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Apple may ditch Intel in favor of ARM-based Macs using its own custom chips

By Kenny Yeo - on 15 Jan 2015, 11:32am

Apple may ditch Intel in favor of ARM-based Macs using its own custom chips

Source: Droid Valley.

According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo, who has a history of providing accurate information of Apple's plans based on supply chain information, Apple may ditch Intel in favor of its own custom A-series chips to make ARM-based Macs.

It may sound farfetched, but Apple has never been shy to do what it thinks needs to be done. And there has been rumors that Apple already has a completely working version of OS X in ARM and also several prototype machines running its A-series processors in place.

There are several reasons why Apple may choose to ditch Intel for its own processors. To begin, its custom A-series chips are powerful and switching to its own silicon would reduce its reliance on Intel. This would also give Apple better control of the launch timing of Macs. Furthermore, if this comes to pass, it would not be the first time Apple made such a drastic CPU architecture change. Remember, Apple only made the jump to Intel x86 processors in 2006 - before that, Macs were powered by PowerPC processors.

However, there are also others who are skeptical that Apple would make such a change. Software compatibility would be a huge, huge issue. Additionally, Intel has made significant improvements in terms of performance and efficiency, that cannot be matched unless Apple significantly ramps up the clock speeds of its A-series' processors, by which point it loses much of its power efficiency.

But the point that arguably makes the most sense is that without its own foundry, in switching to ARM-based Macs, Apple would effectively only be swapping its reliance on Intel and replacing it with increased dependence on Samsung and TSMC, its main suppliers for its A-series processors.

Source: AppleInsider

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