pple’s first ARM-based Mac processor is here. The 5nm M1 system-on-a-chip (SoC) features an 8-core CPU, which the company claims delivers the best performance-per-watt of any processor on the market, and up to 8 GPU cores. Those CPUs cores are divided up into four high-performance and four efficiency cores. According to Apple, the former deliver industry-leading performance in single-threaded workloads, while all four performance cores can work together for a boost in multi-threaded performance.
Apple argues that the M1 is its highest-performance chip yet and that low-power high-efficiency cores deliver similar performance to its current Intel-based dual-core MacBook Air (though to be fair, that’s not a performance machine by any stretch). The high-performance cores are significantly faster, of course.
Maybe more importantly, these chips also offer a better performance per watt than other systems.
On the GPU side, the M1 will feature up to eight cores with 128 execution units. It’ll be able to handle up to 24,576 concurrent threads and peak performance of 2.6 teraflops. This, Apple argues, makes it the world’s fasted integrated graphics experience on a laptop.
As expected, the chip will also feature Apple’s neural engine for accelerating machine learning workloads.
In the near term, we’ll see M1 make its way into new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini models. As it did at WWDC 2020, Apple said fully transitioning its Mac lineup to its in-house silicon will take the better part of two years.
