The MacBook Pro is a line of Mac laptop computers developed and manufactured by Apple. Introduced in January 2006, it is the high-end sibling of the MacBook family, sitting above the ultra-portable MacBook Air and previously the low-end MacBook. It is currently sold with 14-inch and 16-inch screens, all using Apple M-series chips. Before Apple silicon, the MacBook Pro used Intel chips, and was the first laptop made by Apple to do so, replacing the earlier PowerBook. It was also the first Apple laptop to carry the MacBook moniker.
The transistor count is the number of transistors in an electronic device. It is the most common measure of integrated circuit complexity. The rate at which MOS transistor counts have increased generally follows Moore's law, which observes that transistor count doubles approximately every two years. However, being directly proportional to the area of a die, transistor count does not represent how advanced the corresponding manufacturing technology is. A better indication of this is transistor density which is the ratio of a semiconductor's transistor count to its die area.
Mac Pro is a series of workstations and servers for professionals made by Apple Inc. since 2006. The Mac Pro, by some performance benchmarks, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is one of four desktop computers in the current Mac lineup, sitting above the Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Studio.
The MacBook Air is a line of laptop computers developed and manufactured by Apple since 2008. It features a thin, light structure in a machined aluminum case and currently either a 13-inch or 15-inch screen. The MacBook Air's lower prices relative to the larger, higher performance MacBook Pro have made it Apple's entry-level notebook since the discontinuation of the original MacBook line in 2011.
MacBook is a brand of Mac notebook computers developed and marketed by Apple that use Apple's macOS operating system since 2006. The MacBook brand replaced the PowerBook and iBook brands during the Mac transition to Intel processors, announced in 2005. The current lineup consists of the MacBook Air (2008–present) and the MacBook Pro (2006–present). Two different lines simply named "MacBook" existed from 2006 to 2012 and 2015 to 2019. The MacBook brand was the "world's top-selling line of premium laptops" as of 2015.
Mac Mini is a small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. As of 2022, it is positioned between the consumer all-in-one iMac and the professional Mac Studio and Mac Pro as one of four current Mac desktop computers. Since launch, it has shipped without a display, keyboard, and mouse. The machine was initially branded as "BYODKM" as a strategic pitch to encourage users to switch from Windows and Linux computers.
Apple silicon refers to a series of system on a chip (SoC) and system in a package (SiP) processors designed by Apple Inc., mainly using the ARM architecture. They are the basis of Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods, AirTag, HomePod, and Apple Vision Pro devices.
The Apple A9X is a 64-bit ARM architecture-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. It first appeared in the iPad Pro, which was announced on September 9, 2015 and was released on November 11, 2015. The A9X has the M9 motion coprocessor embedded in it, something not seen in previous chip generations. It is a variant of the A9 and Apple claims that it has 80% more CPU performance and twice the GPU performance of its predecessor, the A8X.
The Apple T2 security chip is a system on a chip "SoC" tasked with providing security and controller features to Apple's Intel based Macintosh computers. It is a 64-bit ARMv8 chip and runs bridgeOS. T2 has its own RAM and is essentially a computer of its own, running in parallel to and responding to requests by the main computer that the user interacts with.
The Apple A12X Bionic is a 64-bit system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, It first appeared in the iPad Pro, announced on October 30, 2018. The A12X is an 8-core variant of the A12 and Apple states that it has 35 percent faster single-core CPU performance and 90 percent faster overall CPU performance than its predecessor, the Apple A10X. The Apple A12Z Bionic is an updated version of the A12X, adding an additional GPU core, and was unveiled on March 18, 2020, as part of the iPad Pro.
The Mac transition to Apple silicon was the transitioning of Apple Inc.'s line of Mac computers from designs using Intel x86-64 CPUs to designs based on Apple-designed processors based on the ARM64 architecture.
The Apple A14 Bionic is a 64-bit ARMv8.4-A system on a chip (SoC)designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. It appears in the iPad Air and iPad, as well as iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apple states that the central processing unit (CPU) performs up to 40% faster than the A12, while the graphics processing unit (GPU) is up to 30% faster than the A12. It also includes a 16-core neural engine and new machine learning matrix accelerators that perform twice and ten times as fast, respectively.
The fifth-generation iPad Pro, colloquially known as the M1iPad Pro, is a line of iPad tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was announced on April 20, 2021, and was available in 11-inch (28 cm) and 12.9-inch (33 cm) screen size options, which are the same as its predecessor, the iPad Pro. Preorders began on April 30, 2021, and the product was released worldwide on May 21, 2021. It comes in two colors: Silver and Space Gray.
The Apple A15 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. It is used in the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, iPad Mini, iPhone SE, iPhone 14 and 14 Plus and Apple TV 4K.
The MacBook Pro with Apple silicon is a line of Mac notebook computers first introduced in November 2020 by Apple. It is the higher-end model of the MacBook family, sitting above the consumer-focused MacBook Air, and is currently sold with 14-inch and 16-inch screens. All models use Apple-designed M series systems on a chip.
The Mac Studio is a small-form-factor workstation developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is one of four desktop computers in the Mac lineup, sitting above the consumer-range Mac Mini and iMac, and positioned below the Mac Pro. It is configurable with either the M2 Max or M2 Ultra system on a chip.
Apple M2 is a series of ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., launched 2022 to 2023. It is part of the Apple silicon series, as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Mac desktops and notebooks, the iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets, and the Vision Pro mixed reality headset. It is the second generation of ARM architecture intended for Apple's Mac computers after switching from Intel Core to Apple silicon, succeeding the M1. Apple announced the M2 on June 6, 2022, at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), along with models of the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro using the M2. The M2 is made with TSMC's "Enhanced 5-nanometer technology" N5P process and contains 20 billion transistors, a 25% increase from the M1. Apple claims CPU improvements up to 18% and GPU improvements up to 35% compared to the M1.
Apple M3 is a series of ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Mac desktops and notebooks. Released in late 2023, it is the third generation of ARM architecture intended for Apple's Mac computers after switching from Intel Core to Apple silicon, succeeding the Apple M2.
Apple M4 is a series of ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, including a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU), and a digital signal processor (DSP). The M4 chip was introduced in May 2024 for the iPad Pro, and is the fourth generation of the M series Apple silicon architecture, succeeding the Apple M3. It was followed by the professional-focused M4 Pro and M4 Max in October 2024.