Apple today announced three new Mac models, a new MacBook Air, new 13-inch MacBook Pro and new Mac mini all powered by Apple Silicon for the first time. A lot of anticipation was about exactly what chips Apple would use, would they just use A14 chips from the latest iPad and iPhone or would it be something else. Now we know, Apple has a new line of chips with the M badge starting with the M1.
The M1 is a complete SoC for the Mac, it houses an eight-core CPU which is split into four high performance cores and four high efficiency cores. It also has an 8 core GPU, but on the entry level MacBook Air with M1 it has a 7-core version.
Apple is touting the battery efficiency of the new chip, delivering up to 10 hours more battery life on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The M1 is also the first desktop chip to be built on a 5nm process, like the A14 in the iPhone 12.
Apple is also saying the new M1 chip has 2x the CPU performance of PC chip at 10 watts. It’ll also achieve the same maximum performance with only a quarter of the power usage.
The new M1 chip is already in the new line of Macs and we can expect more models to get it soon.
