Apple is heavily invested in bringing AI to its entire product line and its efforts are not solely limited to innovation in software. While iOS 18 will bring a handful of new front-facing utilities to the iPhone, the company is also working to offer AI in its Mac lineup, partly accelerated by improved hardware. The latest suggests that Apple is developing M4 chips for later this year, which will open doors for enhanced AI capabilities on the Mac.
Apple to focus on AI with its upcoming M4 chip later this year with increased Neural Engine cores
Apple will announce upgraded Macs later this year with its new M4 chips for improved computational and graphical performance, but the enhancements will go way beyond general performance gains. According to prominent analyst Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, Apple will upgrade the Mac lineup with its new M4 chips later this year, which will bolster AI capabilities on the notebooks.
As mentioned earlier, Apple is deeply invested in bringing generative AI technology to its products, including the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with the iPhone expected to be upgraded with the release of iOS 18 later this year. Gurman states that the M4 chip will be released later this year on various Macs, and we suspect that Apple will see fit to launch the upgraded models of the MacBook Pro in the last quarter of 2024, similar to last year.
While performance and efficiency gains are a welcome addition, the main element of the chip will be the improved Neural Engine with a higher core count for better AI processing capabilities. The company plans to “highlight the AI processing capabilities of the components and how they’ll integrate with the next version of macOS.” This means that macOS and the M4 chip will work hand-in-hand for seamless AI processing.
Internally, Apple is testing three variants of the M4 chip, which will be part of the company's MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Studio line. The base M4 chip, code-named Donan, will be available with the MacBook Air lineup, the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, code-named Brava will be available with the MacBook Pro, and the M4 Ultra will be available with the Mac Studio. The company is also expected to upgrade most of its Mac lineup this year with upgraded internals and possibly tweaks in design.
The production of the forthcoming M4 chips is underway, and the upgraded processor will house additional improvements as well, such as support for 512GB of unified memory for the highest-end variant. The chip will be fabricated using TSMC's 3nm process, the same as the current M3 chip, but with improved performance and enhanced efficiency. We will share more details on the subject as soon as further information is available.
About the author: Ali Salman is a technology reporter for Wccftech mobile section with a specialized focus on Apple and the intellectual property that drives mobile innovation. He has cultivated a unique expertise in analyzing and deconstructing complex technology patents, translating dense legal and technical documents into clear, insightful reports on future products.
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