Wired
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the next generation of Apple Silicon is close to mass production. People familiar with the matter revealed to Apple Center reporters that three different Apple M4 processors have been prepared. Interestingly, the new chip aims to transform the Mac computer product line with a focus on new artificial intelligence to cope with the IT industry trend in which Apple is obviously lagging behind.
Gurman explained that sales of Mac computers haven’t been the strongest in recent months. Machine sales fell 27% in the last fiscal year, and critical response to the new M3 computers has been tepid, suggesting that switching from the M2 to the M3 isn’t enough to entice customers to part with their hard-earned cash.
As the IT industry’s enthusiasm for AI continues to grow, Apple may hope that increased focus on AI in its M4 processor/marketing will help boost the market, even if consumers are not yet convinced of its merits on devices.
Bloomberg’s report highlights three Apple M4 chip codenames, but unfortunately we don’t have many hard specs. Gurman’s sources said the entry-level M4 chip will be codenamed Donan. A more powerful SoC called Brava will be targeted at the mid-range market. At the same time, Apple M4 Hidra will become the next generation of high-end SoC. These three products look likely to fill the roles of the M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max.
So the Donan, Brava and Hidra will undoubtedly be performance improvements over their M3 brethren, but we don’t know how much better they will be. With the focus on artificial intelligence, you might expect more dedicated processing to accelerate AI. However, Apple has introduced a “powerful” 16-core Neural Engine, delivering 18 TOPS (60% faster than the M1 chip) in the M3 series. However, few people are likely to use this kind of built-in processing on a Mac on a daily basis these days, and if Bloomberg’s internal information is correct, the M4’s enhanced neural engine should be able to do more.
Apple M4 on the way
It remains to be seen whether more AI processing power (and marketing) will have an impact on the slowdown in Mac sales. Gurman said that M4 chips will penetrate the entire Mac product line, including “the new iMac, low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, high-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.” However, this is not surprising. Hopefully, more direction and compelling plans for artificial intelligence applications will be revealed at Apple’s WWDC, which opens on June 10.
Whatever happens, Apple’s rivals haven’t taken their foot off the artificial intelligence accelerator for months. We also have exciting new chips like the “100+ TOPS” Lunar Lake and the “groundbreaking” Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite looking to launch later this year.
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