Apple reportedly ramping up testing of its M3 chips

As Apple prepares to launch its next M2 Macs, the company is already ramping up testing of M3 chips, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says in his latest “Power On” newsletter. 

From his report: The company has begun putting next-generation Macs with the M3 chips through their paces, testing them with third-party apps to ensure compatibility with its software ecosystem. It’s not the first time that we’ve gotten an early glimpse at new chips through this process.

….So what does the M3 look like? Well, at least one version in testing has 12 CPU cores, 18 graphics cores and 36 gigabytes of memory. That’s according to data collected by an App Store developer and shared with Power On. The CPU, the chip’s main processor, is made up of six high-performance cores that handle the most intensive tasks and six efficiency cores that kick in for operations that need less power.

The chip itself in this particular test is running in a future high-end MacBook Pro with the upcoming macOS 14.0 and likely is the base-level version of what will be the M3 Pro coming next year.

The next Mac expected to be released is a 15-inch MacBook Air, which we’re likely to see unveiled at next month’s Worldwide Developer Conference. However, it will likely pack an M2 processor. Gurman says Apple is working on M3-based iMacs, high-end and low-end MacBook Pros, and still other iterations of the MacBook Air. 

I’m hoping we’ll se an M3-equipped, 24-inch iMac by the fall. The all-in-one is overdue for an update.

This info from Gurman is from the free edition of “Power On”. If you like it, consider subscribing to Bloomberg.com—you’ll receive the newsletter earlier and get exclusive access to a Q&A section.