This was to have been Obama’s era. A decade later Obama will hardly be mentioned in the history books, except for the beer summit. Obama’s legacy: jump-starting Joe Biden’s deteriorating career. And ending Hillary’s.
This is the same hotel outside of which John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981.Saturday, April 25, 2026
Apple's M6: Won't Be A Chiplet -- Will Be An SoC -- Which Suggests The M5 Was A One-Off Built For A Specific Reason -- April 25, 2026
Locator: 50619APPLE.
AI query: will Apple's M6 be a chip or a chiplet?
Reply: wow, wow, wow -- first time I've seen "Baltra" in a reply in which I did not specifically ask about Baltra. This now puts us through at least three new Apple iterations since Intel started work on their "14."
Based on 2026 reports, Apple's M6 family is expected to be a, or a series of, system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs rather than a, or a series of, chiplet design, manufactured using TSMC's base 2-nanometer (N2) process. Expected to launch in late 2026 for redesigned MacBook Pro models, the M6 will focus on high-density monolithic design improvements for better power efficiency and performance.
Key M6 Chip Details:
- Manufacturing: The M6 is expected to utilize TSMC's base 2-nanometer N2 process, rather than the N2P variant, notes iLounge.
- Launch Timing: Redesigned MacBook Pro models featuring OLED screens, likely in late 2026, according to MacRumors.
While some reports suggest Apple is experimenting with chiplets for specialized AI server chips (codenamed "Baltra") by 2027, the M6 for consumer Macs is expected to follow the traditional high-end silicon approach.
- Design Focus: The chips, which also include potential Pro and Max variants, aim to offer significant performance boosts over the M5 family.
Apple's M5 -- Another Revolutionary, Strategic Design By Apple -- For Which It Will Get No Credit -- April 25, 2026
Locator: 50618APPLE.
Apple and M5 are tracked here.
Jargon: 2.5D Fusion.
This is important. By the time Intel's best chips get released in 2028 (or whenever it is) the industry will have moved on to chiplets. Intel will sell every chip they make but end-users (Apple, for example) will have better margins, among other things.
I haven't yet read the skeptic's article in Barron's yet but I bet it's interesting.
AI query:
Was Apple one of the first chip designers, with the M5, to go to chiplets, rather than chips?
Reply:
Chiplet: A chiplet is a small, specialized, and modular "piece" of a chip designed to be combined with other chiplets into a single package, whereas a traditional "chip" (or System on a Chip/SoC) is a single, large piece of silicon containing all necessary functional blocks.
Essentially, chiplets break a single large die into smaller functional components to improve manufacturing yields, reduce costs, and increase performance.
Apple's M5 Pro and M5 Max are true chiplet-based designs, separating CPU and GPU functions, a change from previous monolithic approaches.
The new chiplet design for the M5 Pro and M5 Max is expected to allow unique CPU and GPU configurations for better flexibility.
One of the M5 Pro’s and M5 Max’s biggest highlights is that both chipsets are rumored to feature TSMC’s SoIC packaging (Small Outline Integrated Circuit) and a 2.5D chiplet design that will enable the company to mass produce even more capable SoCs at a lower cost. A new rumor pretty much repeats the same information, talking about the advantages of the new Apple Silicon lineup, while also mentioning that both the M5 Pro and M5 Max will feature a slightly higher transistor density.
On Weibo, Fixed-focus digital cameras has shared various updates surrounding Apple’s upcoming chipsets, including a transition from InFO (Integrated Fan-Out) technology to 2.5D, bringing a slew of benefits to the table. On the latest post, the person has pretty much summarized the same perks, such as improved heat dissipation, a new packaging, with the only addition worthy of attention that hasn’t been mentioned before being increased transistor density.
Then again, Apple never disclosed the transistor count for the M5, so there’s no way of knowing if it differs from the M4. Fortunately, the only proper evidence that the M5 Pro and M5 Max offer a higher transistor count than the M4 Pro and M4 Max is Apple switching from TSMC’s 3nm N3E node to the 3nm N3P technology.
Three Blogs From The Past -- Apple, Arm, OpenAI; BlackRock Vs BRK; Micron -- April 25, 2026
Locator: 50617ARCHIVES.
The links:
- Apple, ARM and OpenAI: their relationship, link here.
- BlackRock, BRK: how they differ. Link here. Compare five-year with one-year.
- Micro: could surge another 40%. Link here. At the time of the post, MU was trading for $close at $427. Yesterday, MU closed at $497, jumping 3%, $15. From April 13 to April 25, two weeks: a gain of 16%.
****************************
The Book Page
Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and The World, Malcolm Harris, c. 2023. Notes are posted here.
Today, chapter 2.3 Hooverville. For those who doubt the fourth industrial revolution (actually the sixth industrial revolution), I highly recommend they read this chapter.
The M4 Mac Mini -- Connecting The Dots -- April 25, 2026
Locator: 50616APPLE.
The most interesting story I've been following for me personally involves Apple.
See disclaimer. I am inappropriately exuberant about Apple. Not AAPL, but Apple. I said I was Apple's #3 fanboy decades ago. I remember writing on the blog that our younger daughter and I would take our prayer rugs and go down to the Apple store at the mall and pray in front of the doors before the Apple Store opened. The mall? I thought it was called the Gold Coast Mall, southern California. In fact, it was:
But I digress. So, see the disclaimer. I am inappropriately exuberant about Apple, just as I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken. But this post is about Apple, not Bakken.
I don't even know where to start. So, I'll start here.
Apple's M4 Mac Mini is sold out. Gone, gone, gone. Never to be replaced -- at least not with the M4.
So, where are these M4 Mac Minis going? My hunch: they're going overseas. Regardless, they're being bought by the truckload and shelves are being emptied. The MacMinis are being used for AI.
Really, really, really. Not really.
Indirectly they're being used for AI. A better way to say it: the Apple M4 Mac Mini is being used BECAUSE of AI, not FOR AI. It's a subtle difference but an important difference. And it became clear when Intel announced it 1Q26 earnings -- blowout earnings by the way. [Another digression: when earnings are so far better / worse than forecast, the question quickly becomes why? How did analysts miss this? In this case, it was easy. And connecting those dots confirm that this was a one-off quarter. It won't happen again.]
A clue in the next two screenshots, but in just one of the screenshots.
Wow, the dots connect.
I'm really proud of this one.
The first screenshot:
The second screenshot, the money shot:
Microsoft hates Apple. I assume Microsoft News (MSN) hates Apple.
By the way, a digression. Has anyone noticed how inexpensive top-end Apple products are getting? Exhibit A: the MacBook Neo.
But I digress.
Macrumors, link here:
Apple never sells out of anything. There may be delays in delivery, as there are now with regard to the Neo but Apple has not sold out of Neo. You can buy the Neo today, but it might be on backorder.
You cannot buy the M4 Mac Mini. It's sold out, gone forever.
Actually I'm wrong. Apple does sell out of stuff, but not in the way one thinks. Apple sells out of something for only two reasons, and the shelves go bare. The shelves go bare over a few months.
The two reasons Apple sells out of something:
- Apple has discontinued the item. Exhibit A: the Apple Newton;
- Apple is replacing / upgrading the item with a better, often thinner version.
So, fast forward:
To be continued.
*******************************
The M5. The Apple M5
The M5. The Apple M5
I don't think I have a page dedicated to Apple's M5 chip. The closest I come is to the Apple Page.
The M5 is not coming. It's been here for quite some time. From the linked Apple Page:
M6:
- update for new phones;
- TSMC 2nm process; significant advances;
- SoC: highly sophisticated, close stacking of CPU-GPU-memory components.
- memory: Samsung, SK Hynix, and/or Micron
M5:
- apparently Vision Pro now has the M5 chip -- September, 2025
- rumored to be available 4Q25 for iPad Pro (iPad Pro M5) -- October, 2025
- now available, review, March, 2026;
- Amazon's overall pick, January, 2026
- 11-inch iPad Pro M5 list price: $999; available at Amazon for $899
- for the MacBook Pro M5 delivery has been delayed from October, 2025, to early 1H26 (October, 2025)
- January, 2026, 14.2-inch: list price, $1,999; available at Amazon for $1,749
- MacBook Air M5, not yet released, January, 2026; likely to be released 2Q26; reports -- MacBook Air M5 will be announced / released early March, 2026;
****************************
The Book Page
The best books I've read on this subject matter.
Winter reading program, 2025 - 2026:
- AI reading program (pulled forward from summer reading program, with additions):
- Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges, c. 1983.
- The Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson, c. 2015.
- The Story of Semiconductors, John Orton, c. 2004. Incredible resource. Link here.
- The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created The Modern World, Simo Winchester, c. 2018.
- Chip War: The Fight For the World's Most Critical Technology, Chris Miller, c. 2022.
Without question, the most important for investing: Chris Miller's Chip War.
Without question, the best for understanding semiconductors: Orton's.
The most recent:
Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI, Anil Ananthaswamy, c. July 16, 2024, purchased March 18, 2026. Bought at Powell's Book at the Portland, OR, airport.
Over at the 2026 Summer Reading Program.
By the way, although I bought it some time ago, the following is on my 2026 SRP -- I'm reading it now. Finding it fascinating.
- The Jewish Annotated New Testament, NRSV, Amy-Jill Levine And Marc Zvi Brettler -- c. 2011, with new preface, 2016.
********************************
More M4 Mac Mini Screenshots
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)