Apple transitions to ARM-based silicon

Mark this date: 23 June 2020. In one of four seismic shifts in its colourful history, Apple announced at Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC20) that it will transition the Mac to its own ARM-based silicon. The first Mac with Apple silicon is expected to ship out by end of the year and Apple has quoted a two-year timeline for a full transition. Apple still has new Intel-based Macs in development.

Why transition to ARM and why now?

“Why are we going to do this?” “Didn’t we just get through going from OS 9 to OS X? Isn’t the business great right now? Why do we want another transition? Because we want to make the best computers for our customers going forward” — Steve Jobs, 2005 WWDC.

Simple: performance. As proven by the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, Apple’s custom-designed silicon leads the industry in both unique features and performance per watt. The fact is, Apple is great at designing its own chips, as it has been doing for the past decade.

Building upon this solid foundation, Apple will now also be designing SoCs for the Mac. This will give Apple further control of the Mac’s architecture and not have to…