The chip has whopping 16 billion transistors, made possible by the 5nm fabrication process. Anandtech<\/a> notes that this might result in roughly a 120mm\u00b2<\/span> sized processor.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also an eight-core GPU with advertised 6x performance overhead. Apple says it can run 25,000 threads simultaneously, making it capable of handling multiple 4K streams or rendering 3D graphics. There\u2019s also a 16-core neural engine that\u2019s capable of 11 trillion operations per second.<\/p>\n Apple\u2019s ARM-based CPU is compatible with Thunderbolt with support for USB-4, resulting in potential 40Gbps data transfer speed. For security, it has the latest Secure Enclave and storage controller with AES encryption hardware. Plus, there\u2019s support for run-time protections on macOS Big Sur.<\/span><\/p>\n First of all, Apple\u2019s new Macs are here with the M1 chip: a MacBook Air, a MacBook Pro, and a Mac Mini. The ARM architecture is suited for mobile machines as they provide efficient performance and great battery life.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Apple claimed that the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro have video playback battery life of 18 and 20 hours. Now, we might get lower battery life than that with mixed usage. But anything above 10-12 hours will be sufficient for a day\u2019s usage on a single charge, and that\u2019s impressive.<\/p>\n One of the reasons for this is that the M1 chip uses a unified memory architecture. So, different resources of the CPU don\u2019t need to go back and forth to different data pools to fetch data, resulting in faster processing times.<\/p>\n Apple advertised a lot of performance gains \u2014 faster times to compile code, render videos, or work on songs \u2014 over its Intel counterparts, I\u2019m not gonna list them all but you can learn all about it on Apple\u2019s product announcement page<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of the coolest things about Macs with the M1 chip is instant wake up from sleep<\/a>. Macs already had a short wake-up time, but this makes Apple\u2019s machines cooler. Plus, the chip\u2019s Imagine Signal Processor (ISP), will help enhance video calls<\/a> even if MacBooks will ship with the same old 720p camera.<\/p>\n Apple also said that you\u2019ll be able to run iOS apps on macOS because of the shared ARM architecture. While the company\u2019s slide showed Among Us and HBO Max iOS apps running on new machines, we don\u2019t have official information on what apps will be available at the launch.<\/p>\n At the moment, we know of two noteworthy limitations of Apple\u2019s M1 chip. The processor has an in-built DRAM (Dynamic RAM), making it impossible for users to upgrade the RAM size. So, 16GB is the maximum you\u2019re getting at this moment.<\/p>\n Second, the ARM-based chip doesn\u2019t support external graphics cards<\/a>. That means you can\u2019t drum up your new Mac Mini into a more powerful machine.<\/p>\n Apple\u2019s new chip and machines seem promising on paper. We are yet to see if the company\u2019s claims of performance superseding current desktop CPUs are true or not. We might also see some glitches along the way, because of the transition.<\/p>\n But we\u2019ll expect to see more machines from Apple powered by ARM-based processors resulting in better battery life and possibly more power. Your move, Intel.<\/p>\n For more gear, gadget, and hardware news and reviews, follow Plugged on Twitter<\/a> and Flipboard<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n Published November 11, 2020 \u2014 12:04 UTC <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/11\/image-4.png\")
What does it mean for you?<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/11\/Screenshot-2020-11-10-at-11.43.29-PM-796x450.png\")
Limitations<\/h2>\n
The future<\/h2>\n