WWDC 2022: Apple Unveils Powerful M2 Chip

Tom Jowitt,
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Apple delivers the M2 processor, touting new levels of power-efficient performance for the new Macbook Air and Macbook Pro

Apple at its annual developer’s conference, WWDC 2022 on Tuesday announced its has extended the ‘breakthrough performance and capabilities’ of its M1 chip, and delivered the new M2 processor.

As expected, the M2 processor is now included in the ‘completely redesigned’ MacBook Air, as well as the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro.

At the developer conference Apple already unveiled the latest iOS operating system for the iPhone and iPad, as well as a host of other announcements.

iPadOS allows iPads to function as a second screen for MacBooks. Image credit: Apple

M2 processor

The next iteration of Apple silicon however has been designed specifically for the Mac, using second-generation 5-nanometre technology.

Apple said the M2 takes the industry-leading performance per watt of M1 even further with an 18 percent faster CPU, a 35 percent more powerful GPU, and a 40 percent faster Neural Engine.

Apple also touted that the M2 delivers 50 percent more memory bandwidth compared to M1, and up to 24GB of fast unified memory.

“M2 starts the second generation of M-series chips and goes beyond the remarkable features of M1,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior VP of Hardware Technologies at Apple.

“With our relentless focus on power-efficient performance, M2 delivers a faster CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine,” said Srouji. “And along with higher memory bandwidth and new capabilities like ProRes acceleration, M2 continues the tremendous pace of innovation in Apple silicon for the Mac.”

More transistors, and more memory

The system-on-a-chip (SoC) design of M2 consists of 20 billion transistors – 25 percent more than M1.

M2 – 25 percent more transistors than M1.

The additional transistors improve features across the entire chip, including the memory controller that delivers 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth – 50 percent more than M1.

And with up to 24GB of fast unified memory, M2 can handle even larger and more complex workloads.

Apple said “the new CPU features faster performance cores paired with a larger cache, while the efficiency cores have been significantly enhanced for even greater performance gains. Together, they deliver 18 percent greater multithreaded performance than M1, so M2 can rip through CPU-intensive tasks using very little power, like creating music with layers of effects or applying complex filters to photos.”

Apple also said that compared with the latest 10-core PC laptop chip, the CPU in M2 provides nearly twice the performance at the same power level.

And, M2 delivers the peak performance of the PC chip while using just a quarter of the power.

M2 delivers 50 percent more unified memory bandwidth than M1

The M2 also features Apple’s next-generation GPU with up to 10 cores – two more than M1.