The Chandra X-ray Observatory obtained a 50-ks observation of the central region of M81 using the ACIS-S in imaging mode .
The global properties of the 97 x-ray sources detected in the inner 8 \arcmin . 3 \times 8 \arcmin . 3 field of M81 are examined .
Roughly half the sources are concentrated within the central bulge .
The remainder are distributed throughout the disk with the brightest disk sources lying preferentially along spiral arms .
The average hardness ratios of both bulge and disk sources are consistent with power law spectra of index \Gamma \sim 1.6 indicative of a population of x-ray binaries .
A group of much softer sources are also present .
The background source-subtracted log N -log S distribution of the disk follows a power law of index \sim -0.5 with no change in slope over three decades in flux .
The log N -log S distribution of the bulge follows a similar shape but with a steeper slope above \sim 4 \times 10 ^ { 37 } ergs s ^ { -1 } .
There is unresolved x-ray flux from the bulge with a radial profile similar to that of the bulge sources .
This unresolved flux is softer than the average of the bulge sources and extrapolating the bulge log N -log S distribution towards weaker sources can only account for 20 % of the unresolved flux .
No strong time variability was observed for any source with the exception of one bright , soft source .