Apple is reportedly planning to replace the Intel chips it has been using in Mac computers for over a decade, with its own processors in MacBooks and iMacs.
Apple is in in the early stages of creating its own processors for the MacBook and iMac, which currently run on Intel chips, according to the sources of Bloomberg. Apple may have decided to make this move following a recent Spectre and Meltdown flaw reports that have affected chips of almost all major chip makers including Intel and ARM. The bug also affected Intel-powered Macs of Apple as the flaw was also been reported in the Intel’s X86 hardware, used in many old MacBooks.
Meanwhile, the process to replace Intel processors, codenamed Kalamata, is still in the early stages. Apple is likely to use a similar processor strategy it uses for its iPhone and iPad, which is already used in Apple-manufactured processors such as the A11 Bionic chip we have seen in the iPhone X.
According to an analyst of Cross Research, Shannon Cross,
“We think that Apple is looking at ways to further integrate their hardware and software platforms, and they’ve clearly made some moves in this space, trying to integrate iOS and macOS.”
It must be noted that none of the companies have officially affirmed the development, however, an Intel’s spokesperson was quoted as saying, “We don’t comment on speculation about our customers.”
Should this happen, Apple would be able to quickly bring new features to all of its products and will stand way ahead of the competition. As most of the PC makers including Dell, HP, and even Lenovo uses Intel chips in their desktop products.
Intel has dominated computing processors for more than a decade, taking major market share in this domain. Not anymore, as Samsung has outranked Intel to become the world’s largest chipmaker by revenue.
