Apple plans on using more ambitious “Apple Silicon” for its Macs in the years ahead
M1 versions of the Mac Mini are priced at $699 and $899 while Intel CPUs are found inside pricier units tagged at $1,099 and up. To reiterate, Apple is aiming to replace Intel on all Macs by 2022. While Apple could decide to release less ambitious chips next year instead, those familiar with Apple’s plans say that the company’s road map still points to ambitious chip design from Cupertino. And ambitious it is. The M1 was built around a mobile design with four high performance cores to cover complex tasks. Four efficiency cores handle general housekeeping chores. For the next MacBook Pro and iMac models, Apple is believed to be working on a chip with 16 high performance cores and four efficiency cores. Insiders say that while such a chip is being developed, Apple might have to go with a version of the component with eight or twelve high performance cores. That’s due to issues that might surface during the development of the new chips.
Continuing with future graphics chips, Apple is also believed to be testing higher-end components that will feature 64 to as many as 128 cores for its most expensive computers. These will be much faster than the Graphics components produced by AMD and NVIDIA that are used on Apple’s higher-end Intel powered machines. Speaking of NVIDIA, the latter is in the process of trying to acquire ARM Holdings whose chip architecture is used on Apple’s A-line chipsets used on the iPhone.
Apple designs its chips and has them manufactured by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), the world’s largest independent foundry. Apple is its biggest customer.
