Since November 2020, Apple has revealed and introduced Apple Silicon chips from the M1 chip in the 2020Â MacBook Pro to the M1 Pro & M1 Max SoCs in the revamped 2021 MacBook Pros. This is all part of the Cupertino-based giant transition from Intel chips to custom-made ARM chips, and now according to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the Mac transition is about to end sooner than later.
Apple Silicon Transition Could End Soon
In Gurman’s latest addition to his Power On newsletter, he adds more info regarding Apple’s launch of numerous Mac products for this year, these include an upgraded Mac mini, a new iMac Pro, and an Apple Silicon-powered Mac Pro:
“The company has a bevy of new pro Macs in the works based on the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips that are already inside the MacBook Pro. That includes a smaller Mac Pro with up to 40 CPU cores and 128 graphics cores, a new Mac mini, and a large-screened iMac Pro. I’d expect Apple to finish its transition to its own silicon from Intel chips as early as June at WWDC 2022.”
Back in December, Gurman reported that Apple will launch five new Mac products for 2022, including a new entry-level MacBook Pro. And if all of them feature Apple Silicon chips, then the Apple Silicon transition will see its end this year.
MacBook Air & M2 Chip
Gurman also noted the rumored M2 chip stating that it is a “similar leap to those that Apple makes annually on the iPhone”, in addition to the upcoming MacBook Air that will adopt the M2 chip saying that it will feature the “biggest redesign in the product’s history”:
“From what I’m hearing, the M2 will be a marginally faster version of the M1 chip from late 2020. I’d expect the same overall CPU core count””four high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores””but a bit of a stronger GPU. That likely means nine or 10 GPU cores, an upgrade from the current seven or eight graphics core options on the M1. I’d look at the jump from the M1 to the M2 as a similar leap to those that Apple makes annually on the iPhone.”
If Gurman’s reports are indeed true, 2022 would be seen as a bigger sequel to the Unleashed October event where Apple revealed the long-awaited MacBook Pros with many returning features ”“ making 2022 a Mac-centric year for Apple ”“, and the end of the transition of Apple Silicon, the Cupertino-based giant will give consumers the final and complete lineup of ARM-based Macs.
Finally, another report by the Taiwanese Commercial Times states that Apple will debut new silicon chips every 18 months, which could make the “M” lineup of SoCs look more like the iPhone’s “A” lineup of SoCs.
