Thunder And Lightning Strike Again
It seems like just last week when Google announced they would be moving to a custom 5nm ARM based chip from Samsung for some, if not all of their upcoming Pixel products. That is relevant to recall as today Apple has announced an intention to move at least a few new Mac systems to their own custom chip, though sourced from TSMC. It will be a new incarnation of the A13 Bionic used in the iPhone 11 family, as well as the second incarnation of the iPhone SE.
According to the story at Slashdot, at least one Mac will use a Kalamata chip but there are rumours that there will be multiple systems following shortly. The first processor will have eight high-performance Firestorm cores, and at least four energy-efficient IceStorm cores which follows the design of their current custom ARM mobile processors. They are being cagey about the graphics portion, so it cannot be said with any confidence if they will upscale the current custom GPU they use in phones or if they will continue to use AMD GPUs.
Regardless, it does mean they are starting to move away from Intel, who have been providing their chips ever since Apple stopped designing it’s own chips as they did many, many moons ago.
The Cupertino, California-based technology giant is working on three of its own Mac processors, known as systems-on-a-chip, based on the A14 processor in the next iPhone. The first of these will be much faster than the processors in the iPhone and iPad, the people said. Apple is preparing to release at least one Mac with its own chip next year, according to the people.
More Tech News From Around The Web
- Amazon Scooped Up Data From Its Own Sellers To Launch Competing Products @ Slashdot
- After intense scrutiny, Zoom tightens up security with version 5. New features include not, er, spilling video calls to network snoops @ The Register
- 3D-Printed COVID Stuff That’s Not Face Shields Or Ventilators @ Hackaday
- Microsoft 365 invites users to ‘Ask Me Anything’ – as long as it doesn’t require a clued-up exec to deliver clear answers @ The Register
- Valve confirms code leak for two online games @ Ars Technica
- Attack of the clones: If you were relying on older Xilinx FPGAs to keep your product’s hardware code encrypted and secret, here’s some bad news @ The Register
- Limiting Factor Submersible Is In A League Of Its Own @ Hackaday
“…… Intel, who have been providing their chips ever since Apple stopped designing it’s own chips as they did many, many moons ago.”
Now call me crazy, and I suppose I could just google this instead of asking, but wasn’t there a time when Apple used custom Power CPUs designed by IBM? If memory serves it was just for that short Gen between the classic Mac and the I-MAC? I’m probably mixing up memorys, it’s been decades afterall.
I was trying to think of a way to work that in, along with a Newton joke but it never gelled.
HA