Apple announces next-gen M2 SoC: 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, made on 5nm

Apple has just announced its new M2 SoC with some impressive upgrades across the board, and will be powering "completely redesigned" versions of the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro laptops.

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The new Apple M2 is being made one TSMC's new second-generation 5nm process node, with over 20 billion transistors making up the chip. Inside, Apple has an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, up to 24GB of LPDDR5 RAM with 100GB/sec of memory bandwidth, and "industry-leading performance per watt".

Apple also has a "high-performance media engine" that handles up to 8K resolution video and HEVC video, and even supports 6K external display support.

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The 8-core CPU is split into 4 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency cores, with the 4 high-performance cores using an "ultrawide microarchitecture", which packs 192KB instruction cache, 128KB data cache, and shared 16MB cache.

• Read more: Apple's next-gen M2 chip rumored to go into production
• Read more: Apple breaks up with Intel, will use own chips from 2020

The 4 high-efficiency cores are using a "wide microarchitecture", with a 128KB instruction cache, 64KB data cache, and shared 4MB cache.

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Apple is cramming the 24GB LPDDR5 memory on the "Apple-designed custom package" which is an impressive feat, 20+ billion transistors on the M2 chip itself, and then 24GB of LPDDR5 sitting next to it. The 24GB of unified memory is on a 128-bit wide LPDDR5 interface, with access to the entire chip (and high bandwidth: 100GB/sec).

Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies explains: "M2 starts the second generation of M-series chips and goes beyond the remarkable features of M1. With our relentless focus on power-efficient performance, M2 delivers a faster CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine. And along with higher memory bandwidth and new capabilities like ProRes acceleration, M2 continues the tremendous pace of innovation in Apple silicon for the Mac".

• Read more: Apple M1 Ultra: game-changing SoC for the PC, powerful new chip on 5nm
• Read more: Apple M1 Ultra SoC is close to 3x bigger than AMD Ryzen CPU
• Read more: Apple: M1 Ultra GPU beats GeForce RTX 3090. Benchmarks: no, it doesn't

Apple's Next-Generation Custom Technologies

M2 brings Apple's latest custom technologies to the Mac, enabling new capabilities, better security, and more:

• The Neural Engine can process up to 15.8 trillion operations per second - over 40 percent more than M1.
• The media engine includes a higher-bandwidth video decoder, supporting 8K H.264 and HEVC video.
• Apple's powerful ProRes video engine enables playback of multiple streams of both 4K and 8K video.
• Apple's latest Secure Enclave provides best-in-class security.
• A new image signal processor (ISP) delivers better image noise reduction.