Enhanced versions of Apple's M2 SoC are expected to enter mass production later this year

[Shawn Knight]

Forward-looking: Apple on Monday introduced its second-generation M2 SoC but behind closed doors, the company is already planning its next act (and probably the following one, too). According to a new research report from analyst Jeff Pu with Haitong International, Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will begin mass production on a more powerful Pro variant of the M2 later this year.

The enhanced version of the chip will reportedly be built using a 3nm process node, allowing Apple to squeeze in even more transistors. The newly announced standard M2 is built on a 5nm process, just like the first-gen M1.

Apple said the new M2 is up to 18 percent faster than its predecessor in CPU-intensive tasks. The GPU is said to be 35 percent more powerful, the Neural Engine is now 40 percent faster and there's 50 more memory bandwidth in play compared to the M1.

Rumors surfaced earlier this year that Apple was testing as many as nine different M2-based Macs including an M2-based Mac mini and a more powerful M2 Pro version. Sources told 9to5Mac that Apple had planned to launch Mac minis with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips but likely scrapped the idea to make way for the Mac Studio that landed in March.

The first Macs to feature Apple's new M2 are the redesigned MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Both are expected to ship sometime in July.

Image credit: Charles Patterson

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https://www.techspot.com/news/94881-enhanced-versions-apple-new-m2-soc-expected-enter.html

 

[kiwigraeme]

TSMC is moving fast and not breaking things - looked it up briefly - so if all this goes well - 3nm will ramp up 2024 and 2nm a view years later ( 10 silicon atoms wide ) , Simply amazing given all the quantum effects predicted at that level

 

[rmcrys]

TSMC is moving fast and not breaking things

ATM (and mostly always) they are the top chip manufacturer, that's why (not only) China (PRC) is very interesting on nationalizing the country (and everything with it). Intel is trying hard to compete (though Intel is not so advanced, the quality of their processes is extremely good) and all others are much inferior (Samsung included, independently what their marketing says).

Nevertheless these common processes are getting very ineffective, I hope they find soon other methods to improve / build chips.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

TSMC is moving fast and not breaking things - looked it up briefly - so if all this goes well - 3nm will ramp up 2024 and 2nm a view years later ( 10 silicon atoms wide ) , Simply amazing given all the quantum effects predicted at that level

No feature size is anywhere near 3nm or 2nm, I'm not even sure why they use this stupidly outdated measure of node size. Even Intel has abandoned the use.