Source: Hard AI Author: Li Dan

According to recent news, it has only been five months since the world's first personal computer, the M3 3 nanometer (nm) chip, was unveiled.$Apple (AAPL.US)$Major upgrades are being planned so that Mac computers will be equipped with the next-generation M4 chip. The support for artificial intelligence (AI) functions will become the highlight of the M4.

On Thursday, April 11, EST, the media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Apple is preparing to completely transform the entire Mac product line with a new self-developed processor designed to highlight AI, and is currently close to producing an M4 chip with AI capabilities. Apple's goal is to release multiple M4-equipped Mac computers from the end of this year to the beginning of next year, including the new iMac, the low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, the high-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the Mac mini.

However, the media also said that Apple's release plan may change in the future. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the news.

If the news is true, it will be a major effort by Apple to salvage the decline in Mac sales. Mac sales continued to decline for a year after reaching their peak in 2022. As of fiscal year 2023 in September of last year, Mac sales fell 27%. After the launch of Mac computers supported by the M3 chip in November of last year, Mac revenue improved in the fourth quarter, and sales increased slightly by 0.6% over the same period last year.

After the news broke, Apple's stock price continued to expand in midday trading on Thursday, rising more than 4% at the end of the session and closing 4.33%. After falling back to its low level since October 26 last year on Wednesday, it rebounded to its closing high since March 20 this year.

The M4 chip will be divided into three versions, from entry to middle and high-end, which will highlight AI processing capabilities and be combined with the new version of macOS

At the end of October last year, Apple released three versions of the M3 chip using the 3NaM process: M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. The performance was significantly improved compared to the previous generation.

Among them, the entry-level M3 has 25 billion transistors, 8 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores, and supports up to 24GB of unified memory. The M3 CPU is up to 35% faster than the M1, 20% faster than the M2, the GPU is up to 65% faster than the M1, and 20% faster than the M2.

The number of transistors in the M3 Pro has increased to 37 billion, a 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU, and a maximum of 36GB of unified memory. Compared to the M1 Pro, the M3 Pro's CPU and GPU performance increased by up to 20% and 40%, respectively, and compared to the M2 Pro, GPU performance increased by up to 10%.

The M3 Max has 92 billion transistors, a 16-core CPU, a 40-core GPU, and supports up to 128GB of unified memory. Compared to M1 Max, M3 Max's CPU and GPU performance increased by up to 80% and 50%, respectively. Compared with M2 Max, CPU and GPU performance increased by up to 50% and 20%, respectively.

The media learned on Thursday that there will be at least three major versions of the M4 chip, and Apple hopes to update every Mac model with it.

According to reports, the M4 chip series includes an entry-level version codenamed Donan, a more powerful version codenamed Brava, and the highest-end version codenamed Hidra. Apple plans to highlight the AI processing power of these components and how they will be combined with the next version of macOS.

Last month, after Apple officially announced that the Annual Developer Conference (WWDC) will be held from June 10th to 14th,Wall Street newsIt was mentioned that this WWDC will showcase new versions of operating systems such as iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15. The conference is expected to focus on Apple's AI strategy, and may also reveal details about the iPhone's collaboration with Google Gemini.

Judging from Thursday's news, different levels of M4 chips will also be equipped with Mac computers with different positions.

Among them, the Donan chip will be used in the entry-level MacBook Pro, the new MacBook Air, and the low-end Mac mini; the Brava chip will run the high-end MacBook Pro and the higher-end Mac Mini; and the highest-end Apple desktop computer Mac Pro will be equipped with a Hidra chip. For the Mac Studio, Apple is testing versions using the unreleased M3 chip and M4 Brava chip variants.

The media also said that as part of the upgrade, Apple is considering making the highest-end Mac desktop support up to 0.5 TB of memory. Currently, the maximum capacity of the Mac Studio and Mac Pro is 192 GB, which is far lower than the Mac Pro capacity when Apple previously used Intel to produce chips. Early computers could expand up to 1.5 TB of existing memory, but after switching to a chip developed by Apple, the memory was more deeply integrated into the main processor, so it was more difficult to add memory.

After news broke that the Mac would be equipped with an M4 chip, some netizens thought this was an attempt to recover Apple's stock price using words with AI. Some netizens are puzzled, saying that any standard performance improvement will improve AI capabilities. Is this unique to neural networks?

According to some netizens, according to the current pricing of Apple RAM in the UK, supporting up to 512 GB of unified memory means that the memory alone costs 4,000 pounds. Other netizens think MacBook Pro is the first choice.

edit/lambor