WWDC22: Apple M2 announced. To power up the MacBook Air and Pro

After the successful run of the M1 launched in 2020 and a few months after the launch of the M1 Ultra, Apple has announced their latest Apple Silicon, the M2 specifically designed for the Mac and will be used on the new 13″ MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

The design of M2 is built using enhanced, second-generation 5-nanometer technology, and consists of 20 billion transistors 25 percent more than M1. The additional transistors improve features across the entire chip, including the memory controller that delivers 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth. The M2 comes with up to 24GB of unified memory making it handle even larger and more complex workloads.

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. They deliver 18 percent greater multithreaded performance than M1 which makes the M2 perform high intensive tasks at less power.

M2 also features Apple’s next-generation GPU with up to 10 cores two more than M1. Combined with a larger cache and higher memory bandwidth, the 10-core GPU delivers a big boost in graphics performance, bringing up to 25 percent higher graphics performance than M1 at the same power level, and up to 35 percent better performance at its max power.

The higher performance per watt from M2 enables systems to have exceptional battery life, and run cool and quietly, even when playing graphics-intensive games or editing massive RAW images.

MacOS has been designed for Apple silicon, and the combination of macOS Monterey and the powerful new M2 delivers breakthrough performance and productivity for users. Mac computers powered with Apple silicon have access to the largest collection of apps ever for Mac, including iPhone and iPad apps that can run on Mac, and universal apps that unlock the full power of M-series chips.

What else the Apple M2 brings

• The Neural Engine can process up to 15.8 trillion operations per second over 40 percent more than M1.
• The media engine includes a higher-bandwidth video decoder, supporting 8K H.264 and HEVC video.
• Apple’s powerful ProRes video engine enables playback of multiple streams of both 4K and 8K video.
• Apple’s latest Secure Enclave provides best-in-class security.
• A new image signal processor (ISP) delivers better image noise reduction.