A developer has spotted evidence that Apple is testing the M2 Apple Silicon chip, which is expected to debut in a new MacBook Air and refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro. The discovery comes just ahead of Tuesday’s “Peek Performance” Apple event.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports in his latest Power On newsletter, that a “developer source” has informed him that in recent weeks, Apple has been testing a chip that boasts an eight-core CPU and a 10-core GPU across multiple Macs on the latest macOS beta.
I’m told from a developer source that Apple has been testing multiple Macs with a new chip in recent weeks that includes an eight-core CPU (four efficiency cores and four high-performance cores) and 10 GPU cores. Those are exactly the specifications of the M2 chip I detailed last year.
Apple has been testing this new chip on machines running macOS 12.3 (which should be released in the next week or two and run on the new Macs) and a future macOS 12.4, as well as macOS 13, which will be previewed in June at WWDC 2022.
Similar indications of new Mac chips (the M1 Pro and M1 Max) in app logs before the event back in October.
Apple’s M2 chip would be the first significant upgrade for the Apple Silicon architecture since the first M1 chip debuted in November 2020. Apple has debuted more powerful versions of its M1 chip over the last year, with the M1 Pro and M1 Max.
The M2 is expected to debut first in an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro and redesigned MacBook Air. Gurman says a new Mac mini powered by M1 Pro and M1 Max chips is “ready to go,” and could debut this week. A new 13-inch MacBook Pro and a new iMac could launch “as soon as the first half of the year,” Gurman added.
Gurman again shared his expectations for Tuesday’s “Peek performance” event. A new iPhone SE with the same 4.7-inch design as the previous model is expected to be unveiled, featuring the addition of 5G connectivity and a new chip.
A new iPad Air is also expected to debut at the event, and is expected to feature the A15 chip, Center Stage, and 5G connectivity. Alongside the new iPhone, iPad, and at least one new Apple Silicon Mac, Gurman believes that we may see a fourth “wildcard” announcement.
Apple will stream the event live on its website and in the Apple TV app when it begins at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on March 8. We’ll be covering the event right here, so see you then.
