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Apple is planning a series of new Mac processors for introduction starting in 2021 that aim to outperform Intel’s faster ones.
Chip engineers at the Cupertino, California-based tech giant are working on several successors to the custom M1 chip, Apple’s first Mac main processor that debuted in November. If they meet expectations, they will significantly outperform the latest machines with Intel chips, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the plans are not yet public. Intel shares fell 2.9 percent in New York on Monday after the news. Apple shares were up 1.3 percent as of 9:46 a.m. (8:16 p.m. IST).
Apple’s M1 chip was featured in a new entry-level MacBook Pro laptop, a revamped Mac mini desktop, and across the entire MacBook Air range. The company’s next series of chips, slated to launch in the spring and later in the fall, is destined to be placed in upgraded versions of the MacBook Pro on both entry-level and range-level iMac desktops. high, and later on a new Mac. Professional workstation, people said.
The roadmap indicates Apple’s confidence that it can differentiate its products based on its own engineering and is taking decisive steps to design Intel components from its devices. Apple’s next two chip lines are also expected to be more ambitious than some industry observers expected for next year. The company said it hopes to complete Intel’s transition to its own silicon in 2022.
While Intel gets less than 10 percent of its revenue from supplying Apple with Mac chips, the rest of its PC business may face turmoil if the iPhone maker can offer computers with demonstrable performance. It could accelerate a restructuring in an industry that has long relied on Intel’s pace of innovation. For Apple, the move removes that dependency, deepens its distinction from the rest of the PC market, and gives it the opportunity to increase its small but growing share of PC.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment. Chip development and production is complex and changes are common throughout the development process. Apple may still choose to retain these chips in favor of smaller versions for next year’s Macs, the people said, but the plans nonetheless indicate Apple’s vast ambitions.
Apple’s Mac chips, like those in its iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, use technology licensed from Arm, the chip design firm whose blueprints underpin much of the mobile industry and which Nvidia supports. is in the process of acquisition. Apple designs the chips and outsources their production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, which has taken the lead from Intel in chip manufacturing.
The current M1 chip inherits a mobile-centric design built around four high-performance processing cores to speed up tasks like video editing and four power-saving cores that can handle less intensive jobs like web browsing. For its next-generation chip targeting the MacBook Pro and iMac models, Apple is working on designs with up to 16 power cores and four efficiency cores, the people said.
While that component is in development, Apple could choose to first release variations with just eight or 12 of the high-performance cores enabled depending on production, they said. Chipmakers are often forced to offer some models with lower specs than originally intended due to issues that arise during manufacturing.
For high-end desktops, slated for later in 2021 and a new mid-size Mac Pro to launch in 2022, Apple is testing a chip design with up to 32 high-performance cores.
With today’s Intel systems, Apple’s higher-end laptops offer a maximum of eight cores, a high-end iMac Pro is available with up to 18, and the more expensive Mac Pro desktop features up to a 28-core system. Although architecturally different, Apple and Intel chips are based on segmentation of workloads into smaller serialized tasks that can be used by multiple processing cores at the same time.
Advanced Micro Devices, which has been gaining market share at Intel’s expense, offers standard desktops with up to 16 cores, and some of its high-end gaming PC chips go up to 64 cores.
While the M1 silicon has been well received, the Mac models that use it are Apple’s lower-end systems with less memory and fewer ports. The company still sells high-end Intel-based versions of some of the lines that received M1 updates. The M1 chip is a variation on a new iPad processor meant to be included in a new iPad Pro coming next year.
Apple engineers are also developing more ambitious graphics processors. Current M1 processors are offered with a custom Apple graphics engine that comes in 7 or 8 core variations. For its future high-end laptops and mid-range desktops, Apple is testing 16- and 32-core graphics parts.
For later in 2021 or potentially 2022, Apple is working on more expensive graphics upgrades with 64 and 128 dedicated cores aimed at its higher-end machines, the people said. Those graphics chips would be several times faster than the current graphics modules that Apple uses from Nvidia and AMD in its Intel-powered hardware.
© 2020 Bloomberg LP
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