Apple’s M1 Processor Highlights Intel Chip Challenges

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Apple’s custom M1 processor and newer MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis that use it are a problem for Intel. The divorce process will last approximately two years, as the prestigious client gradually ejects the Intel chips from his personal computers.

But Intel is not doomed.

The Santa Clara, California company has some advantages and options in the PC market that insulate it from the Apple threat. Other PC manufacturers are not going to have as easy as Apple to beat Intel. Intel remains the leader in higher-end chips more powerful than the M1. And you have enough money on hand – $ 18.25 billion in cash, equivalents and investments – to allow you to spend your way to a better situation.

“There is not much short-term threat to Intel’s PC business beyond losing a sizeable customer,” said Linley Gwennap, analyst at Linley Group. However, that doesn’t mean it will be easy for Intel.

Giving Apple grounds for divorce is the latest of the chipmaker’s criticism. Past accomplishments – such as charting decades of steady progress in the chip industry with Moore’s Law, pioneering PC technology standards, and empowering Google’s data centers – have been overshadowed by more recent failures. That includes losing its manufacturing lead and failing to tap into the smartphone market. Intel ultimately sold its cellular chip business to Apple for $ 1 billion.

Although Macs represent only about 8.5% of the PC market, according to IDC, Apple is still one of the largest and most influential technology companies. Its MacBook Air models led the trend for slim but useful laptops, its MacBook Pro models remain popular with programmers and the creative group, and Apple benefits from selling premium machines that cost hundreds of dollars more than most PCs. with Windows.

Losing Apple’s business will hurt. New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu estimated in a report Wednesday that between 4% and 5% of Intel’s revenue comes from Apple. But it’s just one of the concerns Intel will need to address.

Intel said it is “relentlessly” focused on building leading chips. “We welcome competition because it makes us better,” Intel said in a statement. “We believe there is a lot of innovation that only Intel can do,” including supplying chips that span the entire price range of PCs and that can run older software that is still common in businesses.

It also built its first samples of the Alder Lake 2021 PC chips and expects improvements in 2022 and beyond. “We are increasingly confident in the leadership that our products will deliver by 2023,” the company said.

However, Intel faces several challenges along the way.

Qualcomm’s concern

One of the biggest concerns associated with the arrival of Apple’s M1 is that it could embolden another Intel rival, Qualcomm, which already sells mobile processors for PCs.

The M1 is a member of the Arm family of processors used in all smartphones today. Qualcomm, a leading designer of those chips for Android phone makers, is also pushing more powerful versions of its Snapdragon chips for PCs, with several PC makers offering Windows laptops that use them.

However, so far, Arm-based Windows laptops have shown mediocre performance and remain a rarity among customers. Arm PC makers have to demonstrate better value and performance before more people adopt the machines, said the CCS Insight analyst. Wayne Lam.

Apple’s transition to Arm family M1 chips is also very different from Windows PC makers using Qualcomm chips. No PC maker is abandoning Intel like Apple is, so software makers don’t need to worry as much about adapting their products to the new chip architecture. Although it would be nice to have, Qualcomm PC compatibility is not really essential.

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The AMD threat

Intel is the dominant manufacturer of x86 family chips, which are the kind of processors you would find in a normal laptop. But it is not the only x86 chipmaker.

“AMD is a bigger threat in the short term,” said Kevin Krewell of Tirias Research, noting that PC makers will not be quick to abandon the industry standard family of x86 chips.

AMD has done well with high-end desktop processors, primarily for gamers, and is also making strides in the server market. It is using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. for manufacturing, taking advantage of its miniaturization progress to incorporate more circuitry into new chips. Its new Zen 3 chip design offers a substantial speed boost.

By contrast, Intel, which makes its own chips, has struggled. Only now is it seriously moving from an older manufacturing technology with 14 nanometer characteristics to a newer 10 nm process after years of delays. Even next year’s Rocket Lake chip for desktops will still be built with the 14nm process. (A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, and the smaller the measurement, the more transistors you can fit into a chip.)

New manufacturing options

Intel is offering itself new options, including the ability to use third-party vendors like TSMC to build its chips. However, that also has risks, Gwennap said.

Shifting some of the manufacturing to a partner makes it difficult for Intel to justify the expense of trying to develop cutting-edge manufacturing, according to Gwennap. And the prospect of Intel bringing manufacturing back once it fixes its problems could keep TSMC from investing enough to meet Intel’s massive demand.

Intel did not comment on the details of its manufacturing plan. It said its integrated approach to design and manufacturing helps competitiveness and enables Intel to assure customers that it can supply the chips they need. “We have also made it clear that we will continue to invest in the development of leading process technology,” Intel said.

Apple, by contrast, has benefited from TSMC’s constantly improved manufacturing. It’s one of the reasons you can fit a whopping 16 billion transistors onto your M1 chip – enough circuitry to power the main processor motors along with many additional abilities.

Apple’s M1 starts small

Again and again during the new Mac launch event, Apple emphasized the performance per watt advantages of the M1. Translate that as being able to do useful work without quickly draining a laptop battery.

Apple gets this advantage from the M1 lineage: the A-series of processors that power iPhones. Smartphone chips have even stronger battery limitations than laptop chips. With the M1, a close relative of the iPhone 12’s A14, Apple can add more transistor circuits for more processing power, and it can also run the chip at a higher clock speed than in phones.

Apple steadily increased the performance of the A-series chips over the years, evolving the chip design and taking advantage of the expertise of TSMC, which makes the chips. Speed ​​tests published by technology site Anandtech using the SPECint2006 benchmark show that the A14 outperforms Intel’s quad-core laptop chip, the 3GHz Core i7 1185G7 model that is a member of the new Tiger processor family. Lake.

But the reality is that not even Apple is ready to use the M1 on stronger systems. The MacBook Air is all-inclusive in the M1, but Apple continues to rely on Intel for the higher-powered 13-inch MacBook Pros. The 16-inch MacBook Pro, iMac, iMac Pro, and Mac Pro will continue to use Intel processors as Apple goes through a two-year transition to its own chips.

“It will get really interesting when Apple starts specifically optimizing its architecture for higher performance in a larger thermal envelope and constant power for desktop computers,” said Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart.

So yes, Intel has challenges. Apple’s M1 is the most obvious.