Consumer technology giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has revealed its first Mac computers with a main processor designed in-house by the iPhone maker.
The new Mac computers represent Apple’s efforts to transition away from Intel Corp. microchips. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant announced a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini, each powered by new Apple “M1 processors” at its virtual “One More Thing” event.
The company said its new M1 chips enable improved power efficiency and better battery life in Apple’s laptops, faster graphics and application speeds, speedier processing for machine learning tasks and better security. Apple said the new MacBook Air’s battery will last up to 18 hours, while the MacBook Pro will last as long as 20 hours.
In terms of costs, the Mac mini starts at $699 U.S., a $100 U.S. price drop. The starting prices of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro stay the same at $999 U.S. and $1,299 U.S. respectively.
The M1 system-on-a-chip has an 8-core central processing unit, combining four high-power and four high-efficiency cores, Apple said.
The microchips also have an 8-core graphics processing unit, which powers video games and other graphics-heavy applications. The company said it is the highest-performance chip it has made to date.
Apple said in June that the final switch from Intel will take two years. When announcing the transition, Apple said the move would provide a common architecture across all of its devices. That means future iPhones, Macs, iPads and Apple Watches will run a variation of the same microchip. That will allow devices to work together better and let iPhone apps run on Macs for the first time.
The partnership between Apple and Intel started in 2005, when the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs outlined a move away from PowerPC processors. Intel helped Apple catch up to Windows computers, some of which were more powerful at that time. Apple develops its new M1 microchips based on designs from Arm Ltd.