What you need to know
- Apple has a rumored new Mac Pro in the works featuring even more powerful Apple silicon.
- New leaked information purportedly shows Apple's plans to connect two M1 Ultra chips together to create the powerhouse for its Mac Pro.
- The information matches a previous report that Apple has a chip with 40 cores, 128 graphics cores, and 32 high-performance cores.
A new piece of leaked information purportedly reveals Apple's plans to power its new Mac Pro with two M1 Ultra chips interconnected to create an astonishing power base for the new device. The report also claims it will be announced in September.
Schematics shared by Twitter researcher Majin Bu claims to show the bridge that Apple will use to connect 2 M1 Ultra processors together to create a new chip codenamed 'Redfern'.
Based on what my resource reports, here is some official information on the new Mac Pro 2022This is the bridge that connects 2 M1 Ultra together and will be found in the new 2022 Mac Pro.Processor name: "Redfern" Coming with new Macs Pro this September
Based on what my resource reports, here is some official information on the new Mac Pro 2022
This is the bridge that connects 2 M1 Ultra together and will be found in the new 2022 Mac Pro.
Processor name: "Redfern"
Coming with new Macs Pro this September #Apple #AppleInternal pic.twitter.com/afj0dSmQvkBased on what my resource reports, here is some official information on the new Mac Pro 2022
This is the bridge that connects 2 M1 Ultra together and will be found in the new 2022 Mac Pro.
Processor name: "Redfern"
Coming with new Macs Pro this September #Apple #AppleInternal pic.twitter.com/afj0dSmQvk— Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) March 12, 2022March 12, 2022
While Majin Bu is not a prominent leaker of Apple information (yet), they have previously shared leaked images of new products prior to release, recently the iPhone 13 in green and new iPhone cases.
More importantly, the rumor deserves attention because it matches up with previous reports from prominent insider Mark Gurman at Bloomberg. Writing in May 2021, Gurman revealed his understanding that Apple had new Macs planned including a new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, a new Mac mini, a larger iMac, and a new Mac Pro. While some of these will feature the next generation of Apple silicon, likely named M2, the Mac Pro can expect a huge power upgrade:
Codenamed Jade 2C-Die and Jade 4C-Die, a redesigned Mac Pro is planned to come in 20 or 40 computing core variations, made up of 16 high-performance or 32 high-performance cores and four or eight high-efficiency cores. The chips would also include either 64 core or 128 core options for graphics. The computing core counts top the 28 core maximum offered by today's Intel Mac Pro chips, while the higher-end graphics chips would replace parts now made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
While it is impossible to verify whether Bu's leaked schematics are legitimate, the numbers alone seem to stack up perfectly with this previous rumor.
Apple's new M1 Ultra chip, which powers the Mac Studio, is actually two M1 Max chips packaged together by Apple in a unique new architecture that allows two chips to be used as a single system on a chip. That includes support for 20 CPU cores (16 high-performance, four high-efficiency), up to 64 graphics cores, and 32 Neural Engine cores.
Sticking two of these together as Majin Bu claims would indeed create the 40 core Mac Pro chip featuring 128 graphics cores as explicitly outlined by Gurman. In his most recent newsletter Gurman reiterated that Apple still has a Mac Pro on the way but that he didn't expect it "anytime soon." He did, however, speculate on the chips:
Now, what does Apple saying the M1 Ultra is its last M1 chip mean for the Mac Pro? I think there are two possibilities.The simplest explanation is that Apple could roll out a Mac Pro with an M1 Ultra as well as a dual M1 Ultra without giving that higher-power chip a new name. Apple had been working on a new Mac Pro that features double the performance of the M1 Ultra, leading to 40 CPU cores and 128 graphics cores.
Gurman did, however, postulate that Apple's next Mac Pro might not get an M1, but rather an M2 chip. This would feature 24 cores for the M2 Ultra, and as such 48 for a device that used two interconnected chips.
Certainly, Majin Bu's information, if accurate, could point to a much sooner launch window than this with M1 at the heart of the new device.
Other reports indicate that Apple's next Mac Pro (or at least one such model) may be half the size of the current model.
