The Mac Studio has a simple style that stands out when compared to other Apple products and current workstations. Apple’s huge M1 Ultra processor package, which takes up about a quarter of the motherboard, an extremely complicated voltage regulating module, and two user-accessible SSDs are hidden behind these designs.
Now that Apple has begun distributing Mac Studio systems to customers, some of them are dissecting the machines to learn more about their internal design and architecture. With the Mac Studio, there is a lot to look at.
According to the Max Tech YouTube channel, which was the first to pull down a Mac Studio, the Mac Studio is a masterwork of high-precision engineering with hundreds of components fitted on a relatively small printed circuit board.
Apple’s M1 Ultra processor is made up of two M1 Max system-on-chips (SoCs) packaged in TSMC’s 2.5D interposer-based CoWoS-S package. Memory subsystems are included in both SoCs.
They’re connected by the company’s UltraFusion interprocessor interconnection, which has a bandwidth of 2.5 TB/s and can show two GPUs and two memory subsystems to the operating system as one. Given its architecture, we expected Apple’s M1 Ultra to be huge.
The M1 Ultra is a large machine. It is around three times larger than an AMD Ryzen processor in an AM4 form-factor. One M1 Ultra takes up around a quarter of the Mac Studio’s motherboard.
The M1 Ultra contains two pretty complicated VRMs to feed the two-headed beast and ensure high-quality power to allow it to function at high clocks, as we are two M1 Maxes. Of course, this means we’re dealing with a highly complicated motherboard, but if you want to get the most out of your system, this is the way to go.
The vast majority of Apple’s PCs introduced in recent years have been known to be completely non-upgradable by the end-user, therefore there was no need for the end-user to disassemble them. Furthermore, due to soldered-down memory and solid-state drives, none of the M1-based systems launched allow for upgrades (SSDs).
However, with Mac Studio, the business chose to take a different approach and employ modular SSDs rather than a soldered-down disc. Unless, of course, there are software limits, this opens the door to upgradeability.
Officially, Apple states that the drives are not user upgradeable, therefore accessing them will most likely breach the warranty (at least for the time being), but Apple may allow its authorized partners to provide SSD upgrade services. Alternatively, remove the restriction entirely and allow hardware manufacturers such as OWC to build SSDs in the suitable form factor.
Apple has insisted on soldering down NAND chips to make its computers more portable. Even so, given there are more compact systems that use ordinary modular M.2 drives, this argument is invalid.
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