Apple announces first computers with M1 processors

MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac Mini get Arm-based processors

Apple has taken its first steps to move its Mac computers onto its own Arm-based processors and starting its two-year transition away from CPUs from Intel. Apple announced the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac Mini with the new M1 chip, which can be ordered now.

John Ternus, VP of hardware engineering, detailed the transition to the “next generation of Mac,” coming over the next “couple of years.”

The first chip is the M1, which Apple’s chip lead Johny Srouji said would create a “completely different class of product. It would replace the separate chips for the CPU, I/O, and more. It also includes memory on the chip. It’s a 5nm chip with 16 billion transistors. It has eight cores, four for power and four for efficiency. Srouji said the high-performance cores are the world’s fastest and deliver the best performance per watt. It has a 10W thermal envelope.

Additionally, Srouji detailed the chip’s integrated graphics, an 8-core GPU with 128 compute units. He said it’s the world’s fastest integrated graphics. There’s also a 16-core neural engine for machine learning. It also houses the Secure Enclave for security.

Apple also detailed the first Macs with M1. The first is the MacBook Air, starting at $1,599. It has a 3.5x faster CPU in the M1, which was being compared to an Intel Ice Lake processor. Apple also claimed a 5x improvement in integrated graphics. The design has no fan, so it can run silently. Apple is also promising 15 hours of wireless web browsing and 18 hours of video playback, claiming the longest battery life of any MacBook Air.

The MacBook Pro will get the M1, starting at $1,999. Apple is claiming faster performance than ever on the CPU, with a GPU up to five times faster over previous 13-inch MacBook Pros. Unlike the MacBook Air, the Pro has active cooling. Apple claims that the battery life goes up to 17 hours of web browsing and up to 20 hours of video playback, for the longest battery life ever on a Mac.

APC is chasing down review samples of these interesting new laptops, and we hope to bring you an in-depth look as soon as we can.

“It would replace the separate chips for the CPU, I/O, and more. It also includes memory on the chip. It’s a 5nm chip with 16 billion transistors. It has eight cores, four for power and four for efficiency.”