The switch had been announced for some time, now Apple is serious. The US group brings Mac computers with an in-house processor to the market for the first time. With this he breaks out of the well-worn track of the PC industry. And holds out the prospect of further innovations.
Apple has introduced its first Mac computers with chips from its own development instead of Intel processors. The new model of the Macbook Air will work significantly faster and also more energy-saving, the company promised at an online event at which it presented the new Mac devices. The battery can withstand 15 hours of surfing the web and 18 hours of video playback – and the laptop can do without a fan.
The Macbook Air is the most popular Apple computer. There is also a Macbook Pro and a Mac mini desktop calculator with the new Apple processor. The in-house chip with the designation M1 combines a main processor with eight cores and the graphics chip in one system. Apps would start much faster than before and even demanding programs would run more smoothly than before, emphasized software boss Craig Federighi.
The new Mac computers run on the new M1 chip.(Photo: picture alliance / dpa)
With the changeover, Apple is breaking out of the well-worn lane of the PC industry, which was previously dominated by Intel processors. At the same time, the group has the option of operating its entire range of models on one platform. Because the M1 chips are based on the architecture of the chip designer ARM, with which the iPhones and iPads also run. Mac programs that have not yet been adapted by their developers for the Apple chips are to be "translated" in real time. There are no performance restrictions, emphasizes Apple.
The switch had been announced for some time. On the iPhone and iPad, Apple managed to pack a lot of power into a small format through in-house chip developments. With the Mac, however, the company had to wait repeatedly for new processors from Intel. With the switch, the Silicon Valley group is betting that the stronger technological connection between iPhone and Mac will encourage app developers to work on applications that work on computers and smartphones. Federighi announced that Adobe would launch its Photoshop applications for M1 Macs early next year.
At the end of the event on Tuesday, Apple shares were up about 0.6 percent. The group promised further innovations for 2021.
. (tagsToTranslate) Technologie (t) Apple (t) Silicon Valley (t) Intel