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SAN FRANCISCO: Apple is expected to introduce new Mac computers with its own internal processor chips on Tuesday (Nov. 10), a move that could reignite a race to control the desktop and laptop chip market and benefit gamers like Qualcomm.
The market has been dominated by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices since 2006, when Apple joined most of the major computer manufacturers in using chips based on Intel’s ‘x86’ computing architecture.
Apple is expected to begin a two-year process on Tuesday to end its nearly 15-year relationship with Intel by introducing Mac computers with Apple-designed chips based on Arm’s computer architecture technology, which Nvidia Corp agreed to buy from SoftBank Group Corp in a US $ 40 billion deal.
Apple will design the chips using Arm technology and a partner, most likely Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, which makes processors for Apple’s iPhone, will make them. UK-based Arm’s technology also works with most Android phones.
Apple’s upcoming machines already have competition from Qualcomm, which since 2016 has worked with Microsoft to adapt the Windows operating system to Qualcomm’s Arm-based processors.
Qualcomm and Microsoft have worked with PC makers like Lenovo and Asustek Computer to sell laptops using the new chips, and Microsoft’s Surface Pro X released last year uses a Qualcomm processor.
Those devices are niche vendors today, but Apple’s entry into the market is likely to attract consumer attention around emerging technological change, especially if Apple begins developing chips that compete with Intel’s performance.
“Apple stubbornly diving into Arm will accelerate this,” said Patrick Moorhead, founder of Moor Insights & Strategy.
Arm-based PCs have key differences from Intel-based machines. Because the chips are derived from smartphones where power consumption is a key concern, they tend to claim better battery life than conventional machines. Like smartphones, they also turn on quickly and can remain constantly connected to mobile data networks.
“Where connectivity has shined is the work-from-home situation,” said Miguel Nunes, Qualcomm’s senior director of product management. “We see a lot of people realizing that their WiFi at home can’t keep up with everything.”
But obstacles remain for Arm-based PCs. Most of the software written in the last 20 years was for Intel machines and until it is rewritten you may have to rely on ’emulation’ which could slow down applications.
Intel’s line of chips “allows people to use their favorite Windows applications without experiencing the potential performance penalties associated with running non-native applications on non-x86 architecture through Windows, or worrying if their favorite applications will crash. they will run on their platform, “Intel said in a statement.
Ben Bajarin, senior analyst for consumer market intelligence at Creative Strategies, said the critical test for Arm-based computers will be whether developers rewrite the software used by large companies, which remain the biggest buyers of machines. Apple’s entry into the market does not guarantee that will happen.
“Most of Apple’s hardcore developer base will use Apple’s proprietary development tools,” he said. But with Microsoft also providing development tools for Windows on Arm, a broader change “is not out of the question.”
