Apple M1
Series of systems-on-a-chip designed by Apple Inc. / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Apple M1 is a series of ARM-based systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) designed by Apple Inc. as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Mac desktops and notebooks, and the iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets.[7] The M1 chip initiated Apple's third change to the instruction set architecture used by Macintosh computers, switching from Intel to Apple silicon 14 years after they were switched from PowerPC to Intel, and 26 years after the transition from the original Motorola 68000 series to PowerPC. At the time of introduction in 2020, Apple said that the M1 had the world's fastest CPU core "in low power silicon" and the world's best CPU performance per watt.[7][8] Its successor, Apple M2, was announced on June 6, 2022 at WWDC.
 Image of an M1 processor inside the 2020 Mac Mini | |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | M1: November 10, 2020[1] M1 Pro and Max: October 18, 2021 M1 Ultra: March 8, 2022 |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer(s) | |
| Product code | M1: APL1102[2] M1 Pro: APL1103 M1 Max: APL1105[3][verification needed] M1 Ultra: APL1W06[4] |
| Performance | |
| Max. CPU clock rate | 3.2 GHz[1] |
| Cache | |
| L1 cache | 192+128 KB per core (performance cores) 128+64 KB per core (efficient cores) |
| L2 cache | Performance Cores M1: 12 MB M1 Pro and M1 Max: 24 MB M1 Ultra: 48 MB Efficiency Cores M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max: 4 MB M1 Ultra: 8 MB |
| Last level cache | M1: 8 MB M1 Pro: 24 MB M1 Max: 48 MB M1 Ultra: 96 MB |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application | M1: Desktop (Mac Mini, iMac), notebook (MacBook family), tablet (iPad Pro and iPad Air)
M1 Pro: Notebook (MacBook Pro) M1 Max: Notebook (MacBook Pro), desktop (Mac Studio) M1 Ultra: Desktop (Mac Studio) |
| Technology node | 5 nm |
| Microarchitecture | "Firestorm" and "Icestorm"[1] |
| Instruction set | ARMv8.5-A[5] |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
|
| Cores |
|
| GPU(s) | Apple-designed integrated graphics M1: 7- or 8-core GPU |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Variant(s) | |
| History | |
| Predecessor(s) | Intel Core and Apple T2 chip (Mac) Apple A12X (Apple A12Z, iPad Pro) Apple A14 (iPad Air) |
| Successor(s) | Apple M2 |
| Mac transition to Apple silicon |
|---|
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The original M1 chip was introduced in November 2020, and was followed by the professional-focused M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in October 2021. The M1 Max is a higher-powered version of the M1 Pro, with more GPU cores and memory bandwidth and a larger die size. Apple introduced the M1 Ultra in 2022, combining two M1 Max chips in one package. These chips differ largely in size and the number of functional units: for example, while the original M1 has about 16 billion transistors, the M1 Ultra has 114 billion.
Apple's macOS and iPadOS operating systems both run on the M1. Initial support for the M1 SoC in the Linux kernel was released in version 5.13 on June 27, 2021.[9] The initial versions of the M1 chips contain an architectural defect that permits sandboxed applications to exchange data, violating the security model, an issue that has been described as "mostly harmless".[10]