According to a report from Bloomberg Apple is planning to announce its big shift from Intel processors to its own main processors in Macs. The report comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman who says the move will be made official at the upcoming WWDC 2020 scheduled for June 22.
The project to move Macs from Intel to ARM based processors is codenamed Kalamata. These processors use the same technology as the A series chip found on iPhone and iPad. Apple’s early announcement in 2020 will allow developers to make necessary optimizations to their macOS applications before the new Macs are released in 2021.
TSMC is reportedly going to build the new Mac processors using the 5-nanometer production technique.
Apple’s move to ARM processors is huge for the company as it will give the it more control over the chips that power its desktop and mobile computers. Apple has enjoyed this privilege with its iOS devices, which continue to outperform the competition in the smartphone and tablet space.
Internal testing of ARM based chips have shown ‘sizeable improvement’ over Intel chips when it comes to graphics performance and with applications that use Artificial Intelligence reports Bloomberg. Another major benefit of ARM chips is that they are more power efficient than the Intel chips. This could result in thinner and lighter Macs.
Apple transitioned to Intel back in 2005 from Motorola processors. And its move to ARM architecture marks the second time in Mac’s entire 36 year history that the computer is changing its processor architecture.
Apple’s ARM Mac announcement is expected to become official at June 22’s WWDC 2020 conference. Apple is holding the conference virtually for the first time due to the ongoing pandemic. At WWDC 2020 Apple is expected to announce iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS 10.16, watchOS 7, tvOS 14 and more.
