Apple launched a new version of Macbook Pro and Mac mini in January this year, with the next generation Apple Silicon M2 Pro and M2 Max system-on-chip (SoC). Perhaps to emphasize the unique value that Apple Silicon can bring to Apple products, Apple executives recently received an exclusive interview with foreign media “TechCrunch” to analyze the strategic plan behind more M series chips. The this article summarizes the key points of the interview for you.
The efficiency of Apple’s M series chip layout in the past two years has been well known by the market. In less than two years, Apple has increased the M2 series CPU performance by 20% and GPU by 30%. Tim Millet, Apple’s vice president of platform architecture, interviewed He said: “The M2 family must maintain its leading position by pushing the limits of technology. We will not spread the benefits of a 20% increase in performance over three years, but strive directly into action within a year.”
M Series Chips: Bringing Apple Closer to Ideal and Reality
After the launch of the M1, Apple believes that the M series chips can bring them a real leadership position. Miller especially believes that the M1 has reshaped the baseline for Apple products. He mentioned:
Being controlled by third-party chip suppliers in the past did not allow Apple to really push its products to the technological limits.
Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, believes that self-designed chips allow software and hardware to be integrated without relying on outside suppliers, and internal software and hardware teams can work together to create more truly important Mac chips that’ n meeting needs.
The outside world is seeing that Apple is gradually breaking up with Intel What kind of relationship does Apple currently maintain with Intel? They also talked about this in the interview.
Intel has been a great partner over the years. They were fast; their team was very inspired by Apple’s effort. Our products benefit from this interaction. Of course, our competitors’ products sometimes benefit from this interaction as well.
Currently, Intel chips can still be found in Apple’s Mac Pro product line, but it seems that the outside world is more likely to maintain a diplomatic relationship between Apple and Intel.
Tread carefully into 3A games and take a longer term view
This interview also talked about the development of Mac in the game field. Apple admitted that the expansion of the game market is quite attractive, and the M-series chips will undoubtedly improve game performance a lot.
In the past, everyone knew that the inability to play AAA games on Apple Mac and iPad was a major drawback. But in fact, at last year’s WWDC conference, Apple officially announced that games like “Evil Castle: Village” and “GRID Legends” can be played on Mac. Behind it are M2 chips and MetalFX Upscaling technology, which gives Apple Silicon the opportunity to cross into the 3A game field.
Borchers said: “Apple thinks that its position in the game field will become more and more stable. With Capcom (Capcom) bringing these games, the AAA community has begun to understand this opportunity, and Apple is adding new APIs in Metal 3 to expand Metal , which is also a huge business opportunity for game makers.” But he also acknowledged that Apple needs to work hard to get game developers to adopt the technology.
Miller said that the time for Apple to enter the game market started from the moment Apple launched the M1 chip. He mentioned:
Gamers take hardware seriously, and we don’t think it’s a good thing to describe the Mac as a great gaming platform in the first place, it’s deceiving the public. Apple will have a longer term plan for this.
He admitted that only by building a powerful GPU base can there be room to attract 3A.
So in the future, Apple will continue to work hard, whether it is MacBook Air, or the Ultra chip can be installed in Mac Studio, the goal is to equip the Mac product line with a more powerful GPU to become a beast stronger hardware. .
Miller also believes that the game development world has yet to adapt to the unique architecture of the M series chips (especially the UMA unified memory architecture); but as users upgrade from Intel to M1 or M2, Apple hopes to become more and more influential for developers, allowing Mac users to have a computer that can run games, giving players enough performance to enjoy games.
Draft editor: Chris
Join as an INSIDE member and enjoy INSIDE’s most exciting daily trends e-newsletter only, and future member-exclusive content. Click to become a member now!
Further reading:
