Generally when Apple introduces a new chip, the company "stages" the chip's deployment in its various computers, laptop and desThis is very, very unusual, to say the least.
Look at this:
Last year, Apple introduced the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips all at once in October, so it's possible we could see the M4 lineup come during the same time frame.
Gurman says that the entire Mac lineup is slated to get the M4 across late 2024 and early 2025.
The iMac, low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, high-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini machines will be updated with M4 chips first, followed by the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models in spring 2025, the Mac Studio in mid-2025, and the Mac Pro later in 2025.
The entire lineup? This suggests to me that the Apple-TSM partnership is working and that supply chain issues have resolved.
It also means that Apple-TSM is years ahead of some designers-foundries making ever "smaller" chips.
Apple is said to be nearing production of the M4 processor, and it is expected to come in at least three main varieties.
Chips are codenamed Donan for the low-end, Brava for the mid-tier, and Hidra for the top-end.
The Donan chip will be used in the entry-level MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air machines, and the low-end Mac mini, and the Brava chips will be used in the higher-end MacBook Pro and the higher-end Mac mini.
The Hidra chip is designed for the Mac Pro, which suggests it is an "Ultra" or "Extreme" tier chip.
As for the Mac Studio, Apple is testing versions with an unreleased M3-era chip and a variation of the M4 Brava processor that would presumably be higher tier than the M4 Pro and M4 Max "Brava" chips.
M4 versions of the Mac desktops could support as much as 512GB Unified Memory, which would be a marked jump over the current 192GB limit.
The M4 chips will be built on the same 3-nanometer process as the M3 chips, but Apple supplier TSMC will likely use an improved version of the 3nm process for boosts in performance and power efficiency.
Apple also plans to add a much improved Neural Engine that has an increased number of cores for AI tasks.
Overview of top stories re: M4.
Reuters, link here.
For folks who follow / know / understand the Nvidia pivot, the question is this: can Apple pivot as quickly? When it comes to hardware-software integration for AI who is in the catbird seat? We should know in a few weeks.
But then look at this. I've always kept with / bought / upgraded to the lowest-cost, basic iPhone. I may break that tradition and buy the iPhone 17 when it's released.
How important is the 2-nm chip? It has its own wiki page.
As such, "2 nm" is used primarily as a marketing term by the semiconductor industry to refer to a new, improved generation of chips in terms of increased transistor density (a higher degree of miniaturization), increased speed, and reduced power consumption compared to the previous "3 nm" node generation.
As of May 2022, TSMC was expected to begin risk "2 nm" production at the end of 2024 and mass production in 2025; Intel at that time forecasted production in 2024, and Samsung in 2025.
For the record, the only company reporting transistor density for the 2-nm chip is TSMC. Neither Samsung nor Intel is / are reporting transistor density for the chip. TSMC is reporting an incredible 258,700,000 transistors / mm^2.
The current published record is the Apple A17, link here: 183,044,315, which is a 3-nm, 2023 chip.
The best Intel could do as of 2023: 10 nm. Wow.
Since Intel's 2023 10-nm chip, the following are in the wild:
- Apple: 5 nm, Apple M2 Pro
- Apple: 5 nm, Apple M2 Max
- Apple: 5 nm, Apple M2 Ultra
- AMD: 5 nm, Epyc Bergamo
- AMD: 5 nm, Instinct M13000A
Why is Nvidia not on this list? The above chips are microprocessors (CPUs). Nvidia is designing / selling GPUs.
- Nvidia's market: GPUs. And at this link, only two designers and one fabricator:
- designers: Nvidia, AMD --
- AMD's best: 153 million transistor count; 2023
- Nvidia's best: 208 million transistor count; 2024
- fabricator:
- TSMC
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Tech
Chips, semiconductor: link here.
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