M5 Pro, M5 Max: What I expect from Apple’s next-generation chips

Rumor has it The upcoming M5 Pro and M5 Max processors will be designed differently from the upcoming M5 Pro and M5 Max processors M5,Presumably to improve scalability. They are expected to make their debut in The next wave of MacBook Pros.

This change in architecture means it will be easier and more efficient to speed up the chips, as well as reduce heat generation and perhaps increase battery life a bit. To achieve this feat, word is that Apple has switched from TSMC’s system-on-chip layout used by the M5 to a custom form of TSMC’s integrated system-on-chip, horizontal layout called SoIC-MH.

What has changed?

With SOC The architecture that Apple uses for the M5Everything except the memory is manufactured in bulk on a single die that is attached to the system memory for a chip. The company has mainly expanded into the Pro, Max and Ultra chipsets by combining multiple dies.

That’s why, for example, the number of GPU cores in the Max and Ultra chips was generally twice that of the lower versions. But this has always been an ineffective and inflexible way of measuring performance.

TSMC SoIC Manufacturing creates separate dies (or microchips) for selected operational combinations, which are then linked via small, high-speed connections into a single package and combined with the final chip’s memory.

In Apple’s case, it is expected that it will move the GPU to its own chip to make it easier to measure its performance independently of the CPU. This is essential because the demand for tensor (for AI) and graphics processing power is growing rapidly, while the need for high-power CPUs is currently much lower.

SoICs generally have stacked chips, allowing for the smallest, and thus fastest, interconnections possible. But Apple may be using a custom layout for the SoIC-MH, placing them next to the main die instead of stacking them.

A potentially decisive step

In the absence of any reliable information, it is difficult to predict how this will impact performance.

For example, Apple could put fewer GPU cores into some system configurations instead of more, though I really doubt it would want to reduce performance. Additionally, the layout could change Apple’s CPU core counting options, depending on what Apple chooses to do with the space that opens up on the die, or if the company chooses to just shrink the die.

But when Apple announced… M1 Ultra As for the Mac Pro, my first thought when I saw that it only used integrated graphics was that this was it no Great long-term strategy for chip architecture.

With each generation, I’ve been waiting for the shoe to drop: the M series still doesn’t support discrete graphics cards, only the on-chip GPU, which means the company needs a better way to increase on-chip GPU power over time. Apple addressed the M5’s AI tensor processing needs by adding a neural accelerator to each GPU core, but the one-accelerator-per-core approach is also a slow road.

I don’t know if a GPU chip is the best solution to these issues, but hopefully this will allow Apple to cram as many cores into a GPU as possible, without the constraints of fitting into the fixed space available on the die. In turn, this could enable Apple to offer a 14-inch MacBook Pro, for example, that can really compete when it comes to heavy machine learning workloads.

If Apple does implement this type of architecture, we’ll definitely see the M5 Pro and Max systems at Worldwide Developers Conference, the company’s annual developers conference, because Apple will need to get developers excited about gaming (again) and AI (again).

Given to Click on laptop prices Because of severe memory shortages (among other drawbacks), the ability to offer chipset options while decoupling GPU and CPU performance in this way may help control costs — or at least make it easier for you to manage the choice within your budget of fine-grained configuration options.