Apple has been teasing the prospect of building in house processors for its Macbook laptops from some time. Now, the company might deliver on its promise much sooner than anticipated, and make the announcement at the WWDC event, which will take place on June 22.
It was being speculated that the chips will be released some time next year, and won’t make their debut until 2021, when new Macbook devices are set for their launch. However, a report from Bloomberg suggests an early delivery, with Apple launching the processors at WWDC 2020.
This will effectively end Apple’s relation with Intel, which serves as the chip provider for the company’s Mac laptops. The relationship between the two companies hasn’t been the same from a while now, due to Intel’s inability at bringing anything noteworthy to the table. Apple accounts for about 10% of the PC market, which is dominated by Intel processors. Thus Apple leaving Intel won’t only have serious financial impact, but also dent the brand value for the US chipmaker.
The chips in talk have displayed “sizable improvements over Intel-powered versions, specifically in graphics performance and apps using artificial intelligence,” Bloomberg reports. Moreover, the chips are also more power-efficient than Intel’s, which could pave the path for leaner and lighter Mac devices in the future.
The devices are being developed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which manufactures processors for numerous other Intel competitors as well. The company is using the same 5-nanometer production technique that it uses to produce chips for iPhones and iPads, which means that the future Macs will house similar processors as the ones we have grown to love on Apple’s smartphones.
The new architecture, which is being licensed from Arm Ltd., will be different from the one Intel uses. Thus, it will take some time before the software is optimized for the new components.
Since the hardware adaptation of the new technology is still quite far, the date of the announcement might change.
