Apple has developed special computers to process certain Apple Intelligence queries privately in the cloud, and these computers currently run on the M2 Ultra chip. However, it appears the company is already planning to upgrade its cloud computers with the M4 chip starting next year.
Apple's PCC modules for AI to get M4 chip next year
A Nikkei Asia report on Wednesday revealed that Apple is in talks with Foxconn to build new AI servers in Taiwan as the company looks to speed up the rollout of its AI-powered features. Sources familiar with the matter say Apple chose Taiwan to “leverage engineering talent and R&D resources” that work for Nvidia, which is also a Foxconn customer.
For those unfamiliar, Apple Intelligence relies on both on-device and online processing. When local language models can’t handle a request, Apple uses its Private Cloud Compute (PCC) modules to process the request using end-to-end encryption. Here’s how Apple describes PCC:
For the first time, Private Cloud Compute extends the industry-leading security and privacy of Apple devices to the cloud, ensuring that a user’s personal data sent to PCC cannot be accessed by anyone but the user — not even Apple. Built using custom Apple silicon and a secure operating system designed for privacy, we believe PCC is the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI computing at scale.
9to5Mac first spotted mentions of Apple PCCs in early 2023. While most PCCs are powered by the M2 Ultra chip, Apple also has some modules that run on the M1 chip, likely to handle lighter tasks. Interestingly, Nikkei Asia reports that future PCC modules built next year will be powered by the latest M4 chip introduced this year, rather than the M2 Ultra.
With the M4 chip family delivering significant advances in AI tasks, it’s no surprise that Apple would want to upgrade the modules used to process data from Apple Intelligence online.
The report doesn’t specify which variant of the M4 chip Apple will use in its future PCC modules, but it’s likely to be the yet-to-be-introduced M4 Ultra. The company recently announced the M4 Pro and M4 Max variants after announcing the M4 earlier this year.
The Apple Security Research blog has more details on how private cloud computing works, and is definitely worth a read.
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