Even though Apple has only been using Intel chips on their Mac lineup since 2005, they may be switching to ARM chips sooner rather than later. Why? Bloomberg has reported that Apple’s engineers are confident that the ARM chips they use today in their iOS devices will soon be powerful enough to power the entire Mac lineup. Bloomberg was supposedly tipped by three Apple engineers; however, the engineers asked to remain anonymous so that they don’t lose their jobs.
If you’re unaware, Apple switched to Intel chips from PowerPC in 2005 after they said that PowerPC chips were too power hungry to make efficient and powerful CPUs. Part of the reason they may be looking into moving away from Intel chips is the fact that Intel chips are hard to make fit into extremely small devices. However, ARM chips can be custom made to fit almost any situation, this is why they’re used to power today’s iOS devices.
What would this decision mean for Intel? Most of the mobile phone and tablet market is based on ARM chips, and if they are slowly losing the computer market as well, this could mean huge losses for them in the coming years.
