Fifteen years ago, Apple announced that its Mac computers were switching to Intel CPUs, as IBM’s PowerPC desktop and laptop chips had hit unresolvable development roadblocks. At a special media event this month, new Macs will officially replace Intel chips with Apple-developed ARM processors, a transition that could either be a significant milestone for Apple’s computers — or a forgettable moment in personal computing history.
Calling the traditional PC business “stagnant” would be unfair, but a lot has changed since Macs moved from PowerPC to Intel processors. Back in 2005, Macs were Apple’s biggest products, but overall Mac sales weren’t huge — fewer than 5 million units — and Apple’s decade-long chip partner IBM was struggling to create power-efficient parts for next-generation desktop and laptop computers. So then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs warmly embraced Intel, effectively betting the company’s future on its one-time rival. Despite Apple’s modest market share, the PowerPC to Intel transition was one of the decade’s biggest technology stories, cementing Intel as the undisputed leader in personal computer chips and Apple as a maker of machines enterprises could actually consider buying.
Apps can of course be built as native ARM code and run natively, but existing Intel apps continue to work on Apple Silicon Mac computers. The Rosetta translation will seamlessly run them. Arm64 is the primary topic for today, because that's the new CPU architecture that your apps will use, and not just your GUI code.
- Read Also: Best Free Cleaner Apps for Mac. 10 Best Mac CPU Temperature Monitor Apps in 2020. Here’s the list in which you will find the best CPU temperature monitors that enable the status of every activity and mishap to get into your knowledge.
- The Mac transition to Intel processors was the process of changing the central processing unit (CPU) of Apple Inc.' S line of Mac computers, as well as its server offerings at the time, from PowerPC to Intel x86 processors. The transition became public knowledge at the 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), when then Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the announcement to transition away from the.
The stakes arguably aren’t as high for Apple today. Switching to Intel chips helped Macs climb from a nadir of 2% global PC market share to a more respectable 10%, but Macs have become far less important to the $2 trillion company’s business over the past decade. In the just-concluded 2020 fiscal year, Macs represented just over 10% of Apple’s sales — roughly one-seventh its total revenues from iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Apple TVs. Despite the strength of its other devices, Apple hasn’t eclipsed Lenovo, HP, or Dell in worldwide PC sales, nor have Macs annually enjoyed even 15% market share in the United States. In theory, Apple could abandon Macs as a legacy business and suffer little in the way of financial consequences.
Hello BNorw, Thank you for joining this Intel Community. In order to troubleshoot this issue, please check the following information: A. Client Requirements: Mac OS. 10.12, 10.13, or 10.14. New Intel-powered Macs are still in the pipeline, so Apple isn’t moving exclusively to ARM-based Macs just yet. Still, this is a big shift for Apple to move away from Intel-based silicon in Macs.
But Apple has kept treating Macs as important to the company’s future and ultra-niche Mac Pro models as the Lamborghinis of its overall product lineup. To keep winning mainstream customers, Apple has continually streamlined its laptops, multiplied the performance of its desktops, and improved their security with self-developed T-series coprocessors. Apple has effectively marketed Macs as supersets of Windows PCs, using Boot Camp or emulation to run everything PCs can run (save high-performance games) while offering customers exclusive access to macOS and Mac-only apps.
On a positive note, the Intel-to-ARM transition should be fine for “legacy” Intel-based Mac apps. Apple says they will run properly under Rosetta 2 emulation and — in many though not all cases — have a straightforward Xcode migration path from Intel to ARM instructions. Developers have already had nearly five months to start transitioning their Intel Mac apps to ARM using Mac mini-styled Developer Transition Kits, which Apple has hinted will be blown away by the first Apple Silicon Macs. Given that the PowerPC-to-Intel switch went quite well 15 years ago, most people are predicting that the Apple Silicon transition will be at least equally smooth, especially for macOS users.
On a less positive note, it’s unclear at this point how Apple will handle the loss of full Windows compatibility that will likely come with a switch to Apple Silicon. The company is throwing out Boot Camp, the tool that let Macs natively run Windows, seemingly leaving virtualization as the only option on post-Intel machines. This means that Windows apps developed for Intel processors could experience performance compromises on Macs, assuming they run at all. Unfortunately, little has been said on this topic by Apple, Parallels, or VMWare, the three companies most likely to offer Windows virtualization, though Microsoft could theoretically cater directly to Mac customers with a performant Windows 10 ARM solution.
A larger question is what advantages new ARM-based Macs will have over “legacy” Intel models. Apple chip lead Johny Srouji offered two explanations at WWDC20 this year: First, Srouji echoed Steve Jobs on the PowerPC-Intel move 15 years earlier, promising that new Macs would gain “a much higher level of performance, while at the same time consuming less power.” Second, Srouji said Apple Silicon would include “many custom technologies,” including the following five features:
- A Secure Enclave for “best in class security”
- A high-performance GPU for “a whole new level of graphics performance” on every Mac, suited to both pro apps and games
- Neural Engines for machine learning
- A video display engine, presumably for screen improvements
- An image processing engine, presumably for camera improvements
None of those technologies is new — they’ve all been found in iPads and iPhones for years, with some in certain Macs — but if Apple hits the accelerator, they could all represent welcome steps forward for the Mac platform. Even a current iPad Pro-class GPU could up the ante for graphics performance on lower-end Macs that have been saddled with prior-generation Intel integrated graphics chips, while next-generation GPUs could race past Intel’s performance. By contrast, dedicated AI hardware would be a first for the Mac, mirroring the AI cores found in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx, 8c, and 7c laptop/tablet chips. (Apple didn’t mention 5G modem technology, most likely because it’s not yet ready to be directly woven into Apple’s own chips, but there’s no doubt that integrated 5G will be important to future Macs.)
More consumer-facing changes to the Mac could come immediately from the last two named technologies. Apple could leverage a superior image processing engine to finally bring better FaceTime cameras to the Mac, which has suffered for far too long from mediocre photo and video quality, even as iPhones and iPads have continuously improved. This might also mean the addition of Face ID secure unlocking for Macs, a feature that has recently run into challenges due to pandemic-era mask requirements but would be fine on desktop and laptop machines.
A potential game changer for Macs would be their belated adoption of touchscreen technology, something Apple dogmatically shunned in Macs for so long that virtually every Windows laptop (and some desktops) beat Macs to the punch. Apple Silicon Macs will be able to run iPhone and iPad apps natively, which is to say that there’s every reason macOS Big Sur should include support for direct touchscreen input, and the first ARM Macs should ship with touchscreen hardware to fully embrace the potential of that compatibility. But it’s entirely possible that Apple once again pooh-poohs touchscreen Macs, leaving them a step behind modern Windows machines in that regard.
There’s no question the move from Intel to ARM architecture will bring the performance-per-watt gains Srouji has promised, since Apple’s key chip fabricator TSMC is several nanometer-scale generations ahead of Intel in successfully miniaturizing chips and Apple has been packing its chips with incredible densities of tiny transistors. On the other hand, Apple has been tooting the power-efficient chip horn for a long time, and it’s clear that neither chip efficiency nor resultantly thinner, more beautiful machines have been enough to elevate Macs to the top one, two, or three PC spots globally, or even in Apple’s home country. “Thinnovation” was a nice angle for the MacBook Air 12 years ago, but it’s not clear whether simply making last year’s computers smaller will move the needle on sales.
Apple’s new chips offer Macs the opportunity to either start another chapter in their storied history or shuffle forward with the same basic pros and cons they’ve offered for years. We’ll know after the One More Thing event whether Apple Silicon will immediately enable major new functionality or Apple will start slowly by retrofitting older Mac designs with less obvious internal upgrades. In the former scenario, the new Macs will sell themselves, while the latter may require a heaping dose of marketing hype to differentiate Apple Silicon Macs from their Intel predecessors.
How startups are scaling communication: The pandemic is making startups take a close look at ramping up their communication solutions. Learn how
Embed
Embed
0:000:06:320:00
Direct link
Apple says it will start using the same chip technology it uses in its mobile devices to power the next generation of Mac computers.
The new technology will replace Intel-based chips, which have been built into Mac machines for the past 15 years.
Chips help power a computer’s processing system. One of the main materials used to make computer chips is silicon, a chemical element.
In its announcement this week, the company said its first Mac to include the new “Apple Silicon” chips would be available by the end of 2020.
The news came during Apple’s yearly conference for computer programmers and mobile app developers. This year, the conference was held online because of the coronavirus crisis.
Apple chief Tim Cook told people watching the conference that the decision marked a historic new beginning for the Mac. “Silicon is at the heart of our hardware,” he said. “Having a world-class silicon design team is a game changer.”
The company already uses Apple-designed chips in its iPhone and iPad devices. The same kind of chips are also used to power most smartphones in use throughout the world.
Apple says the decision to move away from Intel chips is designed to make Mac computers faster and more efficient while requiring less power.
Johny Srouji is Apple’s vice president for hardware technology. He explained the change to the conference. “The first thing this will do is give the Mac a whole new level of performance,” he said.
Intel Cpu App Windows
Srouji said the company will draw on its experience designing “the world’s most energy efficient chips” that currently power Apple’s mobile devices.
“It all started with the iPhone,” Srouji said. “The iPhone demanded performance and capabilities that were seen as impossible in a device that small.”
The change will also “establish a common architecture across all Apple products,” the company said in a statement. https://newfantastic147.weebly.com/blog/orgin-app-not-opening-mac. That means the new Macs will be able to run apps that currently work only on iPhones or iPads.
Intel Cpu Management Tool
Apple promised that developers would be able to “easily convert their existing apps to run on Apple Silicon.” A company official said the majority of existing apps for the Intel-based machines should be able to be changed in “just a few days.”
Apple said the new system should be in all Macs within two years.
In a statement, Intel said it still planned to keep its relationship with Apple “across several areas of business.” Experts told the Reuters news agency this could include Intel continuing to supply Apple with data center chips to power its iCloud service.
The new Apple chips are based on technology developed by Arm Holdings, a semiconductor and software design company owned by Japan’s Softbank Group.
On the same day as Apple’s conference, a machine that uses Arm technology was named the world’s fastest supercomputer. The Fugaku supercomputer was developed by Japanese research organization RIKEN and Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd.
The Fugaku system was at the top on the TOP500 list, a ranking that comes out two times a year of the world’s most powerful computers. Arm Holdings announced the latest list on Monday.
Before that, the top-ranked supercomputer on the list was a machine based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States. That system runs on chips designed by American technology company IBM.
Chips from IBM and Intel were used in all other systems in the top 10, except for a system using a Chinese-designed chip from China’s National Supercomputing Center in the city of Wuxi.
One use of supercomputers by governments is to simulate nuclear explosions in weapons tests. They are also used to model climate systems and in biotechnology research. The Fugaku supercomputer will be used for such projects in Japan.
I’m Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press, Reuters, Apple and online sources. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.
Quiz - Apple to Drop Intel and Use its own Chips in Mac Computers
Start the Quiz to find out
How to use numbers app on mac. ________________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
chip – n. a small piece of semiconducting material used to make parts that help power computer processors
app – n. a program for a smartphone or other device that performs a special function
efficient – adj. working well and not wasting time or energy
capability – n. the ability of power to do something
draw on – phrasal verb. to use information, knowledge or experience to help achieve something
architecture – n. a set of rules that form the structure and logical organization of a computer or computer-based system
convert – v. to change the appearance, for or purpose of something
ranking – n. a position in a list that shows things or people of importance
simulate – v. to recreate a process or situation