Apple’s much-anticipated transition to its custom Arm-based Macs is in full swing. After several years of research and development, Apple announced at its WWDC 2020 keynote the rollout of its new Macs and processors. Apple Silicon, the codename given to the new Arm-based chips, is expected to power a range of Mac laptops and desktops over the next few years.
The first step in this transition is the testing phase for an upcoming Mac Pro, reported to launch sometime in 2021. This could also signal that more performance models may follow shortly after. Additionally, rumors are circulating a potential launch of an updated MacBook Pro and Mac Mini featuring Apple’s newest chipset within months.
The hardware changes could bring a significant boost in terms of speed, battery life and performance for current macOS users. It could also offer improved visuals through image processing capabilities built into the new chipsets, allowing video editing projects rendered faster than ever on macOS machines. All these amazing details come together to form an exciting model shift for Apple’s existing products — achieved through an innovative combination of seasoned industry veterans at Cupertino and technical innovators at ARM partnering together in perfect unison.
Apple Silicon Mac Pro Testing Ramping Up, New MacBook Pro and Mac Mini to Launch Within Months
Apple has revealed its transition plans to move its Macs from Intel’s x86 chips to its custom-designed Apple Silicon chips. As part of this transition, the company has already begun testing its Apple Silicon Mac Pro, with plans to launch it within a few months, as well as new MacBook Pro and Mac Mini devices.
Let’s consider what this transition means for Apple and its plans.
Apple Silicon Mac Pro Testing Ramping Up
Apple is reportedly ramping up the testing of its forthcoming Mac Pro desktop running on its own custom-designed Apple Silicon processors. According to a new report from trusted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company plans to release a redesigned Mac Pro with Apple Silicon in August, alongside a new 16-inch MacBook Pro and an updated Mac mini.
The new report suggests Apple will launch a “high-end Mac” in its fiscal Q4, which should be around the end of August or beginning of September. Though it doesn’t go into specifics, the language implies that this could be a beefed up version of the existing iMacs running on Apple Silicon. This would mark the first release of an Apple Silicon desktop.
It also appears that Apple is putting more effort into ramping up testing and development for the upcoming MacBook Pro and Mac mini models powered by its in-house silicon chip design. Both devices were reportedly initially planned to be released during the second half of this year but have been delayed significantly due to production supply issues at TSMC, which is making Apple Silicon chips for them. Despite these challenges, Kuo says both products should launch within months based on what he sees in Apple’s supply chain production data.
This latest revelation about upcoming Macintosh releases powered by custom designed Arm processors comes shortly after reports that suggested unannounced MacBook Pros have been spotted being tested in public places such as train stations throughout California and other areas in the United States. The experiences posted by those who have seen and used these unreleased devices are said to feature identical trackpads found on current 13-inch MacBooks and what appears to be an “almost noninvisible border” between segments bordering left and right keys indicating thinner Touch Bars than those currently present in 16-inch models currently available available publicly on store shelves.
New MacBook Pro and Mac Mini to Launch Within Months
Apple will soon release its newest laptop and desktop computers with their custom-made Apple Silicon M1 chips. The new MacBook Pro and Mac Mini are set to launch within the next few months, while reports suggest that the company is already ramping up preparations and tests for the new Mac Pro which is expected to come out next year.
The move marks a strategic shift away from Intel processors, which the company has used in its Mac lineup since 2006 when it first moved away from PowerPC processors. Switching to Apple’s custom Arm-based chips will allow machines to run more efficiently while offering certain types of tasks more power — a boon for developers and other professionals who use intensive software applications.
Apple has not yet revealed an official launch date for either product, though sources close to the company suggest that both new devices could come out as early as this summer. Before then, the tech giant will likely run extended testing on the hardware and develop other features or extensions for them (the macOS version 11 Big Sur was recently released).
For now, users will have to wait until further word from Apple about when exactly these products will be coming out. But, until then, it’s sure that interested tech watchers are looking forward eagerly for what’s to come with Apple’s latest hardware iteration.
Benefits of Arm-Based Macs
With the launch of Apple Silicon Macs, Apple has significantly shifted from Intel processors to their ARM-based processors. This transition presents many potential benefits to users, from faster performance and better battery life to improved security and compatibility.
Let’s take a look at the different advantages of this shift.
Improved Performance
As Apple transitions from Intel processors, Apple Silicon Macs will offer improved performance and battery life. This is because the ARM-based processors used in the new Macs are based on a completely different architecture than Intel’s x86 processor design. This means Macs built with Apple Silicon chips can process instructions more efficiently and are better suited for tasks like machine learning and artificial intelligence, which require high-performance computing power. They also use less power than their Intel counterparts, dramatically improving battery life.
Apple’s transition to ARM-based processors should also provide increased overall speed and performance of the machines. For example, in leaked benchmark tests of a mid range 2020 MacBook Pro running on an ARM processor that was intended for market testing, the results show faster speeds than similarly priced Intel machines. Furthermore, because of their architectural similarities with mobile processors, Apple Silicon Macs could get significant performance boosts with software updates over time – just as mobile iOS devices do now. In addition, they may be less affected by temperature changes due to their lower power draw from the battery since they’ll be mostly powered off the charger or solar energy.
More Efficient Power Consumption
Apple’s transition from Intel to ARM-based Macs will bring benefits, including more efficient power consumption. In addition, ARM processors are more advanced than their Intel counterparts; for example, the latest M1 chip boasts about 1/4 of the power consumption of Intel-based Macs.
In addition to reducing power consumption, the M1 chips will deliver performance that rivals that of higher-end Intel machines. This means you can expect faster boot times and more responsive general operations. The M1 chip also integrates a dedicated GPU for improved graphics rendering and an improved neural network engine for enhanced machine learning capabilities.
Battery life is another area where these ARM-based Macs will shine; Apple engineers anticipate at least 16 hours of use on a single charge with their current offerings. This is compared to eight hours with many traditional Intel-based models, making them ideal for extended work sessions away from an outlet.
As a bonus, machines powered by Apple’s chips are expected to have a longer lifespan because they don’t have as much heat buildup due to the reduced power consumption; this could lead to fewer repairs or replacements over time and overall cost savings over the lifetime of your device.
Increased Security
As Apple moves from Intel processors to the company’s silicon-based chips, it brings about several security improvements. The Macs powered by Apple chips will offer an increase in performance and efficiency, and help protect against malicious software by automatically isolating any app from the rest of the system.
Additionally, Apple Silicon is designed to take advantage of hardware-level security features such as Secure Enclave and Anti-Malware Protection (AMP) that are more difficult for potential attackers to access. This allows data of many types to be stored safely with hardware encryption capabilities that are off limits to third party developers. In addition, the ability to customize hardware components provides a further layer of security which can be tailored specifically for each user’s needs.
Further, Macs powered by Apple Silicon use Secure Boot technology which helps stop hackers from infiltrating a system with unauthorized code or ransomware at startup. In addition to controlling access levels based on user identity and providing secure connection options for external drives, users can trust that their work environment is safe from malicious software or malware attacks.
With tighter control over access and a multi-layered security solution built into the platform, Mac users will have peace of mind knowing their systems are protected by one of the industry’s most reliable providers — Apple.
Challenges of the Transition
Apple’s transition to Arm-based Macs is a monumental shift in the industry. It will mean a new computing experience and a complete overhaul of the Mac architecture.
This shift also comes with a host of challenges, both in terms of compatibility and performance. In this article, we’ll discuss the potential issues that may arise due to Apple’s move to the arm-based Macs.
Software Compatibility
The main challenge in Apple’s transition from Intel to Apple Silicon is ensuring that existing software runs as expected on the Arm-based Macs. This includes first-party, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Aperture and third-party applications like Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office, Chrome and Firefox.
Apple has stated that their new custom silicon will be compatible with most of the applications available on current Intel Macs. However, they have also warned that some apps might need to be rebuilt specifically for their new architecture. As such, app developers must invest in updating their applications to ensure they are compatible with Apple’s Silicon Macs. In addition, developers will also need to consider optimization and scalability particularly in terms of GPU performance and other capabilities enabled by ARMv8-A architecture used by Apple’s custom silicon chips.
Apple has launched a Developer Transition Kit (DTK) for developers testing their software on the new arm-based M1 Mac platforms. Another was recently made available for a limited number of developers only interested in testing macOS 11 (Big Sur). To help fast track development companies can request access from Apple and get a free kit including an M1 Mac mini with development tools installed so they can start testing as quickly as possible.
Cost of Development
The transition to Apple Silicon Macs has posed significant challenges for Apple engineers, notably in the cost and time of development. Given that ARM-based Macs are a whole product line requiring new hardware and software components – such as custom silicon, up-to-date version of macOS, the industry-groundbreaking Rosetta 2 translation technology, rethinking a vast array of system architecture components including everything from voltage regulators, power control logic to thermal control – all of this had to be developed from scratch.
This cost and effort could explain why the timeline for the rollout of these Macs is indicative of an accelerated phase. Rumors have been circulating that Apple may unveil their first ARM-based Mac at WWDC 2020 in June. The first models announced will likely still contain Intel processors, with Apple likely releasing full ARM-based models within the year. To bring the development costs down to manageable levels, it has been reported that Apple has chosen various suppliers producing parts for some upcoming ARM products rather than building everything in house.
Another challenge lies with experienced developers having to learn how to code effectively on a new type of silicon requiring new instructions sets (e.g., AArch64 vs x86_64). To assist here, Apple released their Swift Programming Language open source so developers can start getting acquainted with coding on ARMs before they get too far in developing their applications around or on top of them. At the same time, they wait for official public access to these machines might take some time.
Impact on Third-Party Developers
Third-party developers are a very important part of the Mac ecosystem, and the transition to Apple Silicon Macs presents some challenges. One of the most obvious is that their apps must be updated to work with Apple’s new chips – either in large updates or complete rewrite. Unfortunately, this requires time and money, which many developers may not have due to the current economic crisis.
Additionally, while they can use virtualization software like Parallels or CrossOver to bridge the gap between Intel-based and ARM-based Macs, this could cause performance issues and compatibility issues with certain hardware peripherals. It also won’t solve graphics driver issues, so games could suffer from low framerates or even crashes if they aren’t written for Apple Silicon from day one.
Finally, most third-party developers will require access to Apple’s development tools (like XCode) to properly support the new infrastructure. Unfortunately, this means some previously unsupported applications may never transition or take much longer than anyone expects.
In total, some apps that worked with Intel-based Macs likely won’t make it over Intel/ARM divide until well into 2021 – further delaying an already complicated transition process.
Conclusion
Overall, Apple’s transition to Arm-based Macs is a major shift for the tech giant and means consumers can expect significant changes in how these devices operate. By replacing Intel chips with Apple’s custom processors, users will experience drastically increased computing speed and power efficiency. Additionally, the move toward unified app design on all of Apple’s devices will help to promote cross-platform app compatibility.
While testing of the custom silicon chips is underway, it won’t be until later this year that Mac users will begin seeing new products utilizing this technology. In the meantime, those interested in what to expect from this transition can refer to Apple’s existing iPad lineup which already runs on similar hardware architecture as its forthcoming Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini computers may soon feature. However, with continued refinement over the upcoming months, Apple’s new Arm-based machines could become some of its most popular.
