Apple Mac Pro’s 3nm SoC accommodates up to 40 CPU cores by 2023

Front edge: Intel’s new CEO may want to take back Apple’s business over time, but Apple is pushing ahead with more powerful chips of its own. In a very short time, he will have workstation-level hardware that will cover both general-purpose computing resources and graphics solutions, as well as machine learning tasks.

Apple is now halfway through its planned transition to self-development. custom siliconbut the company doesn’t necessarily want to leave Intel and AMD chips behind. The M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max chipsets are just the beginning of this journey, but they have already managed to impress in terms of performance per watt when compared to similar CPU + GPU solutions from the x86 world.

According to report According to the information, the Cupertino giant is working hard to create even more powerful systems on a chip of the second and third generations of the M-series, codenamed Ibiza, Lobos and Palma. The former will be the direct successor to the M1 SoC used in the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.

The “M2” chipset will be manufactured by TSMC using an upgraded 5nm process, so it will not be a significant upgrade in terms of performance or power efficiency over the M1 SoC. Apple plans to introduce a dual-die M2 variant that will bring more performance to Mac desktops. Apple reportedly captured the design of the M2 SoC in April 2021, raising confidence in reports that the company may unveil an M2-based MacBook Air next year.

Even more interesting is the third generation Apple Silicon from Apple, which is expected to be produced in 2023. Some of these new chips are reported to be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm technology node and have up to four dies. In other words, they pack up to 40 CPU cores in a single package, while Apple’s current Mac Pro can only be configured with a 28-core Intel Xeon W processor.

Reports over the past year have claimed that Apple will release another Intel-based Mac Pro in 2022 that could be equipped with Intel Xeon W-3300 processors. A move like this might make sense as the M1-based MacBook Pro 13 has coexisted with the Intel-based version for months.

Overall, it looks like the Intel-Apple relationship is in its final stages. Workstation-class hardware will soon appear in Cupertino, covering both graphics and general-purpose computing. The Cupertino-based company is already saving billions by ditching Intel and AMD hardware. It looks like it could also become a leader in performance per watt in the coming years.