Now, according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, the Cupertino company may begin designing the processors of its MacBook line, thus abandoning Intel. According to information from this Japanese newspaper, and as was reported by Business Insider, the Cupertino company, Apple wants to take the reins also in the design of the chips of its line of laptops. The Apple computers since 2006, are equipped with x86 architecture of Intel processors. However, the company did not bet on the same architecture when it created the iPhone, the iPad, among many other devices. These have ARM architecture and it is Apple itself, with its engineering team, that designs and orders its manufacture to third parties. It is no longer now that the rumor appears to point this way as possible and likely as early as February this year, that the tech giant Apple would be developing new ARM processors to put on their computers. As it is known, in the new MacBook Pro Apple to use ARM processors. The Touch Bar is fully controlled by a T1 processor, developed and produced by the tech giant Apple itself.
The Powerful A11 Bionic chip and History
Prior to the introduction of the Apple “A” series on SoCs, Apple used several chips in the early versions of the iPhone and iPod touch. These were specified, designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung. These SoCs integrate a single processing core based on an ARM (CPU) architecture, graphics processing unit (GPU), and other electronic components needed to provide mobile computing functions within a single physical package. The Bionic A11 proved to be more powerful than a MacBook Pro chip in performance testing when compared in benchmark tests. In 2016, the company stated that the iPhone 7 was 120x more powerful than the Original iPhone. Already on September 12, the company said that the iPhone 8 with the new Aion Bionic was 70% faster than the iPhone 7 when submitted to multitasking, 30% faster in the graphics presented and 25% faster in the iPhone with maximum CPU performance. In addition, the Cupertino company said the iPhone 8 Plus is 70% faster than the iPhone 7 Plus in low power mode. Soon the iPhone 8 will probably be about 150x faster than the 1st generation iPhone. Apple’s ability to design semiconductors and other chips is a huge advantage over other smartphone manufacturers because they typically buy components from companies such as Qualcomm and MediaTek.
The processors for MacBooks
There is still no certainty of the Cupertino company’s intention to use the same ARM architecture in the upcoming MacBooks processors, but the clues show that this is the way. This is not so simple, as they have to overcome the technical challenges at the level of the operating system, which is largely subjected to the powerful Intel processors, as well as a whole new support for the software that the companies produced with support for the current macOS. All this has to be thought so that at no time is an obstacle and delay in the development and evolution of these platforms. The risk is part of Apple’s strategy and, over the years, we have always seen the company risking positions and certain controversies. We can see that in the new iPhones, the Cupertino for the first time designed the graphics processor (GPU) at its own risk, thus breaking the dependency it had in this area and abandoning the partnership of years with Imagination Technologies. These risks justify certain attitudes of the company to get rid of problems, such as the one in which it is currently involved with Qualcomm. The Cupertino will no longer use some components of this vendor, such as the MDM9655 Snapdragon X16 LTE Modem or the WTR5975 Gigabit LTE RF receiver, present on the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. Is it now Intel’s turn to leave the supply line for Apple devices? It is a subject that, in the coming months, we will have more information. So, what do you think about this? Simply share your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
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