It is now being reported that Apple will include a A-Series based coprocessor A10 Fusion Chip in the iMac Pro, which is scheduled to ship before the end of this year. According to developers Steve Troughton-Smith and Jonathan Levin, Apple is testing A10 Fusion chip in the upcoming $4999 model of iMac and it will be used for features like always on “Hey, Siri”.
The information was revealed through the BridgeOS 2.0 software package, which according to developer Guilherme Rambo also contains different different Siri sounds and a boot chime.
According to Steve T-S, by adding A10 Fusion chip to iMac Pro through BridgeOS 2.0 Apple will be testing its ARM based chips with macOS without frustrating developers and pro users who will be using the expensive machine. This will be the first every Mac to include an A-Series chip, which has been powering iOS devices for years.
This looks like the iMac Pro's coprocessor (Bridge2,1) will be an A10 Fusion chip with 512MB RAM 🤔 So first Mac with an A-series chip
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) November 18, 2017
Confirmed: "Hey, Siri" is coming to the Mac pic.twitter.com/Dw9bRAzbxD
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) November 18, 2017
With the inclusion of A10 Fusion chip coprocessor to iMac Pro, it seems like Apple is testing the waters before it transitions to its in-house A-Series chips for the Mac. Apple’s A-series chips, which includes A11 Chip found on iPhone X have become very powerful over the past few years and have already started to compete with laptops including those made by Apple, at least in benchmarks. Since they are also much more efficient at handling power consumption when compared with Intel chips, it makes sense for Apple to include them in its future MacBooks.
An official release date for iMac Pro has not been revealed yet.
