Apple unveiled its next-generation M4 chip at its “Let Loose” event today. The M4 will make its debut in the upcoming iPad Pro, with an emphasis on enhanced performance for artificial intelligence (AI) tasks within iPadOS. iPadPro gets M4 which means Apple decided to skip M3 altogether.
Apple highlighted the M4’s AI capabilities, which are powered by a new neural engine described as “an exceptionally powerful chip for AI.” The M4’s neural engine is reportedly 60 times faster than the A11 Bionic chip’s Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and is claimed to rival AI chips from competitors like Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm.
M4 Chip Specifications:
- Process: Second-generation 3nm technology
- CPU: 4 high-performance cores with next-generation machine learning accelerators
- 6 high-efficiency cores
- Neural Engine: 16 cores, 60x faster performance than the first-generation Neural Engine
- GPU: 10 cores with features like dynamic caching, ray tracing, and mesh shading
- Performance:50% faster overall CPU performance compared to the M2 chip
- 4 times faster professional rendering performance compared to the M2 chip
- 38 trillion operations per second
- Display Engine (for iPad Pro): Tandem OLED support
- Brightness and color compensation
- 10-120Hz refresh rate support
These specifications suggest that the M4 chip offers significant improvements in performance and AI capabilities over its predecessor. The 16-core neural engine and next-generation machine learning accelerators particularly highlight Apple’s focus on enhancing AI on its devices.
More here.