Why Apple was able to create the one and only ultra-high performance chip called "M1 Ultra"

Apple's new SoC "M1 Ultra".Installed for the first time in the small desktop "Mac Studio" announced at the same time

There is no doubt that the protagonists of the special event held by Apple on March 8 (local time) were the 3rd generation "iPhone SE" and the 5th generation "iPad Air" that adopted the M1 chip. However, what made Apple feel the strength is the SoC (System on a Chip) called "M1 Ultra" adopted in the small desktop "Mac Studio". [Enlarged image] Apple's M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra size comparison Because it is unlikely that companies other than Apple will give a go-ahead to the development of SoC that focuses on extreme performance improvement so far. Such an SoC will not come from Intel, which needs to sell a large number of versatile processor products to a wide range of PC makers. Furthermore, even with a framework such as the SQ series of SoCs (installed in Surface Pro X) developed in collaboration with Microsoft and Qualcomm, it is extremely difficult to create a chip similar to the M1 Ultra. For example, just as the power unit used in an F1 machine is built according to the design of the entire machine for each component, components such as the engine and energy regenerative device, Apple makes the entire SoC chip to be used in its products. Because it's crowded. In short, Apple is eventually developing a high-performance SoC, but it's a different starting point. For Apple, which has a clear goal of making the final product (Mac Studio in this case) more attractive, Apple is designing the SoC with the elements to make it a great product. They don't have to sell the SoC to the outside world and make a profit. This makes the M1 Ultra chip unique.

Huge SoC "M1 Ultra" connecting two M1 Max

M1 Ultra is the CPU of "M1 Max" announced as a new processor to be installed in "MacBook Pro" in October 2021, various processing circuits such as GPU, Neural Engine, ISP, DRAM that can be connected to memory controller, etc. It's an SoC that has been doubled exactly. The main specifications are as follows.・ Number of transistors: Approximately 114 billion ・ CPU: 20 cores (16 high-performance cores + 4 high-efficiency cores) ・ GPU: Up to 64 cores (up to 8192 execution units, 21TFLOPS) ・ Neural Engine: 32 cores (22 trillion per second)・ Unified memory: Maximum 128GB ・ Memory bandwidth: Maximum 800GB per second ・ Media engine: 2 decodes + 4 encodes + 4 ProRes encodes / 4 decodes (H.264 / HEVC / ProRes / ProRes RAW compatible) ・ External Port: Thunderbolt 4 (USB4) compatible ・ Manufacturing process: 5nm ・ Number of transistors: 114 billion The reason why it is exactly doubled is that two M1 Max silicon dies are connected, but one question arises here. Why can you do that?

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