Back in June 2020, Apple announced it was transitioning the Mac to what it broadly referred to at the time as “Apple silicon”. Instead of Macs containing chips made by Intel or another third party, Apple itself would create the hardware. In November that same year, we saw the first iteration of this — the M1 chip.
Apple has always insisted the move away from previous provider Intel would allow it to make more rapid progress in improving the Macs.
“There has never been a chip like M1, our breakthrough SoC for the Mac. It builds on more than a decade of designing industry–leading chips for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and ushers in a whole new era for the Mac,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, upon the release of the M1. Generally, this has proved to be correct.
Intel itself was rather taken aback by the release of Apple silicon.
