In June 2020 , when Apple unveil its first Mac build around its own chip , the M1 C.P.U. , the company said it was planning for a two - year transition for its intact computer line . Here we are , just months aside from the two - year day of remembrance of that announcement , and we ’re poised to find out exactly what ’s next in Apple ’s processor jump — in more ways than one .
Apple ’s “ Peek Performance ” effect will be held on Tuesday , March 8 , and it might feature the introduction of one or more newfangled Mac framework along with a new M2 scrap . So , it ’s deserving it to take a bit and run down the state of this two - year plan and what on the button might be in the offing .
Model behavior
Over the last 15 calendar month , Apple ’s already transitioned what are probably its most popular Mac role model : the MacBook Air , the 24 - inch iMac , the low - end Mac mini , and the MacBook Pro . The first three example were low - hanging fruit for Apple , all of them part of the first wave of M1 - based Macs . The14- and 16 - in MacBook Pro , meanwhile , usher in the era of the M1 Pro and M1 Max , showing on the button what form of mogul Apple could harness for professional and power drug user .
What ’s next ? The timeline is starting to come together . Rumor has it three different Mac model are working their room through regulatory hurdle right now , one of them apparently a laptop . To me , the most likely culprits would seem to be that gamy - endMac mini(to replace the one mannequin still running an Intel chip ) and perhaps a higher - end version of the 24 - in iMac powered by the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips . Much as I ’d like to see areplacement for the 27 - inch iMac(which some report have dubbed a replenishment for the iMac Pro ) , I ’m not win over that modelling is quite quick yet .
The high - last Mac miniskirt still uses an Intel processor . face for that to change very soon .
Roman Loyola / IDG
TheMac Pro , likewise , seems as though it ’s probably a trivial further off : June ’s Worldwide Developers Conference would be an ideal sentence for Apple to announce such a model to a receptive and appropriate audience , while also put a capper on that two - twelvemonth timeline in panache .
The existence of a new laptop computer model is also a bit of a head - scratcher , with some paint a picture that it ’ll replace the13 - in MacBook Pro , the only remaining manikin with the old design and Touch Bar . That seems passably plausible to me — excluding rumors that it ’ll remain to support a Touch Bar , which I find befuddling — but open up up yet another question : which processors will it run ?
Chipping away
When it derive to think about Apple ’s next revamp of its Mac processors , we have a few datum head to expect at . We can draw the note from the original M1 to the M1 Pro and Max , which shows us how Apple takes the introductory computer architecture of its fries and then scales it up with more cores and in effect graphics execution for baron users .
Not unlike Intel ’s famous tick - tock revisions to its CPU architectures , this demonstrates that Apple can roll out new version of its chips in a staggered personal manner , ramp up the big businessman of its survive architecture before derail to the next generation .
A skillful example of this is to look at Apple ’s progress in mobile processors — Macworld ’s Jason Cross did such ananalysisabout a week ago . Over the retiring decade , the company has annually rolled out a newfangled iPhone powered by a new central processor , in an ever - escalating series of number : the A4 , the A5 , the A6 , and so on . Each unexampled multiplication typically represent a central processing unit functioning advance of just about twice its predecessor .
But at staggered intervals , Apple also brings in an improved adaptation of the same chip ( though not quite as on a regular basis ): the A5X , the A6X , the A8X , and so on . Those versions typically feature much - improved graphics performance over the standard non - X manakin . ( Not unlike the M1 Pro and M1 Max . )
Extrapolating that forward , it ’s not hard to guess that a upcoming M2 microchip will probably sport somewhere on the order of twice the mainframe exponent of the M1 , and will be followed , in all likelihood a class subsequently , by M2 Pro and M2 Max fleck that grouse up both processor and computer graphic performance .
The M2 will likely debut in consumer - stratum Macs such as the MacBook Air .
Malus pumila
Eighteen calendar month into the transition , it would n’t be shocking to see Apple revolve out a Mac go on this next - propagation of processor in an upcoming consequence — after all , eighteen months does seem to harken back to the definitive timeline ofMoore ’s Law . And , follow the pattern Apple instal with the M1 launching even intend it makes sense to bump up the low - end machines — which will then be the older models — to the M2 first .
The real question is whether Apple wants to make such an annunciation at a spring event that ’s not usually known for big tidings . But even if it does n’t pass off in March , it seems almost a sure thing that the company will roll out an M2 - powered Mac sometime this year , which will give us a square idea of what the company ’s Apple silicon roadmap for the Mac might look like from here on out .
