“Apple silicon” is the name for the custom processors and chips designed by Apple. All of Apple’s core products, from the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, AirTag, HomePod and Vision Pro are powered by Apple silicon.
Apple introduced its first custom-designed chip, the A4 processor, in 2010. Subsequent chips powered iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and more. The term “Apple silicon” emerged in 2020 as Apple transitioned Macs from Intel to its own M-series chips, starting with the M1, now powering the entire Mac lineup.
Apple doesn’t just design processors, but other kinds of chips as well. The C1 modem handles cellular signals in the iPhone 16e; H-series chips power Bluetooth audio in AirPods; U-series chips add ultra-wideband features to iPhones, Apple Watches, HomePods, AirPods, and AirTags.
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Apple introduced its first custom-designed chip, the A4 processor, in 2010. It powered the original iPad and iPhone 4, and later, the iPod Touch (4th-gen.) and Apple TV (2nd gen.). Apple updated the chip every year since its introduction. The A7 chip was Apple’s first 64-bit processor.
The term “Apple silicon” was only coined when Apple transitioned the Mac from Intel processors to its own in 2020. Macs were introduced with M-series chips, starting with the M1. Apple silicon now powers the entire Mac lineup, from the MacBook Air to the Mac Pro, and everything in-between.
The S-series chips are a full system-in-a-package (SiP) that integrates the processor with memory, storage, wireless and more in a single piece. They power the Apple Watch and HomePod.
The R1 chip is an AR (augmented reality) processor made for the Apple Vision Pro. The R1 works alongside the M2 to process the input from all its camera and sensors to drive its low-latency passthrough video.
Apple also produces various chips for handling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular and other wireless signals:
The M1 was the first Apple silicon chip designed for the Mac. It was introduced on November 10, 2020 in three computers: the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini. The M1 would come later to the iMac — and even the iPad Pro and iPad Air.
Compared to the previous Intel Macs, it boasted a CPU that was up to 3.5 times faster, graphics that were up to 6 times faster and completed machine learning tasks up to a whopping 15 times faster. It supported up to 16 GB of unified memory. Because it shared an architecture, you could now run iPhone and iPad apps directly on the Mac.
Apple later introduced the M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra. These chips offered higher levels of performance and more unified memory. These chips were available in the MacBook Pro and Mac Studio.
In the M2 generation that followed, Apple diversified the Mac lineup further. The Pro chip was put in the Mac mini, and the Ultra chip was brought to the Mac Pro.
The M4 chip is Apple’s latest line of processors. It’s manufactured with a second-generation three-nanometer process, which allows for more transistors and power. The M4 was the biggest generational leap since the M1 originally switched from Intel.
It is currently offered in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, Mac mini and iMac. The M4 Pro is available in the MacBook Pro and Mac mini. The M4 Max is in the MacBook Pro and Mac Studio. Apple has not yet introduced an M4 Ultra.
Apple silicon is far more power and energy efficient than Intel processors. It has similar degrees of performance at just a fraction of the power. This directly correlates to longer battery life with less cooling necessary. This makes Apple silicon ideal for battery-operated devices, from AirPods to iPhones to MacBook Pros.
Apple silicon chips integrate the CPU (central processing unit), GPU (graphics processing unit), Neural Engine and other elements on the same die. RAM (memory) is integrated and shared between all parts of the chip. Intel processors typically do not have a powerful integrated GPU nor unified memory.
Apple silicon is based on the ARM architecture, which Apple had a hand in developing in the late 1980s. Intel processors use the Intel x86 architecture, which carries a lot of baggage as it’s a complex instruction set that maintains a lot of backwards compatibility.
Most Macs from late 2020 onwards are powered by an Apple silicon chip rather than an Intel chip. The last Intel Mac was discontinued in June 2023.
Apple began switching the Mac to Apple silicon in November 2020 with its low-end machines: the MacBook Air and entry-level MacBook Pro and Mac mini. Apple introduced the M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra over the next year and a half in higher-end Macs.
After the introduction of the Mac Studio in March 2022, the only Intel Macs still for sale were the Mac Pro and the higher-end Mac mini. Apple replaced both during the M2 generation, ending the transition in June 2023.
The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro both use Apple silicon. This allows them to run with incredible battery life. The M4 MacBook Pro has up to 24 hours of battery power. It also allows them to run cooler — the MacBook Air doesn’t have an internal fan at all.
Unlike with Intel Macs, where laptops wouldn’t perform as well as their desktop counterparts, Mac desktops and MacBook laptops now have virtually identical performance when they have the same chip. An M4 Pro in a MacBook will perform the same as an M4 Pro in a Mac mini.
The Mac Pro uses only the highest-end Ultra chip. This offers the most performance, most memory and most graphical power. It’s also the most expensive.
The Intel Mac Pro used to support additional graphics cards via its internal expansion slots, which the M-series chips no longer support. That means there’s little reason to buy the Mac Pro over the Mac Studio, which also has an Ultra chip inside, for much less money.
Rosetta 2 lets Macs run legacy Intel apps that haven’t been updated for the new architecture. It’s part of Apple’s strategy to make processor transitions seamless and invisible to the user. Developers can easily rebuild their apps for the new platform or create a “universal” app that runs on both, while legacy Intel apps will be translated in real time.
Apple has announced that macOS 26 Tahoe will be the last version of macOS to run on Intel Macs. Rosetta 2 will still be included in macOS 27, but will be discontinued (with a few exceptions) in macOS 28. That means that any old apps that haven’t been updated will not run starting with macOS 28.
Rosetta 2 will download automatically the first time you launch an Intel app on a Mac with an M-series chip. There’s nothing you have to do; allow it to download and it’ll just work.
After locking in a $5 billion investment from Nvidia and another $2 billion from SoftBank, Intel reportedly wants Apple as its next major backer.
Apple was once a long-time customer of Intel. However, it eventually shifted to its own in-house chips after Intel failed to innovate quickly enough.
The Apple N1 wireless chip is easy to overlook in the hoopla surrounding the new iPhone 17 series, but it’s an advancement in Apple’s drive to produce all its own silicon.
The new in-house chip handles Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more, and Apple says it’ll improve the performance of Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.
Two new HDMI adapters from Other World Computing (OWC) solve the external display limitations that have frustrated Apple Silicon Mac users since the M1 chip’s introduction, the company said Monday. The new OWC USB-C Quad HDMI 4K Adapter and redesigned OWC USB-C Dual HDMI 4K Adapter offer Mac owners a way to connect multiple external monitors without juggling multiple dongles.
“Whether you’re working with spreadsheets, streaming data, editing video or just need more screen real estate to stay productive, we believe your gear shouldn’t hold you back,” said Larry O’Connor, OWC’s founder and CEO. “With our new Quad and enhanced Dual HDMI adapters, we’re giving users the power to easily expand their visual workspace, without the complexity or cost of juggling multiple adapters or sacrificing performance.”
The upcoming macOS 26 Tahoe is the last upgrade that will be compatible with Macs running Intel processors, Apple revealed at WWDC on Monday. The company continued to make OS upgrades for computers running those chips many years after the release of the last one, but that’s coming to an end in 2026.
June 6, 2005: Steve Jobs reveals that Apple will switch the Mac from PowerPC processors to Intel.
Speaking at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Jobs’ revelation reminds the tech world that he is a leader who can get things done. Given Intel’s focus on mobile computing, the move also offers a hint at what Apple’s CEO has planned for the second half of his reign.
Apple is perceived as a laggard in the AI race — despite that, Apple has developed the single best computer for AI research. The new Mac Studio with an M3 Ultra chip, which supports up to 512GB of unified memory, is the easiest and cheapest way to run powerful, cutting-edge LLMs on your own hardware.
The latest DeepSeek v3 model, which sent shockwaves through the AI space for its comparable performance to ChatGPT, can run entirely on a single Mac, Apple AI researchers revealed Monday.
It’s a machine that fits comfortably on your desk, rather than a server farm; it costs the same as a used Honda Civic, not a new Lamborghini.
How did this happen? Most remarkably of all — by sheer coincidence. Here’s why the Apple silicon architecture makes for the best AI hardware, a use case Apple didn’t mean to design it for.
Apple unveiled the M3 Ultra chip as an option in the new MacStudio desktop Wednesday. As the company’s most powerful silicon chip to date, it brings unprecedented performance to pro users with demanding workflows. The other option in the new desktop machine is the M4 Max chip, which is actually less powerful than the M3 Ultra.
“M3 Ultra is the pinnacle of our scalable system-on-a-chip architecture, aimed specifically at users who run the most heavily threaded and bandwidth-intensive applications,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.
“Thanks to its 32-core CPU, massive GPU, support for the most unified memory ever in a personal computer, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and industry-leading power efficiency, there’s no other chip like M3 Ultra,” he added.
Apple unveiled a revised MacBook Air with an M4 chip inside Wednesday. It comes in a beautiful new sky blue color, at an even lower price point — with the same incredible 18 hours of battery life.
“MacBook Air is by far the world’s most popular laptop,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said in a press release, “and today we’re giving everyone even more reasons to love it, including a big boost in performance with the M4 chip, a new Center Stage camera, and a beautiful new sky blue color.”
The M4 MacBook Air starts at $999 and will become available on March 12.
The new Apple C1 modem that powers the cellular connectivity of the iPhone 16e is the company’s first cellular modem designed in-house.
The C1 offers “fast and reliable connectivity, and it’s the most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing, in a launch video released Wednesday. Thanks to its efficiency — and an optimized internal design that allows for a bigger battery — the iPhone 16e offers an “unprecedented level of battery life in a 6.1 inch iPhone,” she added.
The Apple C1 integrates 4G, 5G, satellite and GPS radios in one chip. The C1 represents a brand-new direction for Apple silicon, alongside the company’s processors and other wireless chips. Recent Ookla speed tests suggest that the C1 modem holds its own against the Qualcomm chip in the iPhone 16, as detailed in this comparison.
Early Geekbench 6 benchmarks show Apple’s new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips deliver major performance improvements for Macs. Most surprisingly, the M4 Pro chip outperforms even the previously top-tier M2 Ultra chip in multi-core performance, despite having fewer CPU cores. And the higher-end M4 Max proves even more impressive, of course.
So if you’re on the fence about upgrading to a Mac with either of these chips, these results should encourage you.
Apple unveiled the radically redesigned Mac mini on Tuesday, with versions powered by the M4 chip and a new M4 Pro chip. The smaller-than-ever desktop computer features a new design with convenient ports on the front and back, faster processing speeds and, for the first time, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity and a carbon neutral guarantee.
“The new Mac mini delivers gigantic performance in an unbelievably small design thanks to the power efficiency of Apple silicon and an innovative new thermal architecture,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release.
The faster Mac mini is available for preorder now, with a release date of November 8.
Mac Studio and Mac Pro models updated with an M3 Ultra processor that we expected to arrive soon reportedly have been canceled. Apparently, professional Mac users shouldn’t look out for new hardware with faster processors at WWDC24 in June. And the wait might actually stretch until next year’s WWDC25.
It seems Apple already moved on from its M3 series processors, so there are no new chips ready to go into these high-end desktops. However, if you’re interested in the M3 MacBook Pro, you can explore how it compares to other Macs in this in-depth Mac Studio vs. Mac Pro comparison.
Some Apple artificial intelligence services reportedly will depend on data centers with servers running on the company’s own processors. Less-demanding AI functions will run locally, on users’ own computers.
This is all apparently part of bringing more AI features to iPhone, Mac, iPad, etc., in the coming months.
Just seven months after the M3 chip debuted, Apple shocked expectations by unveiling the new iPad Pro with the introduction of the brand-new M4 chip. The M4 chip is built on second-generation three-nanometer technology that’s even more power efficient.
Tim Millet, Apple’s vice president of platform architecture and hardware technologies, says the M4 chip was “essential to deliver incredible performance” in the new iPad Pro, which is now “the most powerful device of its kind.”
The M4 chip was a last-minute rumor broken by Mark Gurman, which was dismissed by some as being unfeasible only half a year after M3 rolled out in last year’s MacBook Pro.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: A surprise leak about Apple M4 chips says they’ll come sooner than almost anybody suspected. But nobody’s shocked to hear that they will focus on bringing AI capabilities to Macs.
Plus, there’s news of Ferret-UI, a new Apple project designed to help AI understand how humans use iPhones. Apple’s definitely tin a rush to cash in on tech’s biggest buzzword!
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
Apple’s upcoming M3 Ultra chip won’t consist of two M3 Max processors merged together, according to information leaking out of Cupertino. The change from its predecessors would free up designers to make the next-gen Apple silicon even more powerful.
It even raises the possibility of an M3 Extreme, a workstation-level processor that would give the Mac Pro a reason to exist. With Apple continuing to push the boundaries of performance, the Apple M3 lineup is expected to redefine computing power—learn more about it in Apple’s unveiling of the M3 Ultra chip.
Security researchers have found a serious exploit in all Apple M-series processors. The hard-wired flaw could potentially could be used by hackers to get user credit card information or read encrypted messages.
The flaw exposes precious encryption keys, and it’s baked into the hardware — so it can’t easily be patched without a performance penalty. Here’s what you need to know.
Apple showed off its Apple silicon lab to media for the first time recently, allowing unusual access along with video interviews with executives about Cupertino’s major chipmaking strides in recent years, culminating in the current M3 series.
“One of the most, if not the most, profound change at Apple, certainly in our products over the last 20 years, is how we now do so many of those technologies in-house,” Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus said in one interview.
Apple silicon processors that TSMC makes at its Arizona plant will be packaged by Amkor at a nearby facility. This will save them from having to be shipped to Taiwan before going into iPhone, Mac, etc.
“Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we’ll continue to expand our investment here in the United States,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO. “Apple silicon has unlocked new levels of performance for our users, enabling them to do things they could never do before, and we are thrilled that Apple silicon will soon be produced and packaged in Arizona.”
All Apple computers run on chips based on technology licensed from Arm. And it turns out the licensing fee is surprisingly low. Pennies per device.
Apple is one of Arm’s most important customers, and the two have a relationship that goes back to the early 1990s. That’s turned into a sweet deal for the iPhone-maker.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Erfon breaks down the specs/performance of Apple’s recently released MacBook Pro lineup, and he’s convinced there are only two models any sane person would buy. Listen to found out which models make the grade!
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
Apple broke with tradition and unveiled the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max processors all at once on Monday, rather than stringing the releases out. The performance cores in the new chips are up to 30% faster than M1, and the efficiency cores are up to 50% faster.
“Apple silicon has completely redefined the Mac experience. Every aspect of its architecture is designed for performance and power efficiency,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s SVP of Hardware Technologies. “With 3-nanometer technology, a next-generation GPU architecture, a higher-performance CPU, faster Neural Engine, and support for even more unified memory, M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max are the most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer.”
Conditions over the past few years that led to robust sales of early Apple silicon Macs may not be there for 2024 MacBooks and iPads despite their advanced new 3nm chips, an analyst said Wednesday.
An anonymous tipster has bad news for the Mac Pro: Apple apparently has no plans to keep working on the scrapped chip that would have doubled the machine’s power. Development on Apple silicon is reportedly set all the way through the M5 generation.
There’s a beacon of hope, though. Multi-die packaging — technology being developed that could see the light of day around the M8 chip — eventually might give the Mac Pro the power it deserves. However, at Apple’s current pace, that’s at least six years away.
Apple reportedly began internal testing of Macs powered by next-generation M3 chips. At least one of the variants could feature a 12-core CPU, an 18-core GPU and 36GB of system memory.
The next-generation Apple silicon remains a few months away from release, however. Rumors suggest it could debut at the end of this year or early 2024.