Apple revealed on Tuesday, May 7, that its next-generation M4 chip will power the latest iPad Pro.

According to Apple, the new cutting-edge system-on-a-chip (SoC) model will make it competitive with the fastest neural processing units (NPUs).

The M4 is capable of up to 38 trillion operations per second, 50 per cent more powerful than its previous M2 model.

The graphics processing unit (GPU) introduces hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to improve the visual experience while gaming.

The new chip features 10 cores; four high-performance and six efficiency cores.

Its faster memory bandwidth, next-generation machine learning (ML) accelerators in the CPU, and a high-performance Graphics Processing Unit gear it towards optimally performing AI-related tasks on the iPad Pro.

ML is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that involves computers learning from data and making decisions and predictions.

“The new iPad Pro with M4 is a great example of how building best-in-class custom silicon enables breakthrough products,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.

“The power-efficient performance of M4, along with its new display engine, makes the thin design and game-changing display of iPad Pro possible, while fundamental improvements to the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and memory system make M4 extremely well suited for the latest applications leveraging AI. Altogether, this new chip makes iPad Pro the most powerful device of its kind.”