Apple to Design Its Own ARM-Based Mac Chips: Breaking up is hard to do but after a 15-year long partnership, Apple has announced it is officially transitioning the Mac from Intel’s x86 processor lineup to its own custom chips, called Apple Silicon, in one of the biggest leaps for the Mac. For years, Apple has used Intel manufactured chips to power its computers, but by designing and manufacturing its own ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) chips, Apple claims that future Mac models, released from the end of 2020 onwards, could run up to 50-100% faster than the current generation Intel machines. To cushion the blow of the change on users during the transition, Apple has included a program called "Rosetta 2" into macOS Big Sur to provide an x86 to ARM emulation layer, enabling ARM Macs to run old Intel apps, much like Microsoft has done in the Windows-on-ARM versions of Windows. How many rough spots there will be over the course of the transition remains to be seen. While Apple will no longer be beholden to Intel’s chipset launch dates and update cycles, industry experts say there is one foreseeable potential drawback to the move; as a chip maker, Apple will have to keep up with demand for its chips and stay ahead of the curve in chip technology. Some insiders say they see no clear benefit for developers or users, but rather see the move by Apple as solely one of trying to boost profits. The tech giant is hoping to complete the transition in about two years.
