Rumor mill: An Apple analyst and designer who has leaked information about Apple silicon before has come out with more information about the completion of the company's transition to custom processors. The new leak about the Mac Pro supports existing ones.
In the past, Twitter leaker @dylandkt has given accurate details on the M1 iPad Pro and the 24-inch iMac before Apple's announcements confirmed them. Last October he also said the 2022 MacBook Air will use an M2 chip, the next generation of Arm-based custom CPUs.
This week Dylan said Apple is still on track to replace the CPUs in all its computers with Apple silicon this year, with the Mac Pro being the last to leave Intel x86 processors behind. Instead of an M2 chip, however, Dylan said the Mac Pro will start its transition to Apple silicon with another version of M1 "beyond the cores of the M1 Max." Nothing has been said thus far about how the 27" iMac will move away from Intel.
The Apple Silicon transition will end by Q4 of 2022. The Mac Pro will be the last device to be replaced. The Mac Pro's processor will not be an extension of the M2. The processor of the Mac Pro will instead be a further extension of the M1 beyond the cores of the M1 Max.
--- Dylan (@dylandkt) January 17, 2022
A new M1 processor with more than the M1 Max's 10 cores would fall in line with what Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said last November - that a new Mac Pro would feature M1 variations that double and quadruple the M1 Max's cores. Apple also reportedly has a 40-core 3nm Apple silicon processor on track for 2023.
In addition to the new MacBook Air, Dylan also said we will see a 10th generation iPad with 5G, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 6, an A14 processor, a 10.2" screen, and the lightning connector by the end of the year. The following iPad will be a redesign planned for 2023.