Apple announces switch from Intel to its own silicon chip in future Macs

[PeteS in CA]

https://mashable.com/article/apple-switches-intel-chip-to-its-own-arm-processors-wwdc-2020/

Apple announces switch from Intel to its own silicon chip in future Macs

After endless rumors and speculation, Apple has finally announced it's switching from Intel processors to its own silicon at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference. The first Mac to include Apple's new in-house chip is expected to ship before the end of the year, with a full transition slated for sometime within the next two years.

Using its own processor, Apple assures the Mac will have a "whole new level of performance" with lower power consumption and better battery life. Essentially, the company will be building its own family of chipsets similar to what's already available for its iPhone and iPad. With the iPhone 11 lineup, the company built its Bionic A13 chip while the iPad Pro (2020) features the A12Z chipset.

The processor switch will establish what Apple calls "a common architecture across all Apple products," which will make it easier for developers to create and optimize apps for all of the company's products, including the iPhone and iPad.

Apparently, Apple has also been less than pleased with development hiccups on Intel's part. But that Apple is looking to switch to in-house developed processors has me wondering whether this is yet another evolutionary step in a process that has been going on for several decades in the computer world.

Up into the 1990s, various concompter companies - e.g. IBM, Tandem, HP - relied on in-house developed processors and proprietary OS's for their high-performance products. Then in the early 1990s, Unix and Unix variants (e.g. Sun Solaris) took over much of the proprietary OS marketplace. In the late 90s, "WIntel", as Scott McNealy like to call it (derogatorily, BTW) ate the Unix workstations' lunch, and in the early 00s, Apple converted over to Intel processors. Windows and Intel dominated the desktop and became strong in servers (which have largely displaced mainframes and super-minis).

After nearly two decades of Intel dominance, have phone and tablet processors become so powerful and capable that they are starting to eat at Intel's desktop dominance?

[catfish1957]

Strangely the Market is pretty much shrugging what appears to be bad news off. 

[Fishrrman]

I've been a Mac fan for 33 years, and an Apple // user before that, but this is one change from them to which I'm not looking forward.

In fact, last year I bought a 2018 Mac Mini so that I'd have a "recent" platform on which to keep using my older software for some years to come.

[Cyber Liberty]

Does this mean Apple has built or purchased a Fab?  Or are they doing the designing and then sending the fab work out to a Foundry?

[Elderberry]

I've never used an Apple product and all my PC builds have had AMD CPUs. My daughter is the only Apple user. My youngest did for a couple generations of Iphones, but he's switched to a Samsung Android.

[Elderberry]

Does this mean Apple has built or purchased a Fab?  Or are they doing the designing and then sending the fab work out to a Foundry?

https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=44846

Who’s going to fab the chips? Almost certainly TSMC, which has been fabbing iPhone chips since 2014, and which has lapped Intel in process technology.

Could Apple build their own fab? With a market cap of over 1.5 trillion and $192.8 billion cash on hand, they’re one of the few companies that could without making it a “bet your company” proposition.

But I don’t think they will.

[Cyber Liberty]

https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=44846

Who’s going to fab the chips? Almost certainly TSMC, which has been fabbing iPhone chips since 2014, and which has lapped Intel in process technology.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is a Foundry operation, and I can say they are a very good one.  I used to test their work product in the R&D Lab at Motorola/Freescale.  I am confident TSMC can produce the necessary nanometer geometries, with high yields, on 300mm wafers.  It's a smart move, better than Global Semi in NY's Hudson River Valley.  I probably could have gotten a job there, but I wasn't interested in moving into Cuomograd.  I retired instead.

Could Apple build their own fab? With a market cap of over 1.5 trillion and $192.8 billion cash on hand, they’re one of the few companies that could without making it a “bet your company” proposition.

But I don’t think they will.

There's "being wealthy" and "wealthy enough to drop Billions" to build one facility.  But worse, it takes a couple years to qualify a Fab no matter how much dinero is poured in.  They are a lot like oil refineries...you can't just slap them together and expect them to perform.

Somewhat tangentially related, I read a couple weeks ago TSMC wants to build a Fab in the Phoenix area.  There is a price tag I found:  USD12B.  This is an existing company, building an expansion (which is expected to be where the Apple chips will be made).  Starting from scratch could run several Billion more.