Apple details M1 Ultra, replacing the M1 Max as the top M1 chip, with 114B transistors, 128GB of unified memory, 16 performance cores, and four efficiency cores
yet it looks like a single piece of silicon to software, so apps benefit from its [...] capabilities without requiring any additional work from developers” The mad lads actually did it?! Steve Troughton-Smith / @stroughtonsmith : I wonder if the 40-core M1 Ultra can finally compile my Swift apps as quickly as my 2012 iMac compiled them when they were Objective-C... 👀 Hector Martin / @marcan42 : Called so far: ✅ M1 Max ×2 = M1 Ultra ✅ M1 Max ×4 = <nonsense> ✅ Mac Mini Pro (*not* Mac Pro) = Mac Studio Maybe I should get into the Apple speculation business. Craig Hockenberry / @chockenberry : Intel: Shit. Vadim Yuryev / @vadimyuryev : Patent filings for Apple's M1 Ultra creation. Thanks to @tatech15 for sharing. https://twitter.com/... Ishan Agarwal / @ishanagarwal24 : Apple is going all-android phone naming scheme with their chipsets! Welcome the new Apple M1 Ultra chipset. The craziest and most powerful Apple chip yet. #AppleEvent https://twitter.com/... Ishan Agarwal / @ishanagarwal24 : Apple M1 Ultra is crazy #AppleEvent https://twitter.com/... @aschilling : Besides the M1 family itself this „single GPU build from two GPUs in two chips" is the most interesting part of today's presentation of the M1 Ultra - at least for me personally. https://twitter.com/... Ben Bajarin / @benbajarin : Apple is announcing a few significant architectural advances with M1 Ultra: - Fusing two fully developed SoCs into one SoC - Using the packaging and the substrate as a part of UltraFusion - 10,000 connection points - Software sees this as on SoC which is a key point for devs Hector Martin / @marcan42 : M1 Ultra lol. Marketing go brrrrrr Zac Bowden / @zacbowden : Seriously! No matter how good the Apple hardware / SoC becomes, I'm literally never going to want to use/learn macOS, so their advances might as well not exist to me. Shame really. https://twitter.com/...
EngadgetDevindra Hardawar
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s Mac silicon story began with the 16-billion-transistor M1, whose Mac mini performance was already reported as surpassing Intel chips and matching AMD’s Zen 3 line in some comparisons. M1 Ultra extends that progression by making the top tier a scale-up of Apple’s existing architecture rather than a separate software target.
The accompanying technical coverage identifies two M1 Max dies presented as one chip as the key design choice. That makes the expanded compute and memory resources available to Mac software without asking developers to adapt applications for a conventional multi-chip setup.
First-order effects
M1 Max loses its position at the top of Apple’s M1 range, while buyers needing the largest M1 configuration gain access to 128GB of unified memory and a 20-core CPU.
Mac applications can use M1 Ultra’s combined resources as a single piece of silicon, preserving compatibility without additional developer work.
Second-order effects
Apple’s developer ecosystem can treat the highest-end M1 machine as a scaled-up target rather than maintain separate application paths for a multi-chip Mac.
Intel faces a broader Apple silicon performance ladder in Macs after the original M1 had already established a strong comparison point against its chips.
Third-order effects
The two-Max-die design points to a modular path for Apple’s highest-end Mac chips: architectural scale can come through packaging while the software model remains uniform.
Later M2 Ultra and M3 Ultra releases built from paired Max chips indicate that the Ultra tier is becoming a repeatable product structure rather than a one-off M1 configuration.
The trend: Apple’s Mac silicon roadmap is moving toward reusable Max-class building blocks that scale into Ultra systems without fragmenting the software platform.
Patent: Wafer reconstitution and die-stitching - Apple The Foundations of UltraFusion Architecture... More details: https://www.freepatentsonline.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
The performance of the new M1 Ultra chip is remarkable. It is a reminder of Apple's prowess in semiconductor design and Apple Silicon's pivotal role in the “finished product” advancements it enables. #AppleEvent https://twitter.com/...
Seriously! No matter how good the Apple hardware / SoC becomes, I'm literally never going to want to use/learn macOS, so their advances might as well not exist to me. Shame really. https://twitter.com/...
As the @siracusa/@markgurman chart has proven right so far, we ‘know’ that the upcoming Mac Pro will double perf over the M1 Ultra on high end, with 40 cores, 128 GPU cores, 256GB of unified memory, and a potential 1,600GB/sec memory bandwidth. Beyond, I expect RAM & PCIe slots h…
Apple can get a lot of leverage out of UltraFusion and this can extend to more than just M1 Ultra. This also allows Apple to buy time as process node innovation slows down in coming years. Fusing two mature chips together also gives Apple economic advantages in the coming years.
Interesting minor note from the Apple propaganda today: the M1 Ultra is described as the “final” member of the chip family. Implies Mac Pro will use a version of the Ultra chip as well, and sort of gives shape to the overall processor strategy. Truly impressive execution.
Reminder that I also called what people are calling the “Mac Studio” with M1 Ultra quite a long time ago (which I called the Mac Mini Pro with M1 Max ×2, but same idea). Let's see.
For now this is the final word from Apple on multi-GPU: “M1 Ultra joins two M1 Max dies — yet it looks like a single piece of silicon to software, so apps benefit from its [...] capabilities without requiring any additional work from developers” The mad lads actually did it?!
Called so far: ✅ M1 Max ×2 = M1 Ultra ✅ M1 Max ×4 = <nonsense> ✅ Mac Mini Pro (*not* Mac Pro) = Mac Studio Maybe I should get into the Apple speculation business.
Apple is going all-android phone naming scheme with their chipsets! Welcome the new Apple M1 Ultra chipset. The craziest and most powerful Apple chip yet. #AppleEvent https://twitter.com/...
Besides the M1 family itself this „single GPU build from two GPUs in two chips" is the most interesting part of today's presentation of the M1 Ultra - at least for me personally. https://twitter.com/...
Apple is announcing a few significant architectural advances with M1 Ultra: - Fusing two fully developed SoCs into one SoC - Using the packaging and the substrate as a part of UltraFusion - 10,000 connection points - Software sees this as on SoC which is a key point for devs