Today, Apple unveiled its initial lineup of laptops utilizing Apple-designed Arm-based processors – the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro – alongside the introduction of its new family of Arm-based Apple Silicon chips. While the company initially announced Apple Silicon without extensive specifics, today’s presentation provided considerably more detail. The inaugural chip in this series is the M1, manufactured using a 5nm process.

According to Apple, “We have been developing Apple Silicon for over ten years. It powers the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, and now we are extending its reach to the Mac, enabling a substantial advancement in performance, incorporating custom technologies, and delivering industry-leading power efficiency.”

The M1 chip incorporates four cores optimized for high performance and four cores designed for high efficiency, aligning with the established standard for Arm processors.

Apple asserts that the M1 represents its most powerful chip to date, with the energy-efficient cores achieving comparable performance to the current Intel-powered dual-core MacBook Air. However, it’s important to note that the existing model isn’t known for exceptional performance. The high-performance cores, naturally, offer a significant speed increase.

Perhaps even more significantly, these chips demonstrate a superior performance-per-watt ratio compared to competing systems.

Regarding graphics processing, the M1 will be available with up to eight cores, comprising 128 execution units. It is capable of managing up to 24,576 simultaneous threads and achieving peak performance of 2.6 teraflops. Apple claims this establishes it as the fastest integrated graphics experience available in a laptop.

The chip will also integrate Apple’s Neural Engine to accelerate machine learning tasks.

Earlier this year, Apple distributed initial developer units powered by the A12Z chip, a variation of the A12 first featured in the 2020 iPad Pro. It appears Apple did not substantially alter the eight-core A12Z chip for its “Developer Transition Kit,” yet these kits still achieved performance levels comparable to an entry-level MacBook Air.

While Apple has tailored this chip design to its specific requirements, it’s worth recognizing that Arm has been actively developing an intellectual property portfolio of server and desktop/laptop-ready chips over the past several years. In the laptop market, Arm has seen some success, notably with Microsoft utilizing Arm for certain Surface devices, though it remains a relatively specialized segment. In the server sector, Arm has demonstrably provided its partners with the necessary designs to create chips that balance power and performance effectively.