The Apple Studio Display has an A13 Bionic chip inside to control things like built-in camera processing and Dolby Atmos surround sound, making it mostly running on a custom version of iOS. Interestingly, the current firmware seems to include a link to the new unreleased Mac mini that may be out soon.

Developer Steve Troton-Smith was the first to mention the new Mac mini in the Studio Display firmware. As he shared on Twitter, the firmware includes a link to “Macmini10.1”, a model identifier not used in any of the Mac minis ever released.

This led the developer to believe that the ID belonged to the future model of the Mac mini. However, details such as the technical specifications of this model are unknown.

Earlier this year, 9to5Mac announced that Apple is working on two new versions of the Mac mini: one with the M2 and the other with the M2 Pro chip. The M2 Mac mini, codenamed J473, is expected to debut later this year, and the M2 Pro Mac mini (codenamed J474) may be released later.

We’ve also heard that Apple plans to release high-end versions of the current Mac mini with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, but it was canceled, possibly to make room for the Mac Studio.

The rumor mill is a little vague about what the new Macs will be; For what it’s worth, there’s a tangible clue: The shipping Studio Display firmware refers to an undisclosed mystery machine – a new model-generation Mac mini (“Macmini10.1”). My Guess: M2 not M1 Pro

– Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) April 12, 2022

9to5Mac opinion:

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently announced that Apple may announce two new Macs at WWDC 2022 in June. Now that the Studio Display firmware has links to the new Mac mini, it’s safe to assume that one of the new computers will be available. At WWDC 2022 this is the M2 Mac mini. Source