Up to three Macs coming with T-series security chips, shift to Apple CPU inevitable
Over the years, Apple has amassed personnel and materials to become a chip design juggernaut, with a new report claiming that Apple is including the T-series chip in forthcoming Mac models including a laptop refresh and a new desktop model, and has its eyes on replacing Intel as the supplier of the Mac CPU.
In an account published by Bloomberg on Monday, the push started in 2008 when Apple bought chip manufacturer P.A. Semi. The acquisition led to the design of the A4 processor, popularized in the original iPad released in 2010.
However, just the purchase of P.A. Semi wasn't enough to kickstart Apple's ambitions in the space. Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji also joined Apple in 2008, and his leadership not just in Cupertino, but also in Herzliya, Israel has led the way.
Apple has custom silicon in most of its products released over the last two years. The AirPods and some Beats models have the W1 wireless chip. The W2 is in the new Apple Watch, with the S-series chip used as a System in a Package (SiP) since the creation of the device.
The iPhone and iPad continue the run of Apple-designed processors, with the 2017 iPhone 8 family and iPhone X sporting the A11 Bionic processor.
Even the last two Mac models released have Apple-designed chips controlling security and other functions. The MacBook Pro refresh has the T1 chip to control the Touch Bar and Touch ID, with the iMac Pro amping up what is controlled with the T2 chip managing nearly every aspect of the boot process, security of the microphone and camera, amongst other functions. Apple's iMac 5K and iMac 4K refreshes at the 2017 WWDC did not include a T-series processor.
Bloomberg claims that there are "at least three" updated Mac models with custom co-processors coming as soon as this year, including updated laptops and a new desktop according to "a person familiar with the plan. Bloomberg also believes that "it's just a matter of time" before Apple silicon is used as a processor in a Mac, supplanting Intel for the first time in over a decade.
In an account published by Bloomberg on Monday, the push started in 2008 when Apple bought chip manufacturer P.A. Semi. The acquisition led to the design of the A4 processor, popularized in the original iPad released in 2010.
However, just the purchase of P.A. Semi wasn't enough to kickstart Apple's ambitions in the space. Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji also joined Apple in 2008, and his leadership not just in Cupertino, but also in Herzliya, Israel has led the way.
Apple has custom silicon in most of its products released over the last two years. The AirPods and some Beats models have the W1 wireless chip. The W2 is in the new Apple Watch, with the S-series chip used as a System in a Package (SiP) since the creation of the device.
The iPhone and iPad continue the run of Apple-designed processors, with the 2017 iPhone 8 family and iPhone X sporting the A11 Bionic processor.
Even the last two Mac models released have Apple-designed chips controlling security and other functions. The MacBook Pro refresh has the T1 chip to control the Touch Bar and Touch ID, with the iMac Pro amping up what is controlled with the T2 chip managing nearly every aspect of the boot process, security of the microphone and camera, amongst other functions. Apple's iMac 5K and iMac 4K refreshes at the 2017 WWDC did not include a T-series processor.
Bloomberg claims that there are "at least three" updated Mac models with custom co-processors coming as soon as this year, including updated laptops and a new desktop according to "a person familiar with the plan. Bloomberg also believes that "it's just a matter of time" before Apple silicon is used as a processor in a Mac, supplanting Intel for the first time in over a decade.
Comments
At least with a current Mac, you have the option of switching to Linux, once your hardware is old enough that Apple no longer provides security updates.
When Apple moved to Intel years ago, the Intel compatibility (for Windows) was a selling point (for businesses) for Mac hardware, but I doubt it is as big a selling point NOW vs. THEN. I'm sure Apple know their audience, so maybe Apply may shed Intel compatibility when they think the time is right, even if it leaves a few people stranded.
As more applications move to the cloud, the OS becomes less of a feature/differentiator.
Wintel isn't dying of natural causes fast enough; it needs an accelerator.
You do however bring up a great point and one that I think will happen sooner, rather than later. I still predict Apple will have a Mac of some sort (Mac mini) with an Apple CPU in it.
Haha...Apple Watch with a camera? LOL! If there's one thing I hope NEVER comes to Apple Watch, its a damn camera. I don't need cameras all around me 24/7/365. Doing FaceTime on a small screen would be such a poor experience. I can't see how Apple would ever even make this a good experience.
First, Apple's usual plan in acquisitions is to have the acquired company's technology appear in Apple's products exclusively. They have even gone through the trouble of severing existing customer relationships (P.A. Semi and the US Government, the israeli company that invented the Touch ID technology and their customers, etc). For AMD, even though they are a fraction of the size of Intel's sales, they are considered to be the main competition with Intel around the world. Apple probably wouldn't be comfortable for their business model getting into the x64 general purpose chip business. And then there's the graphics card market which the market depends on an alternative to Nvidia.
And frankly, given the experience Apple has with microprocessor design, I think everyone knows they could do a x64 chip. The question is whether the scale works. While Apple is Intel's fifth largest customer, Apple benefits from Intel's other customers subsidizing the effort to get those chips in their machines. If Apple can make a chip family that can be made at a low enough cost to deal with the scale of Macs these chips would go in, then it could work. Of course, it may not make a lot of sense to make a Xeon capable chip for the Pro models which would leave Apple coming back to Intel. But if Apple is not buying Intel chips for the main product line anymore, they wouldn't benefit on best pricing from Intel, which would raise the cost/lower the margins of those machines.
One of the great thing about T2 is how it has integrated SSD Controller, so Apple could standardize parts across all Mac. And it is likely WiFi and Bluetooth will be integrated as well. That is $40 - $50 BOM cost saved.... likely being spent in other parts of the Mac.
I dont think it make sense for Apple to build its own x86 chip across the range of TDP in Macs, scaling from 10W to 150W. It makes much more sense for Apple to have their GPU used on the Desktop as well. Since scaling GPU across TDP is much much easier. But then it is hard to imagine Apple writing their Windows drivers for GPU. One possible way is that the GPU is only usable on macOS. On Windows you are stuck with Intel's iGPU.
https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/203235/apple-details-imac-pros-t2-chip-which-handles-secure-boot-system-management-isp-more/p1
The gist is that the T2 chip is not specifically targeting Hackintoshes at all, although they will be a casualty. Hackintoshes are a rounding error to Apple (to quote Ballmer).
See Ksec's post above (second paragraph).