SoC SoC M2 Ultra became the most powerful solution that Apple currently has on the market and a replacement for Intel Xeon processors in the Apple company’s Mac Pro. As on previous occasions, Apple decided to bet on combine chiplets into one packageand the result was a truly huge SoC, so much so that it is even bigger than the Intel Xeon W9-3495X.

Upon opening the M2 Ultra SoC package in the central part we find two chiplets which form CPU, GPU and neural unit. Apple put together two M2 Max chips that have a 12-core CPU and a 38-core GPU, so we have a 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU configuration.

In addition to both chiplets, we have a total of eight chips that contain a unified memory, divided into four side by side. In its most powerful configuration, the M2 Ultra SoC can accommodate max 192 GB unified memory, meaning each chip has 24GB of memory.

Curiously, if we combine the unified memory chips, we realize that they take up more space in the package than the two chiplets that integrate the CPU, GPU and neural unit. We can confirm that too Apple used thermal paste instead of solder in this new SoC and that it makes contact with all the elements that make it up.

Thermal paste is contact material that transfers heat from the chips to the package, i.e. on IHS. It is essential to prevent heat build-up and damage, and the cooling system is located on the IHS, which can be passive or active. In this case, the apple company used an active cooling system, because a SoC as powerful as the M2 Ultra SoC cannot be effectively dissipated by a passive system.

It’s important to note that if Apple hadn’t integrated this 192GB of unified memory into the same M2 Ultra SoC package, would be much smalleras we would only have to wrap the central strip where the two main chiplets are located.