New pictures of the underside of M1 Max chip reveal how Apple might scale the chip into even more powerful M1 Max Duo and M1 Max Quadra variants, thanks to an interconnect bus that would allow Multi-Chip-Module (MCM) scaling.
The interesting bit regarding this revelation is that this section of the M1 Max chip was not shown by Apple during the product announcement, or in any of the official renders on the website.
M1 Max Duo and Quadra for iMac Pro and Mac Pro
It is theorized that MCM scaling could allow Apple to create M1 Max Duo and M1 Max Quadra chips that could feature up to 40 CPU cores and 128 GPU cores. Of course, this is all theoretical, and not confirmed by Apple, but it heavily points towards a future where an Apple Silicon Mac Pro could build upon the current groundwork laid by the company.
Apple’s M1 Max chip is already made using a huge die and consists of 57 billion transistors which consist of 10 CPU cores and up to 24 or 32 GPU cores, based on configuration. Combining two of the M1 Max chips for an M1 Max Duo variant could mean that the overall size of the chip would increase from 520mm to 10,040mm. This will not only increase the core count, but also increase the memory capacity to 128 GB, and memory bandwidth to 800 GB/s which would be ideal for an Apple Silicon Mac Pro. Similarly, an M1 Max Quadra variant could feature 40 CPU cores and 128 GPU cores.
It is important to note that the interconnect bus found on the M1 Max chip does not exist on the M1 Pro chip, which means that only the higher-powered and more expensive version is scalable.
As noted before, this is all theoretical but the pictures of the underside of the M1 Max chip point to such a future. Apple is expected to launch new iMac Pro and Mac Pro models based on its custom silicon, which could make use of the M1 Max Duo or M1 Max Quadra chips.
via Tom’s Hardware, image via Vadim Yuryev
Read more:
- M1 Max vs Nvidia RTX 3080 comparison shows Apple lags in gaming benchmarks
- M1 Pro and M1 Max Geekbench and Cinebench benchmarks show how fast they are [U: GFXbench 5]
- 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro is a power house, says professional photographer Austin Mann
- Apple’s M1 Max outperforms AMD Radeon Pro W6900X in Affinity GPU benchmark
- M1 Pro and M1 Max analysis reveals the new chips vastly outperform competitors
- Apple’s M1 Max outperforms Intel Core i7-12700H in Geekbench benchmarks
