Apple is switching to its own ARM-based processors for its MacBooks, following the path of the iPhone and iPad. The new M1 processor with eight cores and an integrated CPU and GPU will also power the latest Mac Mini desktop.

The M1 comes with a dedicated 16-core Neural Engine for machine learning and AI-related tasks. Apple is promising power efficiency with its new processor, which will ensure improved battery life on the new Macs along with much faster and better performance. The M1 has four high-performance cores and four efficiency cores.

  Apple Inc introduced a MacBook Air notebook and other machines with its first central processor designed in-house for Macs, a move that will tie its computers and iPhones closer together technologically.

It is a boon for Apple computers, which are overshadowed by the company’s iPhone but still rack up tens of billions of dollars in sales per year. Apple hopes developers now will create families of apps that work on both its computers and phones.

The MacBook Air will start at $999 (£754), the same as its predecessor, and have up to twice the battery life, Apple said. The M1 will also power the MacBook Pro notebook, which starts at $1299, and its $699 Mac Minicomputer, which comes without a monitor.

The new products will be available from next week, executives said.

In June, Apple said it would begin outfitting Macs with its own chips, building on its decade-long history of designing processors for its iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches.

Apple executives said that the M1 was intended to be efficient as well as fast, to improve battery life, and that Apple’s newest version of its operating system was tuned to the processor.

Apple executives made numerous performance claims against prior generations of Macs and Windows-based laptops, virtually all of which are based on Intel chips, though Apple did not directly name Intel.

Apple’s phone chips draw on computing architecture technology from UK-based Arm Ltd, manufactured by outside partners such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.

Apple software chief Craig Federighi said Adobe Inc would bring its Photoshop software to the new M1-based Macs early next year.

 Chief Executive Tim Cook had said that Apple would continue to support those devices for “years to come” but did not specify an end-of-life date.

Source- Reuters

Country- U.S