It was no surprise when at WWDC 2020 in June Craig Federighi announced the new project with great fanfare. Apple silicon. What did surprise us all is that the move from Intel to ARM processors in Macs was so advanced. A week after the keynote, Apple was already sending the first fully operational Mac mini ARM prototypes to some developers, and before the end of the year we will have the first ARM Macs on the market.
Not only Intel it will see how it will no longer supply its processors to the assembly lines of the next models of Apple computers. It seems that AMD it goes the same way, and its graphics GPUs will also disappear from the motherboards of the next Macs.
We already know that TMSC is already manufacturing the first processor for Apple computers based on the ARM architecture. The A14X Bionic it is already a reality and is already running through the factories of Apple's Asian suppliers. Your heart is manufactured in 5 nm.
A China Times report shows some details of said processor. It also shows data from the ARM GPUs that will be mounted in the next motherboards of the new Apple Silicon Macs. It explains that the A14X processor, with its integrated GPU (codenamed Tonga), will be used for the new 12-inch MacBook and iPad.
On the other hand, Apple's next desktop computer will have a specific GPU known by the code name «Smoke«. Lifuka is an island that is part of the Kingdom of Tonga in Polynesia. This new graphics processor will provide higher processing speed and better performance per watt.
It also explains that the new Apple GPUs will use tile-based lazy rendering technology that enables application developers to program more powerful graphic design and game software.