Apple M3 Ultra Announcement: Key Points

Overview

• Product Announcement: Apple announced the M3 Ultra chip unexpectedly since the M4 series is already in progress.
• Core Philosophy: Continuation of the Ultra chip series, using the Ultra Fusion interconnect, which fuses two M3 Max chips.

Unique Characteristics of Apple Silicon

• Customer and Market Focus: Unlike Intel and AMD, Apple produces chips exclusively for its devices, eliminating the need to target external customers with varying needs.
• Architecture: Uses ARM instruction set as opposed to x86 used by competitors.
• Integrated Design: Combines CPU, GPU, NPU, media engine, and more into one System on Chip (SoC) similar to smartphone architecture.

Chip Design Philosophy

• Scalable Design: M series chips are designed to scale: from the base to Pro, Max, and Ultra variants.
• Core Configuration:
  • M3 Series:
    • M3: 8-core CPU / 10-core GPU
    • M3 Pro: 12-core CPU / 18-core GPU
    • M3 Max: 16-core CPU / 40-core GPU
    • M3 Ultra: 32-core CPU / 80-core GPU (combines two M3 Max chips)

Interconnect Technology

• Ultra Fusion Interconnect: Enables effective doubling of chip performance and resources by joining two Max chips into one.
• Manufacturing & Cost Efficiency: Producing larger single dies is challenging, hence the dual die interconnect.
• Thunderbolt 5: Unique to the M3 Ultra, not found in other M3 chips.

Memory and Bandwidth

• RAM Capacity Scaling:
  • M3 Ultra can support up to 512 GB RAM.
  • Enhanced memory capacity through additional memory controllers.
• High Bandwidth: Provides exceptional data throughput due to wide interconnect pathways, allowing efficient GPU coordination.

Possible Limitations and Future Directions

• Chip-to-Chip Connection: Current interconnect supports only two dies. Speculation on expanding to multi-die configurations.
• Delay in Release: Significant delay observed in M3 Ultra's release, possibly indicating experimentation with more complex configurations.
• M4 Ultra Missing: No current plans for M4 Ultra, suggesting a shift or experimental phase in chip design strategy.

Speculations on Future Developments

• Potential New Interconnect Designs: Potential for Ultra Fusion 2 or entirely new methods for die integration.
• Relevance in AI and Large Language Models: Unifying memory demands push for innovative processor capabilities in data processing.

Gary Sims, the video creator, speculates on these advancements, foreseeing significant upcoming changes in Apple’s chip technology designs.