New Generation of Macs

Apple announced last night that a new generation of Macs will be powered by the same kind of Apple-designed chips already used for iPhones and iPads. The code name of the new processor is the M1.

They are moving away for the use of Intel processors. This has been a major push for Apple's teams of software and hardware engineers in recent years. The challenge is to ensure that both performance and energy use (battery life) of the new chips is up to scratch. The M1 chip sports 16 million transistors, and delivers what the company claims to be the best CPU performance per watt - two times the performance of the latest PC laptop chip, while using one-fourth of the power.

They will also have to work hard with outside developers to make sure that third party apps work well on the new chipsets. The most important ones for users are those sold by Microsoft (the Office suite) and Adobe (Acrobat).

This is not their first such shift. In the mid-1990s, Apple moved from the original Motorola chips that powered the first Macs to PowerPC chips, which were a joint IBM-Motorola effort. Then they shifted from PowerPC to Intel chips starting in 2005.

The in-house skills to do this have been built up over many years and through multiple acquisitions. A company called PA Semi was bought in 2008, which worked on the Apple A-series chips, which have powered every iPad and every iPhone since 2010. Then they bought Intrinsity in 2010 and Dialog Semiconductor in 2018.

Note that while design will be handled in-house, production of these chips will be outsourced to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Apple is a great company with very talented employees. We are proud to be part-owners of this company. I look forward to owning another one of these home grown Macs in the near future.

More info here: Apple unleashes M1.