Apple M2

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}} {{Short description|System-on-a-chip designed by Apple}} {{More citations needed|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox CPU | image = Apple M2.jpg | alt = The icon for the Apple M2 ARM-based system on a chip used by Apple in its software, advertising et cetera. | created = {{Start date and age|2022|06|24}} | code = | microarch = "Avalanche" and "Blizzard" | size-from = 5 nm (N5P) | designfirm = Apple | manuf1 = TSMC | arch = ARMv8.6-A<ref name="m2microarch">{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/llvm/unittests/TargetParser/TargetParserTest.cpp|title=llvm-project/llvm/unittests/TargetParser/TargetParserTest.cpp at main · llvm/llvm-project · GitHub|website=GitHub|date=10 September 2024|access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref> | gpu = Apple-designed integrated graphics (8–76 core) | co-processor= NPU: 16 TOPS | transistors = 20–134 billion | numcores = 8–24 (4–16 high-performance + 4–8 high-efficiency) | memory = 6400 MT/s LPDDR5 memory (up to 192 GB) | application = Notebook (MacBook family), tablet (iPad Pro and iPad Air), desktop (Mac Mini, Mac Studio, Mac Pro), mixed reality headset (Vision Pro)<ref name="vpro">{{Cite web | url=https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23738968/apple-vision-pro-ar-headset-features-specs-price-release-date-wwdc-2023 |title=Apple Vision Pro is Apple's new $3,499 AR headset |publisher=The Verge |date=June 5, 2023|access-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref> | clock = 3.49 GHz<ref>{{cite web |title=Clock Rate Secrets: Shaping the Future of Computing |url=https://www.99encrypt.com/advise/clock-rate-secrets-shaping-the-future-of-computing/ |date=November 12, 2024 |publisher=99Encrypt |access-date=November 25, 2024}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=April 2025}} | l1cache = Performance cores: 192+128 KB per core Efficiency cores: 128+64 KB per core | l2cache = Performance cores: 16–64 MB Efficiency cores: 4–8 MB | llcache = '''M2''': 8 MB '''M2 Pro:''' 24 MB '''M2 Max:''' 48 MB '''M2 Ultra:''' 96 MB | predecessor = Apple M1 | successor = Apple M3 | variant = {{ubl |M2 |M2 Pro |M2 Max |M2 Ultra |Apple A15}} |produced-end={{End date and age|2026|03|26}}}} {{AppleARM}}

The '''Apple M2''' is a series of ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple, launched in 2022. It is part of the Apple silicon series, as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Mac desktops and notebooks, the iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets, and the Vision Pro mixed reality headset. It is the second generation of ARM architecture intended for Apple's Mac computers after switching from Intel Core to Apple silicon, succeeding the M1. Apple announced the M2 on June 6, 2022, at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), along with models of the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro using the M2. The M2 is made with TSMC's "Enhanced 5-nanometer technology" N5P process and contains 20 billion transistors, a 25% increase from the M1. Apple claims CPU improvements up to 18% and GPU improvements up to 35% compared to the M1.<ref name=orig-press-release group="‡">{{Cite press release |title=Apple unveils M2, taking the breakthrough performance and capabilities of M1 even further |date=June 6, 2022 |publisher=Apple |url=https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/06/apple-unveils-m2-with-breakthrough-performance-and-capabilities/ |access-date=June 11, 2022 |archive-date=June 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610082352/https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/06/apple-unveils-m2-with-breakthrough-performance-and-capabilities/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The M2 was followed by the professional-focused '''M2 Pro''' and '''M2 Max''' chips in January 2023. The M2 Max is a higher-powered version of the M2 Pro, with more GPU cores and memory bandwidth, and a larger die size.<ref group="‡">{{Cite press release |title=Apple unveils MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max |url=https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/01/apple-unveils-macbook-pro-featuring-m2-pro-and-m2-max/ |access-date=January 17, 2023 |website=Apple Newsroom |language=en-US |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117141028/https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/01/apple-unveils-macbook-pro-featuring-m2-pro-and-m2-max/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In June 2023, Apple introduced the '''M2 Ultra''', a desktop workstation chip containing two M2 Max units.<ref name="ultra" group="‡">{{Cite web|url=https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/06/apple-introduces-m2-ultra/|title=Apple introduces M2 Ultra |website=Apple|date=June 5, 2023|access-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref> Its successor, Apple M3, was announced on October 30, 2023.

== Design ==

=== CPU === The M2 has four high-performance @3.49 GHz "Avalanche" and four energy-efficient @2.42 GHz "Blizzard" cores, first seen in the A15 Bionic, providing a hybrid configuration similar to ARM DynamIQ, as well as Intel's Alder Lake and Raptor Lake processors. The high-performance cores have 192 KB of L1 instruction cache and 128 KB of L1 data cache and share a 16 MB L2 cache;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/17431/apple-announces-m2-soc-apple-silicon-updated-for-2022|title=Apple Announces M2 SoC: Apple Silicon for Macs Updated for 2022|website=AnandTech|date=June 6, 2022|access-date=November 9, 2022|archive-date=November 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110031910/https://www.anandtech.com/show/17431/apple-announces-m2-soc-apple-silicon-updated-for-2022|url-status=dead}}</ref> the energy-efficient cores have a 128 KB L1 instruction cache, 64 KB L1 data cache, and a shared 4 MB L2 cache. It also has an 8 MB system level cache shared by the GPU.

The M2 Pro has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in the unbinned model, or 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in the binned model. The M2 Max has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in both the binned and unbinned SKUs, and operates at a slightly higher 3.7GHz clock speed in some models.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hinum |first=Klaus |title=Apple M2 Max Processor – Benchmarks and Specs |url=https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M2-Max-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.682771.0.html |access-date=2024-01-22 |website=Notebookcheck |language=en}}</ref>

=== GPU === The M2 integrates an Apple designed ten-core (eight in some base models, nine in the M2 iPad Air) graphics processing unit (GPU). Each GPU core is split into 16 execution units, which each contain eight arithmetic logic units (ALUs). In total, the M2 GPU contains up to 160 execution units or 1280 ALUs, which have a maximum floating point (FP32) performance of 3.6 TFLOPs.

The M2 Pro integrates a 19-core (16 in some base models) GPU, while the M2 Max integrates a 38-core (30 in some base models) GPU. In total, the M2 Max GPU contains up to 608 execution units or 4864 ALUs, which have a maximum floating point (FP32) performance of 13.6 TFLOPS.

The M2 Ultra features a 60- or 76-core GPU with up to 9728 ALUs and 27.2 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

=== Memory === The M2 uses 6,400 MT/s LPDDR5 SDRAM in a unified memory configuration shared by all the components of the processor. The SoC and RAM chips are mounted together in a system-in-a-package design. 8 GB, 16 GB and 24 GB configurations are available. It has a 128-bit memory bus with {{val|100|u=GB/s}} bandwidth, and the M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra have approximately {{val|200|u=GB/s}}, {{val|400|u=GB/s}}, and {{val|800|u=GB/s}} respectively.<ref name="mac-pro" group="‡"/>

=== Other features === The M2 contains dedicated neural network hardware in a 16-core Neural Engine capable of executing 15.8 trillion operations per second. Other components include an image signal processor, a NVM Express storage controller, a Secure Enclave, and a USB4 controller that includes Thunderbolt 3 (Thunderbolt 4 on Mac mini) support. The M2 Pro, Max and Ultra support Thunderbolt 4.

Supported codecs on the M2 include 8K H.264, 8K H.265 (8/10bit, up to 4:4:4), 8K Apple ProRes, VP9, and JPEG.

== Products that use the Apple M2 series == === M2 === * MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022) (8 or 10 core GPU) * MacBook Air (15-inch, M2, 2023) (10 core GPU) * MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022) (10 core GPU) * iPad Pro (11-inch, 6th generation) (2022) (10 core GPU) * iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 6th generation) (2022) (10 core GPU) * Mac Mini (2023) (10 core GPU) * Vision Pro (2024)<ref name="vpro" /> (10 core GPU) * iPad Air (6th generation) (2024) (9 core GPU)

=== M2 Pro ===

* MacBook Pro (14-inch and 16-inch, 2023) * Mac Mini (2023)

=== M2 Max ===

* MacBook Pro (14-inch and 16-inch, 2023) * Mac Studio (2023)<ref name="mac-pro" group="‡">{{Cite web|url=https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/06/apple-unveils-new-mac-studio-and-brings-apple-silicon-to-mac-pro/|title=Apple unveils new Mac Studio and brings Apple silicon to Mac Pro|website=Apple|date=June 5, 2023|access-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref>

=== M2 Ultra ===

* Mac Studio (2023)<ref name="mac-pro" group="‡"/> * Mac Pro (2023)<ref name="mac-pro" group="‡"/>

== Variants == The table below shows the various SoCs based on the "Avalanche" and "Blizzard" microarchitectures.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Apple M2 Chip: Everything You Need to Know |url=https://www.macrumors.com/guide/m2/ |access-date=2022-07-30 |website=MacRumors |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Ars">{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/everything-to-know-about-apples-new-m3-m3-pro-and-m3-max-processors/|title=Apple introduces new M3 chip lineup, starting with the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max|author=Andrew Cunningham|date=October 31, 2023|publisher=Ars Technica}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center;" ! rowspan="2" |Variant ! colspan="2" |CPU cores ! colspan="3" |GPU ! colspan="2" |Neural Engine (NPU) ! colspan="2" |LPDDR5-6400 memory ! rowspan="2" |Transistor count ! rowspan="2" |Used in |- ! P{{Efn|Performance Cores|group=Variants}} !E{{Efn|Efficiency cores|group=Variants}} ! Cores{{Efn|Each GPU core has 16 execution units (EUs) and 128 arithmetic logic units (ALUs)|group=Variants}} !EU ! ALU ! Cores ! Performance ! Size (GB){{Efn|Each LPDDR5-6400 memory controller contains a 16-bit memory channel and can access up to 4GiB of memory.<ref name="Ars"/>|group=Variants}} ! Bandwidth |- | rowspan="3" | A15 Bionic || rowspan="3" | 2 || 3 || 5 || 80 || 640 ||rowspan="11" | 16 ||rowspan="11" | 15.8 TOPS || rowspan="2" | 4 || rowspan="3" | 34.1 GB/s || rowspan="3" |15 billion |Apple TV 4K (3rd generation) |- | rowspan="10" | 4 || 4 || 64 || 512 |iPhone SE (3rd generation) / iPhone 13 mini / iPhone 13 |- | 5 || 80 || 640 || 6 |iPhone 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max / 14 / 14 Plus iPad mini (6th generation) |- | rowspan="3" | M2 || rowspan="3" | 4 || 8 || 128 || 1024 || rowspan="3" | 8–24 || rowspan="3" | 102.4 GB/s || rowspan="3" | 20 billion |MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022) |- | 9 || 144 || 1152 |iPad Air (M2) |- | 10 || 160 || 1280 |MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022 / 15-inch, M2, 2023) MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022) Mac Mini (2023) iPad Pro (11-inch, 4th gen) / (12.9-inch, 6th gen) Vision Pro (2024) |- | rowspan="3" | M2 Pro || 6 || rowspan="2" | 16 || rowspan="2" | 256 || rowspan="2" | 2048 || rowspan="3" | 16–32 || rowspan="3" | 204.8 GB/s || rowspan="3" | 40 billion | rowspan="3" |Mac Mini (2023) MacBook Pro (14-inch and 16-inch, 2023) |- | rowspan="4" | 8 |- | 19 || 304 || 2432 |- | rowspan="2" | M2 Max|| 30 || 480 || 3840 || rowspan="2" | 32–96 || rowspan="2" | 409.6 GB/s || rowspan="2" | 67 billion | rowspan="2" |MacBook Pro (14-inch and 16-inch, 2023) Mac Studio (2023) |- | 38 || 608 || 4864 |- | rowspan="2" | M2 Ultra || rowspan="2" | 16 || rowspan="2" | 8 || 60 || 960 || 7680 |rowspan="2" |32|| rowspan="2" | 31.6 TOPS || rowspan="2" | 64–192 || rowspan="2" | 819.2 GB/s || rowspan="2" | 134 billion | rowspan="2" |Mac Studio (2023) Mac Pro (2023) |- | 76 || 1216 || 9728 |} {{Notelist|group=Variants}}

== See also == * Apple silicon * Apple A15 * GoFetch – security vulnerability within the Apple M2 first disclosed in 2024 * Rosetta 2 * Universal 2 binary * List of Mac models grouped by CPU type * Snapdragon XR

== References == {{reflist}} {{Primary reflist}}

Category:Computer-related introductions in 2022 M2