While Apple just this week unveiled its new “M2” chip for use in its Mac and iPad devices, chip-making partner TSMC is reportedly set to begin production of a more powerful “M2 Pro” chip later this year.
Analyst Jeff Pu of Haitong Intl Tech Research has now reported that the Taiwanese semiconductor company is expected to start mass production of Apple’s new “M2 Pro” chip later this year, which reportedly will be built using the 3-nanometer process. The M2 chip is built on the same 5-nanometer process as the M1.
Apple says the M2 improves on the performance per watt of the M1 with an 18% faster CPU, a 35% more powerful GPU, and a 40% faster Neural Engine. It also delivers 50% more memory bandwidth compared to the M1 and can access up to 24GB of fast unified memory.
If Pu’s report (originally shared by 9to5Mac) is correct, high-end versions of the M2 chip will all be built on the 3-nanometer process.
This time, Apple has also been working on another new Mac mini (codenamed J474) that features the M2 Pro chip – a variant with eight performance cores and four efficiency cores, totaling a 12-core CPU versus the 10-core CPU of the current M1 Pro.
Pu also mentions “Apple’s in-house server” in a reference to the new Mac Pro, and also suggests that there will be a new iPad with a 3-nanometer chip.