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Three new Macs – one new chip
Apple has rolled out the M1-chip in the new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini – delivering 3.5x faster performance than the Intel-based predecessors.
Last night, Apple introduced a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by its new custom M1 chip – a system-on-a-chip with processor (CPU) and graphics processor (GPU) designed for Macs.
Apple says the M1 chip delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU, up to 6x faster GPU, and up to 15x faster machine learning (ML) capabilities, compared to its previous Intel-based Macs. It also now features industry-leading performance per watt, and battery life up to 2x longer than before.
“The introduction of three new Macs featuring Apple’s breakthrough M1 chip represents a bold change that was years in the making, and marks a truly historic day for the Mac and for Apple,” says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “M1 is by far the most powerful chip we’ve ever created, and combined with Big Sur (the next major release of macOS, out on 12 November), delivers mind-blowing performance, extraordinary battery life, and access to more software and apps than ever before. We can’t wait for our customers to experience this new generation of Mac, and we have no doubt it will help them continue to change the world.”
The new chip is ARM-based, which is the same instruction-set found in most smartphones, and is able to deliver faster performance than x86-based equivalents. The M1 being ARM-based also means the new Macs will be able to run iPhone and iPad apps natively within MacOS.
It is also a space saving chip because it combines the CPU, I/O chip, DDR4 memory, T2 security chip and Thunderbolt controllers into one housing. Saving space has also allowed Apple to put in larger SSD storage options, which range from 256GB to 2TB options in all models.
Read more on the next page about what’s new in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.
