Apple M1 Max chips could be stacked together to create monster 40-core processor

The M1 Max logo against a funky purple backdrop
(Image credit: Apple / Future)

New images of Apple’s latest silicon appear to hint at the possibility of connecting multiple M1 Max chips together to create an extremely powerful multi-chip module (MCM), which would be perfect for a Mac workstation.

As noted by YouTuber Vadim Yuryev, the underside of the M1 Max houses a die-to-die interconnect that did not feature in any of Apple’s official marketing material at launch.

In theory, this interconnect bus could allow for two- or even four-chip M1 Max configurations, multiplying the already extremely impressive performance on offer with Apple’s most powerful silicon.

The ‘M1 Max Quadra’?

In October, Apple unleashed two new high-performance chips: the M1 Pro and M1 Max. The latter system-on-chip (SoC) boasts an incredible 57 billion transistors, a ten-core CPU and 32-core GPU, 400GB/s memory bandwidth and up to 64GB RAM.

Already, video-editing professionals and others whose work requires a high-end mobile workstation are reporting massive performance improvements with the M1 Pro and Max, compared to the previous MacBook Pro generation.

For context, an M1 Max-powered MacBook Pro was recently found to outperform a Mac Pro kitted out with a $6,000 GPU for graphical workloads, while drawing considerably less power.

However, the ability to chain together multiple M1 Max chips (note, the M1 Pro does not feature an interconnect) in a chiplet design could unlock even further performance scaling.

A Mac Pro-bound, four-M1 Max configuration, for example, would offer a whopping 40 CPU cores and 128 GPU cores, theoretically for quadruple the performance. Apple would need to recruit an I/O die or fabric interconnect, however, to make such a design possible.

So far, Apple has remained silent on its plans for the hidden M1 Max interconnect. TechRadar Pro asked the company for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.

Via Tom's Hardware

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Joel Khalili
News and Features Editor

Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He's responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.

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