# Apple Silicon

Concept · [Technical basics](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/technical)

Also called: M1, M2, M3, M4, Apple M series, Apple chips

Apple's own family of chips used in Mac computers and iPads. Memory is shared between the main processor and the graphics processor, which helps when running [AI models](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/model) locally.

**For example:** A [developer](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/software-engineer) runs an [open-weights model](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/open-source-vs-open-weights) on a Mac laptop with Apple Silicon instead of renting a [cloud](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/terms/cloud) [GPU](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/gpu).

## Connects to (3)

- [Local model](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/local-model): A model that is downloaded and run on a person's own computer or a company's own servers, not on a provider's.
- [GPU](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/gpu): Graphics processing unit.
- [Quantization](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/quantization): Shrinking a model by storing its weights with fewer digits of precision.

Map view: https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/apple-silicon