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Baseline M4 doesn't have Thunderbolt 5 either; only the Pro/Max variants do. The press-release even calls TB5 out: >Each Thunderbolt 5 port is supported by it
by klausa 2y ago
Baseline M4 doesn't have Thunderbolt 5 either; only the Pro/Max variants do.
The press-release even calls TB5 out:
>Each Thunderbolt 5 port is supported by its own custom-designed controller directly on the chip.
Given that they're doing the same on A-series chips (A18 Pro with 10Gbps USB-C; A18 with USB 2.0); I imagine it's just relatively simple to swap the I/O blocks around and they're doing this for cost and/or product segmentation reasons.
- sroussey 2y agoWhich means this is a whole new chip. It may be M3 based, but with added interposer support and new thunderbolt stuff. Which, at this point, why not just use M4 as a base?
- kridsdale1 2y agoCould be that M4 requires a different TSMC fab that is at full production doing iPhones.
- operatingthetan 2y agoOr they are saving the M4 Ultra name for later on ...
- klausa 2y ago>Which, at this point, why not just use M4 as a base? I imagine that making those chips is quite a bit more involved than just taking the files for M3 Max, and copy-pasting them twice into a new project. I imagine it just takes more time to design/verify/produce them; especially given they're not selling very many of them, so they're probably not super-high-priority projects.