Apple unveils powerful new M4 chip for latest iPad Pro

Apple has launched the M4 chip, a revolutionary new development that enhances the performance of the all-new iPad Pro. The M4 utilises second-generation 3-nanometer technology to improve power efficiency and enable the iPad Pro's slim design. The chip contains Apple's fastest Neural Engine to date, capable of performing up to 38 trillion operations per second, which exceeds the capacity of any current AI PC.

Johny Srouji, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, hailed the chip as a game-changer. He said: "The power-efficient performance of M4, along with its new display engine, makes the thin design and game-changing display of iPad Pro possible, while fundamental improvements to the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and memory system make M4 extremely well suited for the latest applications leveraging AI. Altogether, this new chip makes iPad Pro the most powerful device of its kind."

The M4 chip includes 28 billion transistors and features an entirely new display engine designed to deliver stunning precision, colour accuracy, and brightness uniformity of the Ultra Retina XDR display. Its 10-core CPU provides up to four performance cores and six efficiency cores, delivering up to 1.5 times faster CPU performance over the previous M2 chip.

Furthermore, the 10-core GPU of the M4 chip offers new capabilities like Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and hardware-accelerated mesh shading for the first time in iPad. The M4 also presents an Advanced Media Engine for more efficient streaming and is designed to be environmentally friendly by meeting Apple's high standards for energy efficiency and delivering all-day battery life.

This powerful Neural Engine can easily isolate subjects from their background throughout a 4K video in Final Cut Pro with just a tap and can automatically create musical notation in real-time in StaffPad by simply listening to someone play the piano. Its inference workloads can be done efficiently while minimising the impact on app memory, app responsiveness, and battery life.

The M4 is Apple's most advanced engine to date, according to the company. It supports popular video codecs like H.264, HEVC, and ProRes, and it introduces hardware acceleration for AV1 to iPad for the first time, providing more power-efficient playback of high-resolution video experiences from streaming services.

The unveiling of the M4 chip reflects Apple's dedication towards remaining carbon neutral for global corporate operations. By 2030, Apple plans to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire manufacturing supply chain and life cycle of every product.