From the first 8 MHz Motorola 68000, through PowerPCs reaching 2.5 GHz and more in up to 4 cores, and Intel x86 with up to 28 cores, to Apple’s M4 Max with 12 P cores at 4.5 GHz.
Motorola
How have the CPUs in our Macs become faster since the Macintosh 128K was launched by Steve Jobs forty years ago?
Processors haven’t just increased in speed and packed more transistors into a smaller space. Features such as the Neural Engine in the M1 show Apple is moving in a different direction.
Look forward to Universal Apps, which will show how well Apple Silicon Macs perform. There’s a lot of history buried in them too.
A modern iPod has a faster and more capable processor than the original Mac. How have they got so much faster? A look at CPUs, GPUs, and more.
The Eclectic Light Company 