The M2 Ultra SoC from Apple has been disassembled, revealing what’s hidden inside. The ARM SoC from the Apple company is a performance beast, but it’s also a beast in terms of size.
Apple M2 Ultra is bigger than a Sapphire Rapids Xeon
The Apple M2 Ultra has higher ratios than the Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids processors, which are designed for servers.
The images were posted by user @techanalye1, who lets us take a look at the disassembled Apple SoC. This SoC is combining some two M2 Max processors, which allows you to combine and increase the CPU and GPU cores of this chip. The IHS features a rectangular layer of thermal grease in the center, where the two M2 Ultra chips are located.
In the center of the SoC we can see the two chiplets along with 12 DRAM memory dies spread out in groups of 4. Apparently, Apple is not soldering the IHS, but using a TIM to connect the IHS with the two chiplets and the DRAM.
The size comparison with a Xeon W9-3495X can be seen in the image. Apparently, the Apple chip is even wider than the Xeon. Surely, the inclusion of the DRAM memories inside the package makes the chip much larger than that of any Intel or AMD processor for the notebook or desktop segment.
The Mac Studio computers with the M2 Ultra SoCs were launched last June 13 in Spain with prices starting at 4,849 euros.