From CNET: With its new M2 Pro and M2 Max processors, Apple's is repeating a formula that worked well for its earlier M1 designs. By bolting some extra circuitry onto an efficient foundation, Apple can offer a significant upgrade to its new M2-based MacBook Pro laptops without a chip overhaul.
Apple introduced its first in-house Mac processor, the M1, for MacBook Air laptops that arrived in 2020. The M1 already took advantage of chip design work for the iPhone's A-series chips, but Apple beefed up the M1 with more processing cores to make the M1 Pro and M1 Max in late 2021 for higher-end MacBook Pro laptops. Then in 2022, it glued two M1 Max chips together into the top-end M1 Ultra.
Now, Apple is headed the same route with the M2, which debuted in 2022 and now is joined by the M2 Pro and M2 Max for new MacBook Pro models. If history continues to repeat itself, we could see a Mac Pro based on a hulking M2 Ultra processor in the coming months.
The chips' speed boost over M1 equivalents that debuted 15 months ago is significant -- 20% at least by Apple's measurements. Owners of year-old M1-generation MacBook Pro laptops to upgrade. But for those using older Macs based on the older Intel chips Apple ejected from its product line, the speed boost and better battery life could be much more compelling.
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