A rumor that is getting stronger every time. Apple will migrate its personal computers to its own chipset custom designed by ARM, thus abandoning the current Intel processors. This change has been talked about for a long time, but now it seems that it will be a reality within a year.
Apple is very satisfied with the entire range of processors based on the ARM architecture that it mounts in its devices. iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple TV mount these chips, giving exceptional performance. The only Apple devices that do not incorporate such processors are iMac, MacBooks and MacBooks Pro, so hopefully said change of architecture.
Apple plans to start selling Macs with its own ARM-based processors in 2021, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company is reportedly working on three Mac processors based on the A14 which will mount the next generation iPhone. The first of these processors will be much faster than the iPhone and iPad, of course.
Apple is preparing to launch at least one Mac with its own chip next year, according to the report. But the initiative to develop multiple chips, codenamed Kalamata, suggests that the company will eventually shift its entire line of desktops and notebooks away from current vendor Intel Corp.
TSMC will manufacture the new chips based on the current 5nm architecture. The first processors will have eight high-performance cores, called in Firestorm code, and four low-power cores, called Icestorm. Twelve cores in total. Apple is also working on processors with more than twelve cores for the future.
It appears that Apple's designs double or even quadruple the number cores that Intel provides for some of its Macs. For example, the new MacBook Air model has an Intel processor with only two cores. It is likely that a MacBook be the first Apple device to get the new processors, as rivaling the performance of Intel chips for high-end devices is more difficult.
The rumor of an Apple processor, dubbed Kalamata, has been around for several years. In 2018, the company developed a chip for Mac based on the processor A12X for internal testing. This gave rise to the engineers to continue working on this project, and as planned, we will see the first results next year.