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    Apple’s Latest M4 Chip is the Biggest AI Improvement for Apple So Far

    Apple debuts AI-driven M4 chip in iPad Pro boasting AI features and advanced OLED tech.
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    Apple's new M4 chip featuring in iPad Pro
    Photo: Apple

    Apple’s recent “Let Loose” event was a real barnburner—particularly with the revealing of the new iPad Air and iPad Pro. Most notably, this is the debut of Apple’s first M4 chip with AI in the iPad Pro, its first in a series that usually brings new silicon with its Mac lineup. It dictates the big shift in Apple’s strategy, highlighting a growing emphasis on AI capabilities—a space where Apple has generally preferred to keep its cards close to its chest.

    The M4 chip has been specifically designed with the inclusion of AI using a new 3-nanometer chip architecture. This will make it the first Apple-designed chip ever to be designed from the ground up to take the best advantage of Artificial Intelligence. That is to mean, other than this iPad Pro, we will be seeing this AI processor be part of the upcoming Macs.

    Apple AI M4 Chip Features
    Photo: Apple

    The M4 chip has a 10-core CPU, 4 for performance, and 6 for efficiency. This architecture brings a 50% increase in performance over the former M2 chipset. This is such a great leap from its predecessor and a good success for Apple. Apple touts the M4 as a big improvement forward from its M2, boasting a neural engine able to handle 38 TOPS (trillion operations per second)—just short of the 45 in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite.

    Backed by the CPU is a 10-core GPU which features dynamic caching, mesh shading, and ray tracing. The new iPad Pro will also come with a new display engine in the form of an M4 chip that makes sure the OLED display supports precision color and brightness. This technological improvement helps in making it thinner and experiencing the best change on display, which befits Apple’s reputation for leading cutting-edge product aesthetics and functionality.

    While Apple did not announce any new AI features for the M4 chip on iPadOS, it was certainly something they looked forward to for their professional software, including Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, on macOS. Look forward to updates that leverage the enormous AI performance of the M1 chip to promise way more invigorating developments for creative professionals.

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    Ali Usama is the Content Editor and Manager at Technical Master. By day, he operates at the intersection of complex hardware architecture and readable human prose, stripping away the pretension of silicon-valley speak to tell you what your gadgets actually do. By night, he faces his greatest adversary: a gaming backlog that's currently expanding faster than the universe. With a keyboard in one hand and a controller in the other, Ali has mastered the fine art to explain why your smartphone requires its fourteenth update this month and at the same time, lose his mind to a Dark Souls boss. With an unhealthy knowledge of processor specs and gaming Easter eggs, Ali has covered the industry since cloud storage sounded like a hobby for meteorologists. He believes every device must answer "But can it run Doom?" and RGB lighting definitely increases your FPS (provided you don't look at the benchmarks). A sworn enemy of poorly optimized PC ports, Ali believes most problems are solvable via firmware updates, espresso, or fleeing to a cabin in the woods. When he isn't researching across 47 open tabs, he likes to optimize his coffee-to-productivity ratio and write with the skepticism of a man who has seen too many revolutionary gadgets die in a junk drawer.

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