A provide chain report says that M2 chip manufacturing was utterly halted throughout January and February as a consequence of restricted demand for M2-powered Macs. That is believed to be the primary time that Apple has ever suspended chip manufacturing for current-gen merchandise.
Manufacturing resumed in March, however is reportedly at half the extent of M1 chip manufacturing in the identical interval final yr …
M2 chips
Apple introduced the M2, M2 Professional, and M2 Max chips in January, accessible in new MacBook Professional and Mac mini fashions.
Apple’s newest era MacBook Professional is now official. The upgraded 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional fashions function the brand new M2 Professional and M2 Max chips inside. Different updates embody Wi-Fi 6E for the primary time, upgraded HDMI with 8K show assist, and extra.
The M2 Professional chip discovered within the new MacBook Professional options an as much as 12-core CPU and as much as 19-core GPU. You may as well add as much as 32GB of unified reminiscence. The M2 Max can go even additional, together with an as much as 38-core GPU, double the unified reminiscence bandwidth, and as much as 96GB of unified reminiscence […]
Apple at present launched the brand new Mac mini lineup, accessible with M2 and M2 Professional chips inside. The M2 Professional chip packs in a 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU, with as much as 32 GB RAM.
In comparison with the previous-generation M1 Mac mini, Apple says the facility of the M2 Professional delivers as much as 2.5x sooner efficiency in Affinity Picture, 4.2x sooner ProRes transcode in Remaining Reduce Professional and as much as 2.8x sooner gameplay in Resident Evil Village.
M2 chip manufacturing halted
The Elec studies the two-month hiatus in manufacturing. Whereas Apple chipmaker TSMC is after all tight-lipped about manufacturing, the positioning was capable of observe manufacturing via different Apple suppliers who carry out follow-up work on the chips earlier than they’re despatched on to Mac meeting firms.
It was confirmed that Apple had utterly halted manufacturing of the System-on-C (SoC) ‘M2 sequence’ on MacBooks from January to February.
Some manufacturing has resumed since March, but it surely has been discovered to be solely half the extent of earlier years.
Taiwan’s TSMC didn’t ship 5 nano-process M2 chip wafer workpieces to OSAT in January and February, in response to the outsourced semiconductor bundle take a look at (OSAT) business on the third. It’s believed that it was as a result of Apple requested to cease manufacturing as demand for MacBooks dwindled.
Amcona, which does packaging work on the chips, was significantly badly hit, because it misplaced orders for the 2 months, and was unable to do anything with the spare capability.
“The M2 line put in within the Amcona chip pack, the so-called ‘Apple line,’ makes it inconceivable to do different packaging work,” an business official stated.
This was supported by checking manufacturing of supplies used within the manufacturing of M2 chips.
A tough time for Mac
This ties in with Apple’s Q1 earnings, which noticed Mac income fall dramatically from $10.85B within the closing quarter of 2021, to $7.74B in the identical quarter final yr. Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner commented on the time on the “troublesome” scenario.
We had a troublesome evaluate as a result of this time final yr, we had the extraordinarily profitable launch of the redesigned M1 MacBook Execs. We additionally confronted a difficult macroeconomic surroundings and overseas trade headwinds.
The [PC] business may be very challenged […] the business is contracting […] Strategically, I believe we’re well-positioned out there, albeit I believe will probably be a bit of tough within the quick time period.
The purpose about M1 versus M2 is after all nicely made – however to utterly halt M2 chip manufacturing for 2 months does recommend that demand was considerably decrease than Apple had anticipated.
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