The new Mac SoCs is generally built upon Apple’s experience in designing its own silicon for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch over the years. Aside from the performance and power consumption advantage that Apple expected to gain from its new family of SoCs for Mac, they could also make it easier for developers to create and optimize software for all Apple products in one go, given their common architecture.
In fact, the new Apple silicon will allow iOS and iPadOS apps to run on Mac without any modifications. For consumers, the starting pointing of this transition will be the new macOS Big Sur which is the next big release for the operating system coming later this year. While Apple did not reveal any in-depth details regarding the new SoCs for Mac, Tim Cook stated that it will take the company around two years to complete the transition. That being said, Apple does aim to launch the first Mac with the new SoCs by the end of the year.
In many ways, this move is a reminiscence of Mac’s transition to Intel from PowerPC back in 2005. However, this is not going to be an abrupt end to the relationship between both companies as Apple is still developing several new Intel-based Macs as we speak. Of course, Apple will also continue to support existing Intel-based Macs for the foreseeable future.
