Apple announces its M4 chip

At its “Let Loose” event on Tuesday, Apple announced that its M4 chip would power its next generation of devices, starting with the iPad Pro. Following rumors of a “true AI-powered device,” the new iPad Pro OLED will feature an upgraded M4 chip focused on improving performance of AI-related tasks in iPadOS.

Apple has focused heavily on the M4’s AI capabilities, thanks to a new Neural Engine that is “an incredibly powerful chip for AI.” It’s claimed to be 60 times faster than the A11’s NPU and could rival AI chips from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm.

Apple’s M4 announcement comes less than two weeks before Microsoft hosts a special Windows and Surface AI event in Seattle on May 20, where it is expected to launch new Arm-powered hardware. Microsoft is confident that Windows on Arm could finally beat Apple’s MacBook Air M3 laptops in CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks. That’s largely thanks to Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon ‘Apple benchmarks Arm-powered Windows laptops arriving this month. summer.