Launches support for Apple M4 chip with on-device AI, ray tracing and Ultra Retina XDR display

On Tuesday, Apple unveiled its M4 chip, the company’s most powerful Apple Silicon processor to date. The new chipset is built on the company’s second-generation 3nm technology and powers the latest iPad Pro (2024) models launched at the ‘Let Loose’ launch event with new ‘Tandem OLED’ screens. It is equipped with up to 10 CPU cores and comes with an upgraded Neural Engine with support for up to 38 trillion operations per second, improving the device’s AI task performance on the company’s new iPad Pro.

During the iPad Pro (2024) launch on Tuesday, the Cupertino company revealed that the new M4 chip includes 28 billion transistors and has up to four performance cores and six efficiency cores – both equipped with improved machine learning accelerators. It’s built on Apple’s second-generation 3nm technology, and the company says it offers 1.5x faster processor performance than the iPad Pro (2022), which is powered by an M2 chip.

Apple’s new M4 chip has up to 4 cores for performance and 6 cores for efficiency
Photo: Apple

The new M4 chip also brings hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the iPad Pro — the capability was added to the company’s Mac and MacBook models last year with the M3 chip — and Apple says the new GPU offers the same performance as the M2-powered iPad Pro models. , while consuming half the amount of energy.

The device’s AI performance has also been improved in the new M4 chip, according to Apple. The upgraded Neural Engine is now capable of 38 trillion operations, which are used to enable features like Live Captions and Visual Look Up. The company also says the M4 chip’s Neural Engine has been optimized to work with new AI-based features in Final Cut Pro and StaffPad.

The M4 is the first Apple Silicon chip to debut in a non-Mac computer, and Apple says it developed the processor to power the new display engine that enables the iPad Pro (2024) ‘Tandem OLED’ technology. The company’s latest iPad Pro is equipped with an “Ultra Retina XDR Display” that offers enhanced brightness using two OLED panels. The chip is also expected to power Apple’s upcoming Mac and MacBook models, which are expected to arrive in the coming months.