Apple announced the desktop “Mac Studio” for creators before dawn on March 9.
Source: Apple
Apple has announced a new product for the spring of 2022.For manyNew model of “iPhone SE”You may be curious, but the biggest “new innovation” was the Mac.
The new model “Mac Studio” is equipped with “M1 Ultra,” which is Apple’s fastest CPU.
A notebook PC for professionals released in the fall of 2021 with the aim of achieving the high-end desktops that professionals demand.“M1 Max” installed in the upper model of “MacBook Pro”Achieves performance that exceeds.
Which side of the M1 Ultra is “ultra-made”?
The power of “using two M1 Max to get performance”
Johnny Sluzi, senior vice president of hardware technology at Apple, revealed the “secret of M1 Max” that has been hidden since the fall of 2021.
Source: Apple
“There is one secret I didn’t reveal when I announced the M1 Max.”
Johny Srouji, senior vice president of hardware technology at Apple, head of processor-related technology, said in a video of the recital.
The secret they hid was a way to create the M1 Ultra, a processor with higher performance than the M1 Max.
“M1 Ultra” is a processor for desktop Mac “Mac Studio”. Apple says it is “the most powerful processor in history.”
Source: Apple
The secret of the M1 Ultra can be seen immediately by looking at the photos released by Apple. I’m using two M1 Max side by side.
This doubles the number of CPU cores, GPU cores, and dedicated cores used for video compression.
From the left, M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra. You can see that Ultra is a vertical arrangement of M1 Max.
Source: Apple
“It’s easy to just put two processors side by side.”
It’s easy to think, but it’s not the case.
The approach of mounting multiple CPUs on the same motherboard and improving the performance while distributing the processing is generally used in performance-oriented PCs and servers.
But in this patternEfficient design is difficult because data is exchanged between the two CPUs during processing.Power consumption increases due to traffic control, and processing speed does not increase as expected.
Simply arranging processors on the motherboard has many disadvantages in terms of both performance and power consumption.
Source: Apple
However, it is also difficult to make one processor bigger and bigger to improve its performance.
As a matter of factSince the existing M1 Max itself is a huge processor, it is impossible to simply increase the scale and make a larger semiconductor in terms of manufacturing technology and cost.
“It’s hard to make a processor bigger than the M1 Max,” said Sluzi SVP.
Source: Apple
So Apple introduced a technology that uses two chips side by side without compromising efficiency. That is the mechanism called “UltraFusion”.
“Fuseki for higher performance” that was already installed in M1 Max
M1 Ultra = Ultra Fusion is the “seam” -like part that you can see in the center of the two M1 Max.
Source: Apple
UltraFusion is a transmission technology called “interconnect” that connects the semiconductor chips (dies) that make up a processor.
As mentioned above, when using two processors by connecting them, it is necessary to have a “way” where data can be exchanged between each other’s processors. And this road is very crowded.
UltraFusion solves that with some kind of brute force. Simply put, “overwhelmingly wide and short roads are less likely to be congested.”
The shorter the wiring, the more advantageous in terms of speed and power consumption.UltraFusion is to create a “wide dedicated road” at the shortest distance by designing on the premise that it will be put in the “same package”.is.
UltraFusion connects more than 10,000 signal lines, and the communication band between the two dies is “2.5TB / sec”. This speed is more than six times faster than the path connecting M1 Max and main memory (400GB / sec) and four times faster than the memory bandwidth of M1 Ultra (800GB / sec).
The bandwidth of UltraFusion is “2.5TB / sec”. It has low latency and is designed so that it does not slow down even when using a connected processor.
Source: Apple
However, the method of achieving it is quite special.
Assuming that it will be used in combination in advance, “We have added a function that assumes that another M1 Max will be connected from the beginning to the announced M1 Max.”
This is what Mr. Suruji calls “the secret of M1 Max.”
It wasn’t just the mechanism that connects the two M1 Max that was built in.
With two processors, software development becomes cumbersome.ThereforeM1 Ultra introduces a mechanism that “looks like one from the software” with two side-by-side processorsis doing.
The M1 Max had a function to control not only the CPU and GPU installed in itself, but also “the CPU and GPU in another M1 Max connected by UltraFusion”.
By accessing it, the software was able to operate the CPU core and GPU core installed in two processors as “one installed in one processor”.
The M1 Max has up to 10 CPU cores, while the M1 Ultra works as a “one processor” with 10 + 10, 20 CPU cores.
Source: Apple
The flow from M1 to M1 Pro and from M1 Max to M1 Ultra is very consistent. From the beginning of M1 development, we have divided the areas of “entry”, “professional notebook”, and “high power desktop”, and assembled the design and structure that fits well in that area, so it is exactly “conspiracy refrain”.
Performance comparable to rivals with “much lower power consumption”
“Mac Studio” is a desktop for creators.
Source: Apple
At the recital, Apple compared the performance of “Mac Studio” equipped with M1 Ultra with past Macs, and asked “how much performance can be achieved with the same power” with existing high-performance PCs. I’m comparing.
This comparison gives a good idea of how Apple designed the M1 series.
Processors are often talked regarding as having good or bad peak performance. There is no doubt that this is important.
On the other hand, there is another aspect from the viewpoint of “comfortable use”.
As for performance, if “the top class of other companies” comes out, do not aim for more than that.Devise to achieve top-class performance with lower power consumptionThe idea is.
By doing so, the power consumption is reduced, the heat generation of the processor is suppressed, the heat dissipation mechanism is simple and the amount of operation is small, and the heat generation and noise of the machine are reduced.
Compared to 16-core CPUs made by other companies, the performance is 90% higher with the same power, and when compared with the same performance, it “runs with 100W less power”.
Source: Apple
Since the time of the M1, Apple has been fond of the “processing performance vs. power consumption” comparison, which was further emphasized in the M1 Ultra.
“The CPU of the M1 Ultra has 90% higher performance with the same power as other companies, but at that time it means that 100W less power is enough.”
“GPU performance is one-third the same as other companies’ general external GPU products. Compared to other companies’ high-end GPUs, it has the same performance with 200W less power.” (Both Mr. Suruji)
The operating efficiency of the GPU is better than that of the CPU, and even with the same peak performance, “200W power consumption is reduced” for the highest performance GPU (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090) equipped machine.
Source: Apple
I don’t know the details and standards of the experiment, so I can’t take that number for granted, but considering the results of the M1 Max, “the peak performance is on par with other companies, but the same performance can be achieved with much lower power consumption.” There seems to be no mistake.
What kind of machine will the Mac Pro, which is said to be “at a later date”?
John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, announced at the recital that the Mac Pro was “another day.”
Source: Apple
What is a little worrisome is that there was a comment at the recital that “Mac Pro will change the day once more.”
So what regarding the Mac Pro? What does Mac Studio mean if there are more Macs out there? However, if you analyze it calmly, the differentiating point is probably “other than performance”.
Looking at what kind of hardware the Mac Pro is, the missing elements are clear.
I think it’s an element of “extending with a PCI interface” that other Macs don’t have.
Requires more memory or requires a dedicated hardware connectionBy filling “more professional” applications with future products, Mac’s “in-house semiconductor migration” will be completed.It will be. Isn’t that the Mac that will appear in the “next opportunity”?
(Arts·Muneka Nishida）
