Apple is reportedly developing its own artificial intelligence server processor using TSMC’s 3nm process, with mass production to begin by the second half of 2025.
Generative AI chatbots require large, dedicated data centers which will take Apple time (years) to build out, if they are planning on owning this technology instead of just farming it out. – MacDailyNews, March 26, 2024
Hartley Charlton for MacRumors:
According to a post by the Weibo user known as “Phone Chip Expert,” Apple has ambitious plans to design its own artificial intelligence server processor. The user, who claims to have 25 years of experience in the integrated circuit industry, including work on Intel’s Pentium processors, suggests this processor will be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm node.
Apple could use its own AI processors to enhance the performance of its data centers and future AI tools that rely on the cloud. While Apple is rumored to be prioritizing on-device processing for many of its upcoming AI tools, it is inevitable that some operations will have to occur in the cloud. By the time the custom processor could be integrated into operational servers in late 2025, Apple’s new AI strategy should be well underway.
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MacDailyNews Take: Clearly, Apple is not as innovative as it was under Steve Jobs who even started the company’s work on Apple Silicon, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro, but, thanks to Jobs, and Cook’s subsequent management of iterations of products and services conceived during Jobs’ tenure (including the retail store buildout which is responsible for a significant portion of Apple’s growth), the company now has more than enough money to make up for Cook’s glaring lack of vision.
Tim’s not a product person, per se. – Steve Jobs
Until it gets another visionary leader (fingers crossed; Apple’s history has shown – cough, Sculley, Spindler, cough – that the next CEO could be far, far worse than the very competent caretaker Cook), Apple can afford to miss things like generative AI – which they clearly did – and then use its huge war chest to catch up – which they’re doing right now (fun times and 80-hour weeks inside Apple Park!) – and, hopefully, surpass rivals (or at least be as good). Apple will very likely unveil their catch-up work within months (this June at WWDC 2024) in iPhones (and iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) with built-in on-device generative AI and other new AI-driven features. – MacDailyNews, February 14, 2024
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BOOM
I know it’s not the traditional Apple way, but I believe Apple should sell those chips to 3rd parties.
NVidia has created $1,5T additional market cap with AI chips, and doesn’t have real competition.
If creating a new product line with +trillion dollar market cap is what Tim needs to convince the markets, that’s the fastest, easiest (and to Tim, maybe the only) way.
100%
Probably true. Amazon and Google have their own designs developed over at least a decade now in use for their own data centers and have not mentioned selling that tech to others, instead selling the services those in-house processors provide to other companies and end-users.
is this going to be like the car?
Why would it be anything like the car…. In case you have not noticed, Apple have a track record in chip innovation and bringing to market !!
ALSO: New chips for their home robots. I am looking forward to what can come of that.
Made in Taiwan! (unless Joe feeds Taiwan to China then its lights out for a significant chunk of the global high end chip supply). How quickly could Apple convert their product line over to Snapdragon?
“Unless Joe feeds Taiwan to China”… You have clearly not been watching / reading the news …and have no clue about this topic
Where does TSMC manufacture their 3nm chips? And their upcoming 2nm chips? Where does Apple plan on getting truckloads of 3nm chips for their AI server farms? TSMC factories in the US? If (or when) China takes Taiwan, will China sell CSMC’s chips to everyone as if nothing has changed? You have clearly not been watching/ reading the news… and have no clue about this topic
“You have clearly not been watching / reading the news…” if that is where you get your information then you just fooled yourself.
MDN beginning to sound like a broken record on Tim and his tenure. All getting a bit boring…
The Ultra design is very clever, but also very costly. Manufacturing 2 silicon processors into one is problematic. Yields for any new piece of silicon starts high, but now double that failure rate with two, in order to get “one” processor in the M2 Ultra… The rumors of Apple scrapping the 4-silicon processor “Extreme”, makes total sense. In fact, seeing how the Ultra is a $2,000 – $3,000 premium upgrade cost in the Mac Studio alone, reveals how costly this processor is to produce.
Based on the rough information out there today, the M3 does not have the UltraFusion bus technology built-in. If that is the case, the M3 could never gain an Ultra version. It simply wasn’t on the roadmap…
If true, then it appears the M2 Ultra was a stop-gap product to get the Mac Studio and Mac Pro work station processing capabilities.
This begs the question: So what has Apple got planned long-term for the high-end workstation space, if anything?
Focusing on the desktop Pro systems Apple provides, it Apple has been developing for several years, and will launch a workstation processor, a single piece of silicon, traditional method, will save Apple – and the customer – a lot of money.
Hopefully, Apple will launch the Studio and Pro Mac’s with this processor as their high-end option, but perhaps only at a $1000 and $1,500 premium vs the current $2,000 – $3,000 upgrade path offered today with the M2 Ultra is a non-starter for a lot of would-be users.
This market is about making money via the right tools. Lower-end video editors, graphics and FX freelance workers, doubling the price of a studio just might not pencil (at least short-term). And often, short-term is how they people survive in the market place. Apple providing a $1,999 M4 Max, and an entry $,2999 M4 Ultra, this could re-ignite their Pro desktop sales once more for a decently long run. I should thin the demand is more than there?…
This is one of my debating thoughts when Apple developed their own chips and not sure why still not replacing those Interl chipsets as part of their core strategy to move ahead in the next level to producing a uniform computing. I am glad Apple thinking through and going by this appraoch. This will have great savings on their next replacement of their chipsets whent Interl phase out some of their technologies during End-of-Support-Life (ESOL)and take on a higher ownership in their product life-cycle.