December and all were here before the end of the month with no price changes. My wife and I upgraded our iPad minis and I have an M4 iPad.
I kept my M1 Max 14" MacBook Pro and M1 Ultra Mac Studio as they still are fully operational and supported by the appropriate OS. Other older units we had have been given to grandkids that do not need M series equipment.
A bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush.
After the election, it did not take a crystal ball to see tariffs putting Apple products prices much higher and or stoppage of those products coming to us. We ordered the M4 series of processors for all members of the immediate family in early December and all were here before the end of the month with no price changes. My wife and I upgraded our iPad minis and I have an M4 iPad.
I kept my M1 Max 14" MacBook Pro and M1 Ultra Mac Studio as they still are fully operational and supported by the appropriate OS. Other older units we had have been given to grandkids that do not need M series equipment.
A bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush.
This is exactly my situation. I'm waiting for the M4 Air simply to gain more OS support down the road. I did something similar with my iPad Mini 6 - took advantage of a good sale and decent trade-in price to upgrade to a 7 for eighty bucks. Had absolutely no need for a 7, but took the opportunity to reset my battery and OS updates for not a lot of money.
So we don't even have an M4 air or studio but M5 is here? This rollout is all buggered.
Baseline needs will be increasing a lot over the coming years with AI. Outside of CPU and GPU, the Neural Engine and the RAM amount and speed will matter. Apple Intelligence alone will continue to utilize more and more performance from the annual gains, and even storage space as it will openable take more and more space for in device functions and models.
How have you been handling the A-series releases?
No, M5 is not here. It will be many months before the first M5 products are released, if they just started manufacturing the chips a few weeks ago. We're talking like at least 4 months, but probably longer.
Yep, same sensation that my M4 Pro is reading my mind because it's just so responsive and quick to react to anything I click or do. Lovin' it!
This reminds me of Intel's Lunar Lake compute tiles. Make the CPU, GPU, etc on separate lines and stitch them together at the end. Seems like the logical conclusion to AMD's chiplet idea.
And neither is an M4 macbook air... will probably be 3 months until we see that then the next week M5 machines will roll out.
Great update for the hardware side but I wish they could also work out more of the bugs on the software side of things to get the full functionality of the hardware.
Apple has begun mass production of its next-generation M5 chip, according to South Korean media, with the processor expected to arrive in devices potentially as soon as this year.
ET News reports that Apple began packaging the M5 chip last month. Packaging is the final step in semiconductor manufacturing after fabrication, and involves the process of protecting the chip and enabling electrical connections with other devices or components.
Apple outsources to TSMC the front-end manufacturing phase of fabricating the chips on silicon wafers. Now that fabrication is underway, the packaging is being handled by OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) companies including Taiwan's ASE Group, America's Amkor, and China's JCET. According to the report, ASE was the first to begin mass production, while Amkor and JCET are expected to follow sequentially.
The initial production run is said to be for the base M5 model, rather than Apple's more advanced M5 Pro, M5 Max, and M5 Ultra processors. The OSAT companies mentioned above are said to be currently investing in additional facilities to support the mass production of the high-end models.
The M5 series is expected to feature an enhanced ARM architecture and is reportedly being manufactured using TSMC's advanced 3-nanometer process technology. Apple's decision to forgo TSMC's more advanced 2nm process for the M5 chip is believed to be due to cost considerations. However, the high-end versions of the M5 will still feature significant advancements over their M4 equivalents, mainly through the adoption of TSMC's System on Integrated Chip (SoIC) technology.
This 3D chip-stacking approach vertically stacks the chips, which enhances thermal management and reduces electrical leakage compared to traditional 2D designs. Apple is said to have expanded its cooperation with TSMC on the next-generation hybrid SoIC package, which also combines thermoplastic carbon fiber composite molding technology.
The first device to be equipped with the M5 chip is expected to be a new iPad Pro, which will enter mass production in the second half of next year, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Assuming Apple maintains its typical upgrade cycle for its custom silicon, here are the devices we're expecting to benefit in chronological order:
References to what are believed to be Apple's M5 chip have already been discovered in official Apple code. According to one report, thanks to its dual-use SoIC design, Apple also plans to deploy the M5 chip within its AI server infrastructure to bolster AI capabilities across both consumer devices and cloud services.
- iPad Pro: M5 chips could debut in the devices in late 2025 or early-to-mid 2026.
- MacBook Pro: Models featuring M5 series chips are anticipated in late 2025.
- MacBook Air: M5 variants will likely arrive in early 2026.
- Apple Vision Pro: An updated version of the headset incorporating the M5 chip is expected between the fall of 2025 and spring of 2026.
Article Link: M5 Apple Silicon Chip Reportedly Enters Mass Production
…For devs, creative professionals, AI professionals, and even gamers there is no such thing as a too fast or too good computers on any platform.
Especially Macs that are vastly behind in GPU Horsepower with what Nvidia offers beyond encoding and impressive utility of the unified memory for large datasets.
AI has helped minimize timeless limitations of being able to use realtime ray-tracing and render at 5K+ needed for high PPI panel rendering beyond 24 inches, and so on, but not close enough to resolve that for most people who even fully embraced that.
Limitations of hardware and software are clearly bottlenecking spatial computing, quantum computing, and other higher-end computing platforms than existing ones to take off in their ideal forms as well.
Finally portable hardware aren’t close to the desktop counterparts an abundance of productive computer users need or will best be productive using.
There’s many that need and want much more computing power overall.
Respectfully maybe your more modest computing needs are almost completely met by existing tech. That’s not the case for many computer users throughout the world.
Many can benefit from substantially better tech than they have now that will only be cheaper and more available with more advanced tech being pursued to quickly obsolete them.
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Oh noes!!! Higher end Macs will get M5 not too long after the budget-friendly M4 MacBook Air comes out!
And what about the Mac mini? Will it be a travesty if the Mac mini never gets the M5?
why? you never see them.
I would judge it based on what it does, which we don't know anything yet.
i wonder if this fixes in hardware the speculative execution security issues that affects m2-m4 ala spectre/meltdown?
Apple has begun mass production of its next-generation M5 chip, according to South Korean media, with the processor expected to arrive in devices potentially as soon as this year.
ET News reports that Apple began packaging the M5 chip last month. Packaging is the final step in semiconductor manufacturing after fabrication, and involves the process of protecting the chip and enabling electrical connections with other devices or components.
Apple outsources to TSMC the front-end manufacturing phase of fabricating the chips on silicon wafers. Now that fabrication is underway, the packaging is being handled by OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) companies including Taiwan's ASE Group, America's Amkor, and China's JCET. According to the report, ASE was the first to begin mass production, while Amkor and JCET are expected to follow sequentially.
The initial production run is said to be for the base M5 model, rather than Apple's more advanced M5 Pro, M5 Max, and M5 Ultra processors. The OSAT companies mentioned above are said to be currently investing in additional facilities to support the mass production of the high-end models.
The M5 series is expected to feature an enhanced ARM architecture and is reportedly being manufactured using TSMC's advanced 3-nanometer process technology. Apple's decision to forgo TSMC's more advanced 2nm process for the M5 chip is believed to be due to cost considerations. However, the high-end versions of the M5 will still feature significant advancements over their M4 equivalents, mainly through the adoption of TSMC's System on Integrated Chip (SoIC) technology.
This 3D chip-stacking approach vertically stacks the chips, which enhances thermal management and reduces electrical leakage compared to traditional 2D designs. Apple is said to have expanded its cooperation with TSMC on the next-generation hybrid SoIC package, which also combines thermoplastic carbon fiber composite molding technology.
The first device to be equipped with the M5 chip is expected to be a new iPad Pro, which will enter mass production in the second half of next year, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Assuming Apple maintains its typical upgrade cycle for its custom silicon, here are the devices we're expecting to benefit in chronological order:
References to what are believed to be Apple's M5 chip have already been discovered in official Apple code. According to one report, thanks to its dual-use SoIC design, Apple also plans to deploy the M5 chip within its AI server infrastructure to bolster AI capabilities across both consumer devices and cloud services.
- iPad Pro: M5 chips could debut in the devices in late 2025 or early-to-mid 2026.
- MacBook Pro: Models featuring M5 series chips are anticipated in late 2025.
- MacBook Air: M5 variants will likely arrive in early 2026.
- Apple Vision Pro: An updated version of the headset incorporating the M5 chip is expected between the fall of 2025 and spring of 2026.
Article Link: M5 Apple Silicon Chip Reportedly Enters Mass Production
Hope they fix the issues from the previous generations and patch all the Problems they've encountered.
I have a m3 max and was considering upgrading but it’s good enough that I’ll wait for 2nm.
It's easy. You upgrade your Mac when it finally becomes too slow and/or is missing feature support you want. You then buy whatever is out at the time. Don't really need to stress about it. Don't panic about what is coming next year or even in the next couple months. If you need it now, get it. Live by these simple rules and you will be buying a Mac every 5 to 7 years. For some, 10. Unless you're a "PRO." Then your purchase schedule is one of absolute madness.
It's cheaper and easier to test the latest architecture on the iPad Pro first. Then expand to Macs.
Plus, with both iPads and Macbook Air being fanless, its a solid way for Apple to stress test the iPads design chassis to see if device overheats.
iPad Pro adoptions is less than ~20% YoY when compared to MacBook Airs.
To be fair, M2 Ultra is only a small fraction of a percentage slower than M3/M4 Max.
The M3 Max was on par with M2 Ultra
The M4 Max is only around ~2x the power.