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Company to switch to its own ARM designs
APPLE IS TO USE its own designs of ARM processors in all its Macs. Rumors of this move have been floating around for years—actually a decade— but now it’s a reality: Apple is dropping the x86 processor, and taking the job in-house. There are, reportedly, three different system-on-a-chip designs in development: “Project Kalamata” as it is called within Apple. The first design is based on the iPhone A14 chip (due to appear in the iPhone 12 shortly). Apple’s custom A-series chips are already the best in the business, surpassing ARM’s own designs. The chips are to be made by TSMC—Apple has no manufacturing capacity for this—and will use the same 5nm process as the A14.
The first design is expected to have 12 cores: eight highperformance “Firestorm” cores, and four energyefficient ones. If Apple is serious (it is), then it’ll have a full road map of designs mapped out already—you don’t work on one generation at a time. All its chip design cycles will be amalgamated into one, cutting across the market sectors.
The ARM-based Macs will stick to macOS. The fundamental differences in the x86 and ARM architectures mean there will be a lot of work to do on the software side to get everything running smoothly. We can expect a couple of years of annoying incompatibilities. The tantalizing goal is software that, in theory, will run on every Apple device, from the iPhone to the Mac Pro. Internal testing of ARM-powered laptops have proved that there are “sizable” gains to be made in the switch, particularly in power consumption, which means quieter and cooler laptops too. It has also been reported that the switch will save Apple between 40-60 percent on the cost of processors, although don’t expect that saving to reach the bottom line.
Apple has used various processors over the years, from the original MOS technology and Synertek chips. It then spent years using Motorola and the related PowerPC chips. For the last 15 or so years it has been using Intel silicon. The company has never tied itself to one architecture: It used the best of what was available. The move to Intel chips, starting in 2006, was a big deal at the time. Apple wasn’t happy with the lack of development with the PowerPC chip. The move was finished in 2009, when PowerPC support was finally dropped from macOS. Getting Apple’s custom was good news for Intel, but the relationship has been strained recently. Intel’s troubles in moving to a 10nm process hasn’t helped, or that AMD’s Zen now offers more for the money. Apple ditching Intel was always just a question of time.
Computing devices falls roughly into two camps: x86dominated larger devices, and the ARM-based mobile ones. Each has tried to break into the other market without success. Microsoft’s phone business was a disaster, and Intel’s mobile chips tanked. ARM processors never gathered the horsepower for larger devices. Apple, ever the willing outsider, is going to cut right across that. It seeks an integrated, unified world, from the phone to the professional desktop. Currently there’s a break in Apple’s software and hardware between the ARM mobile devices and the Intel Macs. Fixing that break, and pushing processor development in the direction Apple wants, gives the company an unprecedented level of control overs its machines, and if there’s one thing that’s clear it’s that Apple likes to have control.
Could this be the start of a serious threat to the dominance of the x86 architecture? ARM designs have some significant advantages, particularly in producing power per watt. If this can be scaled to desktop levels of performance then x86 could be facing its first serious rival for many years. However, Apple’s share of the desktop market is about 10 percent, and the installed base of x86 software is truly vast. What it will do is stir the somewhat moribund waters. If Apple can build a system to embarrass Intel and AMD’s best, then it cannot go unchallenged. The big two are particularly vulnerable as devices get smaller. We can expect other big-name laptop makers to try the ARM route in time.
The first fruits of this project are due next year, when we’ll see at least one ARM-powered Mac laptop, which will be the most carefully scrutinized Mac for years.
If Apple is serious (it is), then it’ll have a full road map of designs mapped out already