Up to 32 cores: Apple is gunning for Intel with its next-gen silicon

[Shawn Knight]

Forward-looking: The first wave of Macs powered by custom Apple silicon debuted earlier this year and are now shipping. Cupertino, however, isn’t resting on its laurels as engineers at the tech titan are already working on multiple successors to the new M1 SoC including one chip with as many as 32 high-performance cores.

Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that if the chips meet Apple’s expectations, they will undoubtedly surpass the performance afforded by Intel chips that power the latest machines.

The first batch of M1 chips found their way into the MacBook Air, the Mac mini and the entry-level MacBook Pro. Apple is reportedly planning to spruce up upgraded versions of the MacBook Pro as well as entry and high-end iMacs. The people said new Mac Pro workstations are also coming at a later date.

When Apple first announced plans to transition to custom silicon back in June at WWDC, the company said it would take about two years to complete the transition.

Some questioned whether or not Apple was making the right move by going with its own silicon. While we won’t have a definitive answer to that query for a while longer, things seem promising thus far.

The first M1-powered offerings impressed early reviewers with their performance and energy efficiency. The move could also save Apple lots of money in the long run on top of further helping the company differentiate itself from other computer makers and free it from Intel’s roadmap.

Masthead credit: Girts Ragelis

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https://www.techspot.com/news/87872-apple-aims-gap-intel-next-wave-custom-silicon.html

 

[DZillaXx]

32 performance cores would be awesome. That would clearly be the future Mac Pro/iMac Pro chipset.

Though I expect the Mac Pro to be the last device switched over. Apple tends to chase money, and a low volume product will not get the attention the other devices get. That being said I doubt we ever really see a large Mac Pro only type of chip, something packing 64 cores. Like what we would see from AMD. For apple the volume just isn't there, and apple of late hasn't really had their power users at heart.

What should be expected next is a 12 or 16 core chip for the Macbook Pro 16 and iMac devices. With a 8 (performance) + 4 (Low Power) config, or 8+8 config. With upto 2-3x GPU cores. Clock speed wise I don't think they'll be any better than what the M1 hits. So I wouldn't expect any single thread gains, other than a few % at best. But I'd expect multithreading to shine.

 

[noel24]

But... will it run Crysis?

 

[donnieD]

But... will it run Crysis?

Probably will, but will it run MS Flight Simulator 2020 is the question

 

[stewi0001]

But... will it run Crysis?

It will if Apple tells you to play Crysis

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Apple is gonna blow em away.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Probably will, but will it run MS Flight Simulator 2020 is the question

If Apple focuses on MSFS 2020, you’ll get a more efficient experience at 4K 120fps but it’ll cost you a whole lot

 

[Dimitriid]

But... will it run Crysis?

It can probably run it without a GPU at all just using CPU cores, which is something that Threadripper and Epyc have been able to do in the past.

 

[Makste]

I was impressed by the M1 chip. Apple is really going to pull this off. It is serious. And I'm looking forward to the impact.

 

[No Longer Human]

It will if Apple tells you to play Crysis

I thought that would be 'It will if Apple lets you play Crysis', or perhaps that is just their modus operandi in regard to their phones....

 

[Paultimate]

It will if Apple tells you to play Crysis

I enjoy the hidden sentiment that Apple fans listen to Apple as if its a holy word. As if this is different from any other large group thats has a very vocal subsection of overzealous fanboys. The only difference is Apple fans are passively aggressively attacked in almost EVERY article I look at in much higher numbers than any other brand I know of. Then these people defend themselves, and then people trolling them use that defense as another reason they must be sheep.

Its a weird fscked up psychologically human thing. Who are the as5holes here?

At the end of the day I am happy with Windows 10, but Apple is kicking *** and I cant wait to see what this series of chips brings. Between Apple and AMD, consumers are winning.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

Apple is gunning for Intel...well that is mediocrity at best, they have been surpassed by AMD did no one wake Apple up from 5-10 years ago, I mean totally their style if you didn't invent it act like it's a big deal and put a marketing spin on it.

Still can't believe people fall for their BS products and then make excuse after excuse and blow the companies proverbial knob every step of the way while being actively screwed.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

I enjoy the hidden sentiment that Apple fans listen to Apple as if its a holy word. As if this is different from any other large group thats has a very vocal subsection of overzealous fanboys. The only difference is Apple fans are passively aggressively attacked in almost EVERY article I look at in much higher numbers than any other brand I know of. Then these people defend themselves, and then people trolling them use that defense as another reason they must be sheep.

Its a weird fscked up psychologically human thing. Who are the as5holes here?

At the end of the day I am happy with Windows 10, but Apple is kicking *** and I cant wait to see what this series of chips brings. Between Apple and AMD, consumers are winning.

Apple is kicking *** with what exactly? They have had disaster after disaster and the m1 chip still has major limitations as long as it only works on their OS it's useless at best even to compare.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

I thought that would be 'It will if Apple lets you play Crysis', or perhaps that is just their modus operandi in regard to their phones....

Naw remember Jobs told Carmack gaming wasn't a valid revenue stream and didn't want that culture on Macs. Even after he helped fix the shitty GPU drivers on Next systems...... Apple still doesn't know it's head from it's *** outside marketing terms.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

I was impressed by the M1 chip. Apple is really going to pull this off. It is serious. And I'm looking forward to the impact.

Impact of what, white smoke. If the chip is only usable on mac OS then it's useless trying to compare actual benchmarks in an academic mannerism requires you to eliminate all the variables except 1 the chip, it's fictitious puppy fluff and shoddy marketing.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

32 performance cores would be awesome. That would clearly be the future Mac Pro/iMac Pro chipset.

Though I expect the Mac Pro to be the last device switched over. Apple tends to chase money, and a low volume product will not get the attention the other devices get. That being said I doubt we ever really see a large Mac Pro only type of chip, something packing 64 cores. Like what we would see from AMD. For apple the volume just isn't there, and apple of late hasn't really had their power users at heart.

What should be expected next is a 12 or 16 core chip for the Macbook Pro 16 and iMac devices. With a 8 (performance) + 4 (Low Power) config, or 8+8 config. With upto 2-3x GPU cores. Clock speed wise I don't think they'll be any better than what the M1 hits. So I wouldn't expect any single thread gains, other than a few % at best. But I'd expect multithreading to shine.

All their devices are low volume in computing, they have 14%world wide marketshare.that is nothing in fact it's embarrassing.

 

[Makste]

Impact of what, white smoke. If the chip is only usable on mac OS then it's useless trying to compare actual benchmarks in an academic mannerism requires you to eliminate all the variables except 1 the chip, it's fictitious puppy fluff and shoddy marketing.

Even so, the mac users are going to benefit greatly from this transition. Especially for iphone users and at the price front. The A14 is already superb, and advancements on the M1 mean progress in the phone section too. I wouldn't dismiss the M1 and its variants yet, there are so many matters arising because of this chip.

 

[Makste]

All their devices are low volume in computing, they have 14%world wide marketshare.that is nothing in fact it's embarrassing.

14% world wide market share is not a small thing no matter how you look at it. It really is not something to be ashamed of.

 

[EchoWhiskey]

If Apple focuses on MSFS 2020..

?
You mean: If Asobo is focusing on Apple OS.
For now, and in the (far) distant future, FS2020 will only run on Windows.

 

[Burty117]

All their devices are low volume in computing, they have 14%world wide marketshare.that is nothing in fact it's embarrassing.

Where did you get 14% from?! It's WAY less than that from just a quick Google, I can't find a single figure above 9% and that's being very generous from what I'm reading.

Edit: They ship around 5-6 million Mac's a year. To put that in perspective, HP sell triple that.

 

[DZillaXx]

All their devices are low volume in computing, they have 14%world wide marketshare.that is nothing in fact it's embarrassing.

The Macbook Air is pretty high volume. And the M1 movies enough volume to make perfect sense. Marketshare isn't everything. Macbook Air is pretty well priced for a laptop and kind of hard to beat. Especially when most other devices in that price range is built like crap. I like the HP Envy x360, but only the models with 400+ nit screens. Which are just as expensive as something like the macbook air.

MacOS isn't perfect, and in some ways just annoying. But the same can be said of windows. But a huge fan of WSL v2 and how easy it is to get a proper Linux CLI going. Just a matter of time before we get docker working on the new M1 macs though.

 

[stewi0001]

I enjoy the hidden sentiment that Apple fans listen to Apple as if its a holy word. As if this is different from any other large group thats has a very vocal subsection of overzealous fanboys. The only difference is Apple fans are passively aggressively attacked in almost EVERY article I look at in much higher numbers than any other brand I know of. Then these people defend themselves, and then people trolling them use that defense as another reason they must be sheep.

Its a weird fscked up psychologically human thing. Who are the as5holes here?

My comment was not targeted at fanboys but at Apple themselves. I have considered them hypocrites years before Epic redid their commercial from the 80s. However, Apple was a lot more interesting when they were being innovative. That came to almost a complete stop when Steve Jobs died. Now they are another big brand business. I really do not care if someone prefers Mac or PC. In fact my wife is a Mac user and I am a PC user.

At the end of the day, I like to go to sleep.

 

[candle_86]

But... will it run Crysis?

No not likely, apples suck at playing games, and given this is now running the weaker ARM design I'd be suprised if it could run Quake.

 

[Markoni35]

AMD and Intel have fantastic engineers (especially when they can focus on the CPU performance, rather than on adding artificial backdoors for shadowy organizations). So if M1 comes too close, I have no doubt that it will just make AMD and Intel start adding even more performance improvements.

Maybe even creating a completely new architecture that doesn't come with 40 years of baggage and unused x86 instructions and extensions.

 

[Rayneofpayne]

Even so, the mac users are going to benefit greatly from this transition. Especially for iphone users and at the price front. The A14 is already superb, and advancements on the M1 mean progress in the phone section too. I wouldn't dismiss the M1 and its variants yet, there are so many matters arising because of this chip.

I would agree on that, iphone and ipad users will benefit greatly, but it does come with a sacrifice of raw power for desktop and higher power laptops.