According to Bloomberg, the next iPad Pro, expected on May 7, would be the first Apple device with an M4 chip. A rumor which is surprising, given that the M3 chip has only just appeared.
In November 2023, Apple launched its first computers with an M3 chip (MacBook Pro and iMac). A few months later, in March 2024, the brand updated its MacBook Air to equip them with the same architecture. It now has the Mac mini, the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro which, normally, should move to the M3 generation by the end of the year.
According to the very serious Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, there could be a major upheaval in Apple’s schedule and the culprit is called artificial intelligence. Lagging behind other brands and determined to offer language models that work locally, Apple could replace the M3 chip with an M4 chip as early as May.
The iPad Pro OLED, the first with an Apple M4 chip?
On May 7, Apple is hosting a press conference. On this occasion, the brand should lift the veil on new high-end iPads (iPad Pro and iPad Air). The first should abandon mini-LED technology for an OLED screen, the second could be available in an XXL version for the first time. These two tablets should be accompanied by a new Apple Pencil, with haptic feedback, which could make writing and drawing even more pleasant on a tablet.
Since the iPad Pro currently on the market has an M2 chip, logic would dictate that the new iPad Pro move to the M3 generation. However, according to Mark Gurman, “there is a good chance that the chip in the new iPad Pro will be the M4, not the M3”. The tablet would thus become the first Apple product to use the brand’s most recent chip, although it has never needed the power of the M2 chip before.
Apple M4: the same thing with a better Neural Engine?
A chip obsolete after six months? This would be unprecedented at Apple, which has rather gotten into the habit of changing generations every 18 months (M1 at the end of 2020, M2 at the end of 2022, M3 at the end of 2023).
According to Mark Gurman, the iPad Pro could be presented by Apple as the first device optimized for generative AI. To prove that its new tablet is capable of running its competitor from ChatGPT locally, that is to say without Internet (it should be the OpenELM model), the brand would need a new Neural Engine (NPU) , the coprocessor of its chips responsible for neuronal tasks. It turns out that, in this aspect, the M3 chip is not optimal.
According to Apple’s figures, the Neural Engine in the Apple M3 chip can execute 18 trillion operations per second, while that of the Apple A17 Pro (the chip in the iPhone 15 Pro) can execute 35,000. billion. In other words, the best Neural Engine on the market is today reserved for the iPhone. The iPad and the Mac are at a disadvantage, since they have never previously needed such computing power (the Neural Engine is used for prediction on the iPhone).
With so little time between the Apple M3 and the Apple M4, Apple might be tempted to leave the CPU and GPU unchanged, only favoring the NPU. The iPad Pro would thus be able to generate content much more quickly, without exhausting its resources. Logic would dictate that the A18 and A18 Pro chips, expected with the iPhone 16, benefit from the same Neural Engine.
Only question: is this timing the right one for Apple? iPadOS 18 won’t arrive until June, which would make the May iPad Pro a very powerful device, but without features that exploit this famous power. Apple can always use local versions of Mistral or Meta models for its demonstrations, but what’s the point? There is also the question of factories and Macs: can Apple manufacture M3 and M4 chips simultaneously? In short, the Apple M4 chip doped with AI will arrive one day, but nothing says that it is imminent.
Subscribe for free to Artificielles, our newsletter on AI, designed by AIs, verified by Numerama!