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Tim Cook announces Mac transition to Apple Silicon ARM chips

The computing giant is unifying its product lines under a single architecture by dropping Intel parts from Macs.

Chris Jarrard

June 22, 2020 11:55 AM

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Among all the new announcements during the WWDC 2020 event today, one of the most interesting is the official confirmation that Apple is dropping Intel CPUs in their Mac desktops and laptops in favor of its own custom chips. During the presentation, the company repeatedly used Apple Silicon branding. It is expected that these new CPUs are built with the same ARM architecture that is the foundation for the company’s chips used in the iPhone and iPad product lines.

Several native MacOS applications were demonstrated running on the new Apple Silicon, including a 4K video editing project within Final Cut Pro. The presentation had a heavy focus on showing off the capabilities of the new chips with pro workloads. Customers who use Macs for work will likely be the most skeptical of the change away from Intel CPUs, so the demonstrations should help to assure such customers that the new Apple Silicon will be a viable choice when time is money.

Software developers were also catered to during the show as development tools were shown off that help accelerate the process of converting existing applications to the new architecture. Applications written for x86-based Macs will be up and running on the new Apple SIlicon in as little as a few days, according to the presentation. A new Developer Transition Kit that comes with 16GB of RAM, SSD, and a new A12Z SoC will be available soon to assist developers with the transition.

Tim Cook said that Mac hardware configured with the new Apple SIlicon would be available to buy by the end of this year. He also mentioned that there are some interesting new Intel-based Mac products still in the pipeline for release in the future, indicating that Apple may not be ready to make a clean break for their new chips just yet.

For more coverage of today's presentation, be sure to check out our WWDC hub page for all the biggest announcements and reveals.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.