In April, there were reports on the web suggesting that Apple is working on a new Macbook laptop that will use the proprietary ARM processor instead of Intel units. In June, during the WWDC conference, the company actually confirmed its work on the first proprietary ARM chip. As a result, Macbook laptops and Mac computers will gradually move away from Intel processors in favor of their own units over the next two years. In June, the manufacturer revealed the name of ARM – Apple Silicon, meanwhile during today’s conference “One more thing …” the American giant showed the first ARM processor called M1. It will power Macbook Air and Macbook Pro laptops 13, as well as a miniature Mac Mini computer.

During today’s conference, Apple presented its proprietary ARM M1 processor and devices powered by the Macbook Air, Macbook Pro 13 and Apple mac Mini.

The heart of the new Apple Macbook Air and Apple Macbook Pro laptops 13 as well as the Mac Mini will be the first proprietary ARM M1 processor. Equipped with 8 physical cores, 4 of which will be highly efficient and the remaining 4 will be energy efficient. The manufacturer boasts primarily single-threaded performance – this is to be the most efficient on the market, beating Intel or AMD products. The entire ARM M1 chip has 16 billions of transistors. According to Apple, the new layout will be great for tasks related to editing photos or videos, as well as for developers when creating applications in the macOS environment. Four high-performance cores are also to offer high multi-threaded performance with low power consumption. A Macbook Air laptop was used for comparison, the four cores in the M1 chip are to offer noticeably higher performance compared to Intel Ice Lake-Y processors, with a lower energy consumption.

Apple also boasts that it uses an integrated graphics chip with a maximum of 8 cores (supporting up to 25 thousands of threads) will be the most efficient iGPU among all processors available on the market. The new GPU handles extremely demanding tasks with ease, from smoothly playing multiple 4K video streams to rendering complex 3D scenes. The manufacturer declares the processing capacity FP 32 at the level of 2.6 TFLOPS. For comparison, Intel Iris Xe Graphics in the most powerful configuration has a power of 2, 07 TFLOPS. The entire ARM Apple M1 chip uses TSMC’s 5nm process technology. Macbook laptops will therefore be the first portable computers to use such advanced lithography. The processor also has a unified memory architecture, appropriate engines for handling multimedia content, hardware support for machine learning and the Thunderbolt 4 controller. Until now, TB4 was reserved for Intel Tiger Lake processors, but the interface will now also be used by the ARM M1 chip.

Lower power consumption of M1 processors is expected to have a significant impact on battery life new Macbook Air and Macbook Pro laptops 13. In the case of the cheaper Air model, the maximum working hours are 18, away from wall outlet (lithium polymer battery with a capacity of 49, 9 Wh). In the more expensive Macbook Pro 13 it will be “to 20 hours “(battery capacity 58, 2 Wh). Both laptops will be equipped with USB 4 connectors with support for the Thunderbolt 4 interface. There will be 30 GB of RAM (speed not given) and M.2 SSD drive with capacity from 256 GB up to 2 TB. Both Macbook Air and Macbook Pro 13 will receive a Retina screen ( IPS) with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels.

The Mac Mini will also be refreshed with the same Apple M1 ARM processor. Like laptops, it will have up to 16 GB of Unified RAM, a single M.2 SSD with a capacity of 256 GB up to 2 TB and a USB 4 port with support for the Thunderbolt controller 4 up to 40 Gb / s. In the case of laptops, the set will include a power adapter with a USB type C end of the power 30 The computer will only receive a power cord as the power supply is already built into the machine. The prices of Apple Mac Mini start from 3699 PLN, Macbook Air from 5199 PLN, while the Macbook Pro 13 from 6699 PLN. All devices are based on macOS Big Sur.

Source: Apple