Technology glossary
Apple’s first Apple silicon chip, introduced for the Mac in 2020 and later also used in the iPad Pro and iPad Air.
According to Apple, the M1 is a system on a chip made on a 5-nanometre process with 16 billion transistors. It contains an 8-core CPU with four high-performance and four high-efficiency cores, a GPU with up to eight cores (2.6 teraflops) and a 16-core Neural Engine performing 11 trillion operations per second.
Its unified memory architecture puts high-bandwidth memory in a single pool inside the chip package, so the CPU, GPU and Neural Engine access the same data without copying it. The efficiency cores are designed to run light everyday tasks at low power to extend battery life.
Tablets · 2022
The iPad Air (5th generation) is Apple’s 2022 model that brought the M1 chip and 8 GB of memory to its mid-range tablet. It has a 10.9-inch 60 Hz Liquid Retina IPS display, Touch ID in the top button, a 12 MP ultra wide front camera with Centre Stage and a 10 Gb/s USB-C port. The design and display stayed the same as the 2020 Air.