[ad_1]
From the outside, you can’t see how new the new MacBooks that Apple introduced on Tuesday are, because they look like their predecessors. There should be practical and psychological reasons for this. On the one hand, in this way sources of error in production can be excluded. On the other hand, it indicates continuity to buyers. “That won’t be so bad with the new chip if the computer still looks the same as it did before,” may be the idea you want to plant with stakeholders. Nothing is as it was under the recycled aluminum lid.
Because instead of the Intel processors that Apple implanted in its computer for a decade and a half, now there is something completely different to disk. Apple calls the M1 chip to differentiate it from the A14 chips found in iPhones and iPads. The M1 and A14 have a lot in common, especially the fact that they are based on technology from ARM, which has been providing the blueprints for the chips found in the vast majority of smartphones for many years.
Talking about the newer Macs as ARM Macs would still be wrong. ARM technology is also in the M1, but only a small part. Because Apple did not authorize ARM’s actual processor design, only the instruction set that the chips use, basically software. However, Apple has been developing the processors that this software runs on for years, and has done a lot of things differently than the competition.
Apple’s chips are not just processors, but so-called SoCs, systems on chip. In addition to a certain number of processor cores, which differ from each other in terms of performance and power consumption, there is also a graphics processor, the so-called neural engine for machine learning, working memory, and a number of other circuits that they specialize in certain tasks. Tasks are determined in consultation with the programmers who develop Apple’s operating systems and programs.
No more detours
This deep integration of hardware and software is also the secret of the astonishing performance and endurance gains that Apple promises for the first devices equipped with the M1. There is talk of up to ten more hours of battery life and three and a half times more power.
This should be possible, for example, because the M1’s main memory is not located on separate memory modules, as is often the case, but on the chip itself. For example, graphics data does not have to be moved from main memory to graphics memory to be processed by the graphics chip, but can be done by the graphics department. and the processor can be used alternately without drift, which saves time and thus provides performance.
The price for this, however, is considerable. If you order one of the new MacBooks with 16 instead of the standard eight gigabytes of RAM, you will have to pay 224 euros to double the memory, 28 euros per gigabyte. Upgrade memory modules are available for Windows notebooks from the accessory store at prices of around four euros per gigabyte. But this path is impossible with the new Apple computers.
Performance is fan dependent.
Unlike its computers with Intel processors, Apple does not specify a clock frequency for the M1 chips. Instead, the company wants to focus on the “performance per watt” metric. Almost all of the same M1 chips are built into the new MacBooks and Mac Mini, but they are capable of different performances.
The difference is the cooling. In the fanless and therefore quiet MacBook Air, the M1 reaches its thermal limits under prolonged high loads and slows down to avoid overheating. In MacBook Pro and Mac Mini, on the other hand, the small fans blow residual heat from the chip out of the case, so it can run longer at full speed, that is, at a high clock frequency, which is important for video editing, for example.
Less brings more
With the move to Apple Silicon, Apple is also throwing several additional chips overboard, such as external graphics processors and its own T2 security chip. Fewer additional chips means that motherboards become simpler and smaller, the number of components is reduced, and therefore production becomes simpler and cheaper. At this point, shareholders are happy with the new technology as well, as it generates higher profit margins and therefore big dividends.
Much more important than a few extra dollars in long-term dividends will be how the move to Apple Silicon will transform the Apple ecosystem. Just as iPhone users can now use iPhone applications, sometimes a bit cumbersome, on an iPad, they will also use them on Mac in the future, at least in theory. As a result, the boundaries between devices are at least softened further and whoever gets involved is drawn deeper into Apple’s golden cage.
Apple’s head of chip development, Johny Srouji, at the presentation of the M1 chip
Photo: – / dpa
There is something else to come
It will be really interesting when Apple has made the switch to Apple Silicon in about two years. Only then will the group break away from their established designs and try out new ways. Based on an integrated chip, then it could already be the M3, even thinner laptops and smaller PCs would be conceivable. Above all, however, new functions and capabilities that would not be possible with a conventional component-based computer. This is exactly what Apple has done with Face ID, for example, on the iPhone.
What kind of technology this could be for Apple Macs remains pure speculation at the moment. It can be safely assumed that in some laboratory, deep within Apple headquarters, several of these possibilities are already in the works. The company with the Apple logo always takes a long time for these new developments.
On the other hand, the competition doesn’t need that long to adapt that idea on their own. One candidate on the way to developing the necessary skills is Huawei. According to rumors, the company is currently trying to set up its own chip production because it no longer has access to US-tech chips due to US sanctions. The group has its own operating system, Harmony OS, almost out of the box. In a few years, with this combination, the Chinese could create a system as integrated as Apple has just imagined.
