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For a long time now, Apple has stood alone among major computer and smartphone manufacturers

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in using their own operating systems developed in-house rather than licensing Windows or Android.

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So it's probably not super surprising that they've recently announced

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they're going to start using their own processors in iMacs and MacBooks.

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But after using Intel chips for the past 15 years, why are they making this change

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and what exactly can we expect from Apple's attempt to strike out on their own?

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To answer, let's first look at a bit of Apple's history,

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because this isn't the first time they've gone against the grain

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in terms of what kind of silicon lies at the heart of their computers.

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Prior to 2005, Apple used a series of processors branded as PowerPC,

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which was a non-x86 architecture that arose from a joint venture between Apple,

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IBM, and Motorola as a way to counter the dominance of Intel-based PCs running Windows.

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However, Apple made the switch to Intel because it was becoming difficult for IBM and Motorola

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to manufacture chips that could compete with Intel in terms of performance.

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And of course, a lot of this came down to cost.

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You see, unlike Intel, who was primarily in the business of chip making

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and could crank out tons of CPUs, very cost-effectively,

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Motorola and IBM had lots of other operations and simply couldn't operate their chip making

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at the same scale as Intel. Then you had the fact that Apple didn't control as much of the home computer market,

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and IBM and Motorola didn't want to keep pouring money into making processors for a computer

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manufacturer that was still dwarfed by companies making wind-tell machines.

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This is especially true, given that Apple was dividing up the money they were spending on CPUs

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between the two companies, hurting both IBM and Motorola's bottom lines even more.

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Ironically, cost is once again a big factor in Apple's decision to transition away from Intel

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and put its own processors inside its PCs.

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One analyst estimates that Apple could save between $100 and $150

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for every system they build with one of their own CPUs.

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Although, given Apple's track record, I wouldn't necessarily expect them to pass the savings along

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to their fans. Of course, though, there are many other considerations that would have gone into this decision.

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One is that Apple was reportedly unhappy with Intel's quality control for some time,

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but even aside from that, Apple also seems to believe that they can save significantly

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on power consumption. Now, Intel obviously does have CPUs built for very low-power applications,

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such as their Y-Series that go into laptops designed for long battery life.

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But the ARM architecture in Apple's chips could lead to even greater power savings.

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Unlike Intel's x86 architecture, ARM is an example of a reduced instruction set or

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risk architecture, meaning that CPU instructions are intended to be executed

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in just one cycle, as opposed to over multiple cycles.

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Oftentimes, the result of using risk is greater power efficiency,

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meaning that ARM chips have been used extensively in tablets, smartphones, and even smart watches,

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which need to extend their battery life as much as possible.

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But don't think that low power consumption automatically means lower performance.

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That old PowerPC architecture that we mentioned earlier, that Apple used in its older desktops

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and laptops, those were actually risk chips as well, and there are even supercomputers

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that use risk. Not to mention that even Intel's modern x86 processors

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have elements of risk computing baked into them. But it was hard not to notice that Apple's announcement at WWDC

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was rather short on specific details about performance.

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While it is true that the A13 ARM chips found in the iPhone 11 series

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are significantly ahead of competing mobile products from Qualcomm,

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it isn't quite clear yet how Apple's new silicon will fare against Intel

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in a desktop or laptop environment. Regardless, the new chips will at the very least allow both iOS apps and macOS programs

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to natively run side-by-side on the same machine,

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making things easier not only for your average home user,

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but also for developers who will no longer have to code for two different platforms.

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Apple's also providing tools to developers to port their x86 applications over to the new Macs,

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though it remains to be seen how much performance will or won't suffer,

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especially for programs that will need emulation for the time being,

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which introduces inherent performance overhead as it translates from x86 to ARM.

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So it looks like we'll have to be patient in order to find out exactly how Apple's

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homemade chips stack up to the competition, as they still apparently have plans to release new Intel-based Macs

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for two more years before switching over to their own silicon completely.

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In any case, the longer battery life will be welcome,

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as will being able to swipe through Tinder without having to open a web browser.

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John Scripps, they've always got those Tinder references.

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