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Apple's new Macs will use the company's M1 processor.
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNETApple's next-generation Macs will use a new chip called the M1, a big brother to the A-series chips in its iPhone 12, that Apple says will bring new power and battery life to its personal computers.
The company's goal with the chip was to achieve "industry leading performance and features while relentlessly focusing on performance efficiency," Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies, Johny Srouji, said at an Apple launch event Tuesday.
In the Apple M1-based MacBook Air, the processor helps provide battery life that's good for "up to" 15 hours of web browsing and 18 hours of video. Processor speed is three and a half times faster than that of the previous Intel-based model, while graphics are five times faster, Apple said. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is up to three times faster than the best-selling Intel machine, Apple said. The company didn't detail the testing behind its performance claims.
The processor has 16 billion transistors, a substantial increase from the 11.8 billion used in the iPhone 12's A14 Bionic. That lets Apple increase the number of central processing cores from six to eight. The M1 has four high-performance cores for heavy-duty work, compared to two on the iPhone 12, and four high-efficiency cores for low-priority tasks.
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Like the iPhone and iPad chips, the M1 also has dedicated circuitry for graphics and and artificial intelligence processing. Apple links these modules with a unified memory architecture, which means the computer doesn't have to waste time copying data internally as it switches processing approaches. The memory chips, while separate from the brains of the operation, are housed within the same chip package alongside processor for better speed.
Intel didn't comment specifically on Apple's claims, but pointed to its new 11th-generation Core "Tiger Lake" laptop processors as evidence it's still competitive: "Intel is focused on delivering the most advanced PC experiences. ... We believe Intel-powered PCs-like those based on 11th Gen Intel Core mobile processors provide global customers the best experience in the areas they value most, as well as the most open platform for developers, both today and into the future."
Performance is crucial to the Mac chip transition, influencing whether Mac buyers embrace the new models enthusiastically, sit things out for a while, or even buy a Windows machine powered by Intel's new Tiger Lake chips. With the coronavirus pandemic triggering a PC sales surge, it's prime time for Apple to try to lure as many customers as possible.
Good performance also means that Apple's Rosetta 2 technology, for running Intel Mac software on Apple silicon machines, is more useful during the chip transition. Apple software chief Craig Federighi said Rosetta can actually run some games faster than on Intel chips -- as long as developers adapt them to take advantage of Apple's Metal graphics technology.
The M1 chip includes other technology, too, including a built-in controller for handling Thunderbolt and USB 4 communications, a secure enclave for storing the most sensitive data, a signal processor for accelerated adjustments to photos and video, and engines to compress and decompress video and audio.
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook announced the Apple silicon change at Apple's WWDC developer event in June. But it's been in the works for years, with rumors of Arm-based Macs extending back to 2012.
The MacBook Air starts at $999, while the smaller Mac Mini starts at $699 -- a $100 price cut that's likely easier to justify given analysts' expectation that Apple's chips are less expensive for the company than Intel's. The M1-based MacBook Pro starts at $1,299.
Apple boasts its M1 processor has the best performance per watt of power consumed, a key factor for long battery life.
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
Apple's M1 chip has a variety of abilities besides ordinary processing.
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