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Apple plans to expand its internal silicon with an aggressive roadmap next year. A Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter says the Cupertino company plans to introduce a series of new Mac processors spanning up to 32 high-performance CPU cores, clearly intended to outperform Intel’s 28-core Xeon W processor. currently used on Mac Pro desktops.
Apple’s inaugural ARM chips in the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini exceeded most people’s expectations in terms of performance. Current M1 chips are built around four high-performance cores that help with tasks like video editing, and four efficiency cores to handle less intensive tasks like web browsing.
The report claims that Apple is developing a new System on Chips (SoC) with up to 16 high-performance cores and four low-power cores (20 cores in total) that are intended for new versions of MacBook Pro and iMac.
As mentioned above, Apple is testing a chip design with up to 32 high-performance cores for its high-end desktops and plans to release it for later in 2021. The company is also said to introduce a new mid-size Mac Pro. in 2022.
Apple engineers are also said to be developing more ambitious graphics processors. Current M1 processors are offered with a custom Apple graphics engine that comes with either seven or eight GPU cores. The company is believed to be testing 16- and 32-core GPU models for its high-end iMac and MacBook Pros.
For its high-end desktops, Apple is said to be developing 64-core and 128-core GPU models. These new GPUs are said to be several times faster than the Nvidia and AMD GPUs that Apple is currently using in its products. This may be an indication that Apple may sever ties with AMD for its future products. These new Apple-developed GPUs are expected to debut later in 2021 or potentially 2022.
During WWDC 2020, Apple announced an ambitious plan to move its entire Mac lineup to its own silicon in the next two years, so it makes sense that they have more powerful chips in development.
The first ARM-based Macs perform impressive thanks to their combination of power efficiency and performance. But matching the capabilities of its more powerful Intel-based machines, like the Mac Pro, will likely prove a bigger challenge.
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