On April 27th, according to the Nikkei news source, Apple’s next-generation self-developed PC processor M2 has been put into mass production, and it is still manufactured by TSMC. It is expected to be shipped in July this year. Autumn release.
Before the release of self-developed PC chips, Apple’s strategy has always been to have products equipped with Intel processors and AMD graphics cards. After Apple released the M1 chip in September last year, it was soon applied to a variety of MacBooks and iMacs. Compared with Intel processors, the M1 chip performs better in professional office fields such as processing pictures and videos, and thanks to the simplified instruction set of the ARM architecture, the MacBook’s battery life is exaggerated.
In addition, the Apple M1 chip has an advantage, that is, the process is more advanced. Now Intel’s notebook processor is still 10nm process, AMD uses TSMC 7nm process, Apple M1 is TSMC 5nm process. This year’s M2 processor is also TSMC’s 5nm process, but the technology is more mature, and the yield and overall performance will be better.
In addition to the M2, according to research agency TrendForce, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro configurations that will be released in the second half of this year will be significantly upgraded. The agency said that the mini-LED, which has been applied to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2021, will also be applied to the MacBook Pro. The new laptop will also adopt a new design, restoring the SD card slot and HDMI interface that have been cancelled.
It is indeed a problem that the MacBook Pro has too few ports, and it is very inconvenient to work with external devices. Fortunately, there are two Thunderbolt ports that can be used for external docking stations. Today Surface Laptop 4 was released, and Microsoft also mocked a wave of MacBook ports in the video. In fact, from the perspective of Lenovo ThinkPad, Microsoft Surface and other products, it is not impossible to have both thin and light interfaces.
It is not difficult to see that Apple is ready to completely break away from its dependence on Intel. Earlier, Apple had said that the transition from Intel processors would be completed during the 2022 WWDC Worldwide Developers Conference (expected next June). For Intel, it has been beaten by AMD and can’t find the North. After losing Apple’s support, life will be even more difficult.
Source: Ray Technology
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