Apple Announces The M2 Ultra SoC - 24 Core CPU, Up To 192GB Unified Memory

In addition to announcing the Apple Vision Pro AR headset, a 15-inch MacBook Air, and other new hardware, Apple lifted the lid on the M2 Ultra SoC. The Apple M2 Ultra is impressive from the technical specs and hopefully won't be too long before it begins working under Linux.

The Apple M2 Ultra is basically two M2 Max SoCs combined together. The Apple M2 Ultra provides 24 CPU cores, up to a 76 core GPU, and up to 192GB of unified memory at 800GB/s memory bandwidth. The M2 Ultra features 134 billion transistors and also provides a 32-core neural engine.

The Apple M2 ultra is said to be up to 20% faster on the CPU side and up to 30% faster graphics over the M1 Ultra. This chip is powering the new Mac Pro and marks the transition of Apple's product line-up to Apple Silicon.

While Apple doesn't provide Linux driver support, the Asahi Linux crew appears eager to take on the M2 Ultra enablement. Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin wrote on Mastodon, "Kinda disappointed ngl, I was expecting a new, bigger chip for the Mac Pro. At least supporting it will be easy if it's just another paired up M2 Max... :P"
He went on to add:

"Now I'm glad we waited with the M2 Pro/Max support, because otherwise we'd be increasing the version matrix for little gain. We should probably bump up to the next version that supports all machines and release Asahi support for everything at once."

He also went on to warn people from buying new Apple hardware support or expecting set timelines for Linux support on the new Apple hardware:

"Due to a combination of other stuff going on at the same time and unexpected design changes (desktop HDMI out now blocked on external display support), it's taking us a while to support the previous round. But it looks like this time around it's boring (maybe modulo some Mac Pro peculiarities). So we can probably just support everything at once, or almost.

Please do *not* buy a new Apple machine with the expectation that Asahi will support it in any arbitrary timeframe unless you're willing to wait and not ask us about it. We've had a few people do that on IRC and Reddit and it's not fun, for any of the developers. If you buy a machine before it's supported, that's on you, not us."

Those curious about additional details on the Apple M2 Ultra can see the announcement on Apple.com.