Apple Inc. today introduced a new system-on-chip, the M5, that it will ship with refreshed versions of the MacBook Pro, iPad Pro and Vision Pro mixed reality headset.

The processor is based on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s N3P process. The node, which entered production late last year, is the third iteration of the company’s three-nanometer manufacturing technology. It can provide 5% higher performance or 10% better power efficiency than TSMC’s previous-generation process.

The M5 includes a central processing unit with up to 10 cores. According to Apple, there are six efficiency cores and up to four performance cores that draw more power to boost processing speeds. The company says that the latter modules are the fastest of their kind in the industry.

The M5’s CPU is connected to a 16-core graphics processing unit. Each of the GPU’s cores includes a Neural Accelerator, a set of circuits optimized to run artificial intelligence models. Apple says that the Neural Accelerators allow the M5 to run AI workloads four times faster than its predecessor.

The GPU also brings other improvements over the company’s previous-generation silicon. Apple has enhanced the built-in ray tracing module, which renders lighting and shadow effects by simulating light beams. There’s also an improved dynamic cache. The feature enables the M5’s GPU to determine how much RAM is needed for each processing task, which avoids memory overallocation.

The M5’s CPU and GPU are integrated with a number of supporting components. There’s a 16-core Neural Engine dedicated to running AI models, as well as a media engine that speeds up multimedia processing. The M5’s compute modules keep the data they process in a 32-gigabyte pool of onboard memory.

The M5 is one of three new chips that Apple will ship with the latest iteration of the iPad Pro, which also debuted today. The top-end tablet includes two custom wireless networking chips known as the C1X and N1. The former module is responsible for connecting the iPad Pro to cellular networks, while the N1 provides Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.

The second device that will ship with the M5 is the Vision Pro. The previous iteration of Apple’s virtual reality headset had a maximum display refresh rate of 100 frames per second. The M5-powered version of the Vision Pro will render up to 120 frames per second, a speed boost that the iPhone maker says will reduce motion blur for users.

The MacBook Pro is also receiving Apple’s newest system-on-chip. According to the company, the updated laptop will provide faster flash storage speeds and a battery life of up to 24 hours. Additionally, the M5 will speed up rendering tasks by up to 60%.

The refreshed MacBook Pro, iPad Pro and Vision Pro will start shipping next Wednesday. It’s possible Apple will follow up the launch with a faster edition of the M5. In March, the company debuted an upgraded edition of its M3 chip that features more than twice as many CPU cores as the original.

Image: Apple