New M2 Chip Expected to Be Used for Apple’s Upcoming iMac

erek

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"If there’s indeed a desktop-class silicon being developed for the iMac, there’s no reason to believe that Apple isn’t engineering a workstation-class chipset for the Mac Pro. The only question is when that machine is slated to arrive? It looks like our readers will have to wait for that update. In related news, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo talked about redesigned MacBook models arriving in 2021, and these too will be treated to the Apple Silicon, though he didn’t go into specifics.

We believe Apple could use a slightly more powerful version of the M1 for the redesigned MacBook models, which sports more CPU and GPU cores for increased performance in compute and graphics-related tasks.

How powerful do you think Apple’s rumored M2 will be when running in the iMac next year? Tell us down in the comments."

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https://wccftech.com/apple-m2-chip-for-imac-coming-h2-2021/
 
Kind of an obvious non-leak, don't you think? Of course Apple will have a more powerful chip for the iMac and future desktops, and it'll probably come in the second half of 2021 since the iMac was last updated this summer.

The real question is how well Apple's silicon scales to higher-end desktops. More cores will help, but I also want to see what happens with clock speeds when Apple has room for aggressive cooling. I'd also like to see if Apple offers a dedicated GPU or simply builds a monster integrated unit.
 
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This chip design is perfect for Mac and Mac users who are used to non-upgradeable hardware. No ram upgrade? That's ok. No internal SSD upgrade? That's ok. Everything and the kitchen sink plugs in via Thunderbold, including external HDs and SSDs.

I've been following the M1 threads and talked with a buddy who works as an Apple coder and this new tech - excluding the non-upgradability - is a leap forward. Which is fine for most users - like 99.9% of normies. All in a low power (10w) package.

About the only downside I can see is the "walled garden" that Apple controls 100% of. I'm waiting to see how the Epic lawsuit shakes out ... because like any monopoly - small devs are and will continue to be smooshed by big ones, including by Apple itself as they pull any innovative apps into their own suite of Apple apps.
 
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Non upgradability isn’t much of an issue, the vast majority of users out there never replace anything unless there is a failure. And in this case that’s a bit catastrophic but that’s where Apple Care comes in... I’m looking forward to getting one of the Mac Mini’s to play with, management says we should get a demo unit to see if it fits for us. ;) So I’ve already put that order in.
 
I've been following the M1 threads and talked with a buddy who works as an Apple coder and this new tech - excluding the non-upgradability - is a leap forward. Which is fine for most users - like 99.9% of normies. All in a low power (10w) package.
And it's fine for most other folks either. Really the only people that have an interest in up-gradable hardware is gamers. Well and people in IT if they have a fleet of computers to take care of.
About the only downside I can see is the "walled garden" that Apple controls 100% of. I'm waiting to see how the Epic lawsuit shakes out ... because like any monopoly - small devs are and will continue to be smooshed by big ones, including by Apple itself as they pull any innovative apps into their own suite of Apple apps.
It's walled from a hardware perspective, but not a software one. At least not yet. I won't lie that that is a future fear, but I imagine there will be too many software companies that are big that would push back if everything had to be purchased through the app store.

---

On topic, the major thing not getting discussed is the iterative nature of the M series of chips. I think it's very likely that Apple will finally get yearly upgrades on all of its hardware. Something that Intel was incapable of doing (we still have zero release schedule for 10nm or 7nm chips in any volume).

I can easily see a world where every year we can expect a new MBP at WWDC in June and new iMacs every November or whatever schedule they make. After all this hardware gets launched and transitioned to ARM - we'll just get newer, faster, better every year on year. I imagine Apple's goal will be to do with desktop/laptop hardware like what they've done with the phone. A new one every year - but also it will get to the point where it is clearly faster than its competition in every metric through faster iteration and better chip design engineers.

That will be a drastic change from how its been in years past in which no hardware would really be announced or known in terms of updates until maybe a month or a few weeks out (with a lot of it launching the next day).
 
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It's walled from a hardware perspective, but not a software one. At least not yet. I won't lie that that is a future fear, but I imagine there will be too many software companies that are big that would push back if everything had to be purchased through the app store.
That something I misunderstood, I thought that when a non apple app is launch it need to get a permission to an server to be able to launch, (i.e. that you need to get your application signed by Apple for it to launch on non "rooted" new mac)
 
While Apple may roll out hardware at faster intervals, i dunno about a yearly cycle. The new hardware is so fast with ARM specific software that it will take a while before software overwhel.s hardware and forces the user to upgrade. Choose to upgrade? Sure. Hardware geeks will be hardware geeks, regardless of being Apple or PC. But upgrades out of necessity annually? Nah.
 
Btw I'm waiting to see the M1x or M2 (hopefully early next year) before jumping in and replacing my old Mac Air. Its been awhile since I've been excited about Apple hardware so this has been great news!
 
That something I misunderstood, I thought that when a non apple app is launch it need to get a permission to an server to be able to launch, (i.e. that you need to get your application signed by Apple for it to launch on non "rooted" new mac)
Yes all of the big companies get this software signed. But it's not required nor necessary. It's more or less the same when visiting websites - if you want to make sure you're actually on a banking website that's why it's signed. The place where it gets "interesting" is that by default opening programs that aren't signed aren't allowed to open, but it's allowed through permissions in the securities app in the settings pane or by using terminal if you prefer. After this is done it won't bug you again for the same app. (This functionality is called "Gatekeeper" - you can read up on it if you'd like). However it's obvious that it would only take a bit of software to close that loop completely.

EDIT: But to reiterate again, I don't think this will happen because there would be a lot of backlash from major software providers and likely pros. As all of that Adobe Software (just as one example) is a major reason why people are on Mac.

While Apple may roll out hardware at faster intervals, i dunno about a yearly cycle. The new hardware is so fast with ARM specific software that it will take a while before software overwhel.s hardware and forces the user to upgrade. Choose to upgrade? Sure. Hardware geeks will be hardware geeks, regardless of being Apple or PC. But upgrades out of necessity annually? Nah.
That is pretty close to the release cycle now. It will just be more consistent. The more popular the hardware the more often it was updated. The Macbook Pro more or less received a yearly release cycle - but it had to do with Intel's timetables so it could be at any point in the year. In fact if you want to see this with ALL of the numbers, just go to Mac Rumor's buyers guide and click on "Mac" (obviously) and see for yourself:

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#mac

The Mac Pro had TONS of teething problems through the Cylinder Mac Pro so it wasn't updated from 2013-2019 (when it really should've been updated several times, but it required a massive redesign as we know). The other outlier is the iMac Pro which has never had an update. But you'll note that the Macbook, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air are basically yearly +/-. The iMac a bit longer or shorter depending again on Intel and actually having chips.

The point I made stands - I think all of this stuff will have a much steadier production cycle where we can more or less expect a yearly update on every product in the stack being newer/faster/better. Of course this transition itself is taking 2 years, so we likely will have to wait 3 until the train starts moving. But once it does I imagine it won't stop.

EDIT: Obviously I'm not implying that any of this hardware will be "obsolete" in a year. I'm just saying there will be an update every year. Just like you can use your phone for 3-5 years, these computing devices will have a much longer life span than just how often they're updated.
 
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Yes all of the big companies get this software signed. But it's not required nor necessary. It's more or less the same when visiting websites - if you want to make sure you're actually on a banking website that's why it's signed. The place where it gets "interesting" is that by default opening programs that aren't signed aren't allowed to open by default, but it's allowed through permissions in the securities app in the settings pane or by using termianl if you prefer. After this is done it won't bug you again for the same app. (This functionality is called "Gatekeeper" - you can read up on it if you'd like). However it's obvious that it only takes a bit of software to close that loop completely.
Ok a bit like in modern windows then.
 
Ok a bit like in modern windows then.
Yeah, Apple's signing usually comes through their Developer license anyways it's part of the process when signing up for your XCode stuff and blah blah blah. You can choose not to do it but Apple doesn't charge that much and yes Microsoft has their similar setup through their MSDN subscriptions and really it helps out a lot and alleviates far more problems than it causes.
 
That something I misunderstood, I thought that when a non apple app is launch it need to get a permission to an server to be able to launch, (i.e. that you need to get your application signed by Apple for it to launch on non "rooted" new mac)
There was an issue where if the Mac was on a network with internet access and the server that it calls was down then the app wouldnt launch. Louis spoke about it and here is an article with all the details.

https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/
 
Yes all of the big companies get this software signed. But it's not required nor necessary. It's more or less the same when visiting websites - if you want to make sure you're actually on a banking website that's why it's signed. The place where it gets "interesting" is that by default opening programs that aren't signed aren't allowed to open, but it's allowed through permissions in the securities app in the settings pane or by using terminal if you prefer. After this is done it won't bug you again for the same app. (This functionality is called "Gatekeeper" - you can read up on it if you'd like). However it's obvious that it would only take a bit of software to close that loop completely.

EDIT: But to reiterate again, I don't think this will happen because there would be a lot of backlash from major software providers and likely pros. As all of that Adobe Software (just as one example) is a major reason why people are on Mac.


That is pretty close to the release cycle now. It will just be more consistent. The more popular the hardware the more often it was updated. The Macbook Pro more or less received a yearly release cycle - but it had to do with Intel's timetables so it could be at any point in the year. In fact if you want to see this with ALL of the numbers, just go to Mac Rumor's buyers guide and click on "Mac" (obviously) and see for yourself:

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#mac

The Mac Pro had TONS of teething problems through the Cylinder Mac Pro so it wasn't updated from 2013-2019 (when it really should've been updated several times, but it required a massive redesign as we know). The other outlier is the iMac Pro which has never had an update. But you'll note that the Macbook, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air are basically yearly +/-. The iMac a bit longer or shorter depending again on Intel and actually having chips.

The point I made stands - I think all of this stuff will have a much steadier production cycle where we can more or less expect a yearly update on every product in the stack being newer/faster/better. Of course this transition itself is taking 2 years, so we likely will have to wait 3 until the train starts moving. But once it does I imagine it won't stop.

EDIT: Obviously I'm not implying that any of this hardware will be "obsolete" in a year. I'm just saying there will be an update every year. Just like you can use your phone for 3-5 years, these computing devices will have a much longer life span than just how often they're updated.
Dude, Apple fuckin hates media professionals, with every fibre of its corporate being. The pros however have severe abuse syndromes. Can't really feel sorry for anyone who just dropped $50k on what was obviously about to become an orphan platform.

Walk away, call an abuse shelter near you.
 
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Dude, Apple fuckin hates media professionals, with every fibre of its corporate being. The pros however have severe abuse syndromes. Can't really feel sorry for anyone who just dropped $50k on what was obviously about to become an orphan platform.

Walk away, call an abuse shelter near you.
Exactly. That’s why they produced a machine that smokes every Intel chip out there in single core and most every AMD chip in multi core for video production and audio production for less than $1000. What a bunch of jerks.
 
Exactly. That’s why they produced a machine that smokes every Intel chip out there in single core and most every AMD chip in multi core for video production and audio production for less than $1000. What a bunch of jerks.
And supply some of the most user friendly software on the market.
 
And supply some of the most user friendly software on the market.
Like Shake, Color, FCP Server, OSX Server in a VM....

They only recently enabled 10-bit displays ffs.

Specifically removing 10Gb eth from the new Minis is a cool bonus for Pro's who require it. It reminds me of when they released iMacs that couldn't do Jumbo packets. Awesome. Or a Pro workstation with no PCIe... Apple has a message for you and you just ain't getting it.
 
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