JAKARTA - Apple continues to innovate in order to become a giant in the world smart device market. The latest rumor is that the company will release its first Mac series powered by an ARM processor in 2021.
The Cupertino, California, United States (US) giant is predicted to have three Mac processors in development as part of the Kalamata project. Of course all the devices belong to this year's flagship iPhone lineup which is based on the A14 Bionic chipset.
According to a Bloomberg report, this processor will include a 12-core CPU with eight high-performance Firestorm cores and at least four power-saving Icestorm cores. Not a few say that Apple has long been rumored to be developing its own ARM processor to replace the Intel chips currently used in its Macs.
The rumors date back to 2012, and since then, there have been some rumors that Apple could release the first ARM-powered Mac in 2020 or 2021. Although this latest update corroborates a report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who says the ARM Mac could come in 2021. However, it is possible that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will cause Apple to delay its plans.
This switch will give Apple far more control over its own hardware, at a time when Intel has struggled to offer significant performance improvements with each new hardware generation.
However, compared to Intel, Apple is more interested in ARM processors, which are currently also said to be more power efficient, and can certainly help extend battery life. Switching to ARM is expected to see Apple reduce the cost of purchasing a processor by 40 to 60 percent.
For your information, three Mac System-on-Chip (SoC) designs based on the A14 processor are currently under development, and work has also begun on a Mac SoC based on next year's iPhone processors.
Bloomberg speculates that Apple plans to keep its laptops and cellphone chips on the same development cycle. The Mac chip will reportedly be manufactured by TSMC based on a 5nm fabrication process. This first chip will feature eight high-performance CPU cores and at least four energy-efficient cores, for a total of 12 cores. Likewise, the A12Z chip used in the current iPad Pro also has eight cores with four high performance and four energy efficiency.
Apart from the CPU, the SoC will also include a GPU. ARM Mac computers will continue to run macOS rather than switch to iOS, similar to the approach taken with Windows laptops using Qualcomm ARM processors. Rumors have it that Apple's first ARM-based machine will be a low-power MacBook because the chip itself won't be able to match Intel's performance in more advanced MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro computers.
If we go back to 2018, Apple has reportedly developed a prototype Mac chip based on the iPad Pro A12X processor. The success of this prototype is thought to have given the tech giant the confidence to target a transition in 2020.
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