Apple M2

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Apple M2
Apple M2 Pro
Apple M2 Max
Apple M2 Ultra
The icon for the Apple M2 ARM-based system on a chip used by Apple Inc. in its software, advertising et cetera.
General information
LaunchedM2: June 24, 2022
M2 Pro and Max: January 17, 2023
M2 Ultra: June 13, 2023[1]
Designed byApple Inc.
Common manufacturer(s)
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate3.49 GHz[citation needed]
Cache
L1 cachePerformance cores
192+128 KB per core
Efficiency cores
128+64 KB per core
L2 cachePerformance cores
M2: 16 MB
M2 Pro and M2 Max: 32 MB
M2 Ultra: 64 MB

Efficiency cores
M2, M2 Pro, M2 Max: 4 MB
M2 Ultra: 8 MB
Last level cacheM2: 8 MB
M2 Pro: 24 MB
M2 Max: 48 MB
M2 Ultra: 96 MB
Architecture and classification
ApplicationM2: Notebook (
Technology node
5 nm (N5P)
Microarchitecture"Avalanche" and "Blizzard"
Instruction setARMv8.6-A[3]
Physical specifications
Transistors
  • M2: 20 billion
    M2 Pro: 40 billion
    M2 Max: 67 billion
    M2 Ultra: 134 billion
Cores
  • M2: 8 (@3.49 4× high-performance + @2.42 4× high-efficiency)
    M2 Pro: 10 or 12 (6× or 8× high-performance + 4× high-efficiency)
    M2 Max: 12 (8× high-performance + 4× high-efficiency)
    M2 Ultra: 24 (16× high-performance + 8× high-efficiency)
Memory (RAM)
  • M2: up to 24 GB
    M2 Pro: up to 32 GB
    M2 Max: up to 96 GB
    M2 Ultra: up to 192 GB
GPU(s)Apple-designed integrated graphics
M2: 8 or 10 core GPU
M2 Pro: 16 or 19 core GPU
M2 Max: 30 or 38 core GPU
M2 Ultra: 60 or 76 core GPU
Products, models, variants
Variant(s)
History
Predecessor(s)Apple M1
Successor(s)Apple M3

Apple M2 is a series of

mixed reality headset. It is the second generation of ARM architecture intended for Apple's Mac computers after switching from Intel Core to Apple silicon, succeeding the M1. Apple announced the M2 on June 6, 2022, at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), along with models of the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro using the M2. The M2 is made with TSMC's "Enhanced 5-nanometer technology" N5P process and contains 20 billion transistors, a 25% increase from the M1. Apple claims CPU improvements up to 18% and GPU improvements up to 35% compared to the M1.[4]

The M2 was followed by the professional-focused M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in January 2023. The M2 Max is a higher-powered version of the M2 Pro, with more

GPU cores and memory bandwidth, and a larger die size.[5] Apple introduced the M2 Ultra in June 2023, containing two M2 Max units.[1] Its successor, Apple M3
, was announced on October 30, 2023.

Design

CPU

The M2 has four high-performance @3.49 GHz "Avalanche" and four energy-efficient @2.42 GHz "Blizzard"

instruction cache and 128 KB of L1 data cache and share a 16 MB L2 cache;[6]
the energy-efficient cores have a 128 KB L1 instruction cache, 64 KB L1 data cache, and a shared 4 MB L2 cache. It also has an 8 MB system level cache shared by the GPU.

The M2 Pro has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in the unbinned model, or 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in the binned model. The M2 Max has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in both the binned and unbinned SKUs, and operates at a slightly higher 3.7GHz clock speed in some models.[7]

GPU

The M2 integrates an Apple designed ten-core (eight in some base models)

TFLOPs
.

The M2 Pro integrates a 19-core (16 in some base models) GPU, while the M2 Max integrates a 38-core (30 in some base models) GPU. In total, the M2 Max GPU contains up to 608 execution units or 4864 ALUs, which have a maximum floating point (FP32) performance of 13.6 TFLOPS.

The M2 Ultra features a 60- or 76-core GPU with up to 9728 ALUs and 27.2 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

Memory

The M2 uses 6,400 MT/s LPDDR5 SDRAM in a unified memory configuration shared by all the components of the processor. The SoC and RAM chips are mounted together in a system-in-a-package design. 8 GB, 16 GB and 24 GB configurations are available. It has a 128-bit memory bus with 100 GB/s bandwidth, and the M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra have approximately 200 GB/s, 400 GB/s, and 800 GB/s respectively.[8]

Other features

The M2 contains dedicated

Thunderbolt 4
on Mac mini) support. The M2 Pro and Max support Thunderbolt 4.

Supported codecs on the M2 include 8K H.264, 8K H.265 (8/10bit, up to 4:4:4), 8K Apple ProRes, VP9, and JPEG.

Products that use the Apple M2 series

M2

M2 Pro

M2 Max

M2 Ultra

Variants

The table below shows the various SoCs based on the "Avalanche" and "Blizzard" microarchitectures.[9][10]

Variant CPU
cores (P+E)*
GPU
cores
GPU
EU
Graphics
ALU
Neural Engine
cores
Neural Engine
performance
Memory (GB) Memory Bandwidth (GB/s) Transistor
count
A15 Bionic 5 (2+3) 5 80 640 16 15.8 TOPS 4 34.1 15 billion
6 (2+4) 4 64 512
5 80 640 4-6
M2 8 (4+4) 8 128 1024 8–24 102.4 20 billion
10 160 1280
M2 Pro 10 (6+4) 16 256 2048 16–32 204.8 40 billion
12 (8+4)
19 304 2432
M2 Max 12 (8+4) 30 480 3840 32–96 409.6 67 billion
38 608 4864
M2 Ultra 24 (16+8) 60 960 7680 32 31.6 TOPS 64–192 819.2 134 billion
76 1216 9728

* (Performance + Power efficiency)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Apple introduces M2 Ultra". Apple. June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Apple Vision Pro is Apple's new $3,499 AR headset". The Verge. June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  3. ^ "llvm-project/llvm/include/llvm/TargetParser/AArch64TargetParser.h at main · llvm/llvm-project · GitHub". GitHub. November 30, 2023. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
  4. ^ "Apple unveils M2, taking the breakthrough performance and capabilities of M1 even further" (Press release). Apple. June 6, 2022. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  5. ^ "Apple unveils MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max". Apple Newsroom (Press release). Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  6. ^ "Apple Announces M2 SoC: Apple Silicon for Macs Updated for 2022". AnandTech. June 6, 2022. Archived from the original on November 10, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  7. ^ Hinum, Klaus. "Apple M2 Max Processor - Benchmarks and Specs". Notebookcheck. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d "Apple unveils new Mac Studio and brings Apple silicon to Mac Pro". Apple. June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  9. ^ "Apple M2 Chip: Everything You Need to Know". MacRumors. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
  10. ^ Andrew Cunningham (October 31, 2023). "Apple introduces new M3 chip lineup, starting with the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max". Ars Technica.