According to a new set of images of Apple’s latest M1 Max silicon, the company may offer the possibility of connecting multiple M1 Max chips together to create an extremely powerful multi-chip module with as many as 40 CPU cores and 128 GPU cores (via Tom’s Hardware).
The above M1 Max die images show how the M1 Max could be scaled into an “M1 Max Duo” or even an “M1 Max Quadra” configuration. An interconnect bus would allow Apple to scale its chips by “gluing together” the appropriate number of M1 Max chips.
Interestingly, Apple’s M1 Pro chip, which fits between the M1 and M1 Max SoCs, lacks the interconnect bus.
This likely means that Apple only expects users that need the additional graphics compute power in its M1 Max (such as graphics or television studios) to require further performance scaling via this chiplet design philosophy.
Marrying two 520 mm^2 Apple M1 Max dies in an “M1 Max Duo” chip could deliver up to 20 CPU cores and 48 or 64 GPU units. It would also require an appropriate doubling of the system’s memory to 128 GB. Memory bandwidth should also scale in such a system, up to 800 Gb/s.
These theoretical “M1 Max Duo” and “M1 Max Quadra” products would, however, be suitable for only those that care more about performance and power efficiency than cost.
