Through the Ages: Apple CPU Architecture

Learn how CPUs work, and discover Apple’s underrated competitive advantage.

CPU die of the Apple Silicon M1 system-on-a-chip — Image from Apple Newsroom

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Timeline & Key Concepts

This is the tale of the 4 Ages of Apple CPU Architecture. Each chapter, however, also serves as a framing device for fundamental CPU concepts.

If Android is more your thing, you are free to jump between sections at will like an overclocked instruction pointer.

1984 — Motorola 68k

• The CPU and Registers
• The Arithmetic-Logic Unit
• 8-bit vs. 16-bit
• Endian-ness

1994 — PowerPC

• CISC vs. RISC
• Pipelining
• Assembly Language
• Emulation

2006 — Intel x86

• CPU Caches (L1, L2, L3)
• Branch Prediction
• Superscalar Architecture
• Hyper-threading

2020 — Apple Silicon