The Apple M1 Pro is an ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple. Developed for the Mac line of computers, the M1 Pro and the larger M1 Max were introduced by Apple during a special event on October 18, 2021 for the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros.[1]
Specifications[]
The M1 Pro is manufactured by TSMC to Apple's design specifications. The 245 mm2 die contains 33.7 billion transistors that are fabricated through a 5 nm process. Dynamic RAM (DRAM) is built onto the package and is shared with memory bandwidth of up to 200GB/s through Apple's unified memory architecture (UMA) to eliminate the need to copy data from the CPU to GPU, which are both part of the package.[2][3]
The 10-core CPU (same as in the M1 Max) contains eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores, similiar to the ARM big.LITTLE architecture used by mobile devices for power efficiency. The GPU contains 16 cores for graphics. However, in some entry-level configurations, two of the high-performance cores and two of the GPU cores are deactivated, indicating the practice of binning.[4] The Neural Engine contains 16 cores for machine learning performance. The Media Engine accelerates codec processing at low power with added support for ProRes. A Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 controller is included on the chip. It also includes its own Secure Enclave.[2]
Performance and compatibility[]
Apple advertises up to 70% faster CPU performance than the preceding M1 and double the GPU performance.[2] Compatibility with Intel software is provided through Rosetta 2 emulation, with a reported performance hit of about 21-22%, but still exceeding the speed of Apple's Intel-based models.[5][6] The first operating system from Apple to support the M1 Pro and M1 Max is macOS Monterey, which can also natively run iPadOS applications on the M1 processor family.[2]
Limitations[]
DRAM must be ordered in advance in 16 or 32 GB configurations as they are part of the M1 Pro's SoC package.[2][4]
References[]
- ↑ Apple Event — October 18 by Apple, YouTube. 2021-10-18.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Introducing M1 Pro and M1 Max: the most powerful chips Apple has ever built, Apple Inc. 2021-10-18.
- ↑ Apple Announces M1 Pro & M1 Max: Giant New Arm SoCs with All-Out Performance by Andrei Frumusanu, AnandTech. 2021-10-18.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Buy 14-inch MacBook Pro, Apple Inc. Archived 2021-10-18.
- ↑ I love that Apple’s M1 can easily shrug off a 20% performance hit just to emulate x86_64 and still be faster than the Intel chips in the rest of Apple’s lineup by Steve Troughton-Smith, Twitter. 2020-11-15.
- ↑ Apple Silicon M1 Emulating x86 is Still Faster Than Every Other Mac in Single Core Benchmark by Frank McShan, MacRumors. 2020-11-15.
External links[]
- Mac computers with Apple silicon at Apple Support
- T6000 (Apple M1 Pro) at The iPhone Wiki
- Apple M1 Pro at NotebookCheck
- Apple M Family at WikiChip
- Apple M1 Pro at WikiMóvel
- Apple M1 Pro at Wikipedia
Articles[]
- What’s the Difference Between Apple’s M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max? by Benj Edwards at How-To Geek (2021-10-18)
- M1 Pro and M1 Max: Apple silicon is kicking Intel out of the Mac computer by Stephen Shankland at CNET (2021-10-18)
- Apple’s new M1 Pro is “Chop” version of M1 Max Die (?) by Anthony Frausto-Robledo at Archintosh (2021-10-18)