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Apple promotional photo of the M1: the first of its kind
Photo: APPLE INC / HANDOUT / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
From the outside, you can't see how new the new MacBooks Apple unveiled on Tuesday, because they look just like their predecessors.
There should be practical and psychological reasons for this.
On the one hand, sources of error in production can be excluded in this way.
On the other hand, it signals continuity to buyers.
"That won't be so bad with the new chip if the computer still looks the same as it did before," may be the thought that one wants to plant in interested parties.
Nothing is as it was under the lid made of recycled aluminum.
Because instead of the Intel processors that Apple implanted in its computer for a decade and a half, there is now something completely different from the drive.
Apple calls the chip M1 to differentiate it from the A14 chips found in iPhones and iPads.
The M1 and A14 have a lot in common, especially the fact that they are based on technology from ARM, which has been supplying the blueprints for the chips that are in the vast majority of smartphones for many years.
To speak of the new Macs as ARM Macs would still be wrong.
ARM technology is also in the M1, but only a small part.
Because Apple did not license the actual processor design from ARM, only the instruction set that the chips use, basically software.
However, Apple has been developing the processors on which this software runs itself for years - and doing many things differently from the competition.
Apple's chips are not just processors, but so-called SoCs, systems on chip.
In addition to a certain number of processor cores, which differ from one another in terms of their performance and energy consumption, there is also a graphics processor, the so-called neural engine for machine learning, working memory and a number of other circuits that specialize in certain tasks.
Which tasks are, is determined in consultation with the programmers who develop Apple's operating systems and programs.
No more detours
This deep integration of hardware and software is also the secret to the amazing increase in performance and endurance that Apple promises for the first devices equipped with the M1.
There is talk of up to ten hours more battery life and three and a half times more power.
This should be made possible, for example, because the main memory of the M1 is not located on separate memory modules, as is usually the case, but in the chip itself. For example, graphics data do not have to be moved from the main memory to the graphics memory in order to be processed by the graphics chip, but can be done by the graphics department and processor can be used alternately without detours, which saves time and thus brings performance.
The price for this, however, is considerable.
If you order one of the new MacBooks with 16 instead of the standard eight gigabytes of RAM, you have to pay 224 euros to double the memory, 28 euros per gigabyte.
Retrofit memory modules are available for Windows notebooks in the accessories trade at prices around four euros per gigabyte.
But this path is impossible with the new Apple computers.
The performance depends on the fan
In contrast to its computers with Intel processors, Apple does not specify a clock frequency for the M1 chips.
Instead, the company wants to focus on the "performance per watt" metric.
Almost all of the same M1 chips are built into the new MacBooks and Mac Mini, but they are capable of different performances.
The difference is the cooling.
In the fanless and therefore silent MacBook Air, the M1 reaches its thermal limits under prolonged high loads and reduces its speed in order not to overheat.
In the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini, on the other hand, small fans blow the waste heat from the chip out of the case, which is why it can run longer at full throttle, i.e. at a high clock frequency, which is important when editing video.
Less brings in more
With the switch to Apple Silicon, Apple is also throwing various additional chips, such as external graphics processors and its own T2 security chip, overboard.
Fewer additional chips mean that the motherboards become simpler and smaller, the number of components is reduced, and thus the production becomes simpler and cheaper.
At this point, the shareholders are also happy about the new technology, because it brings in higher profit margins and thus fat dividends.
Much more important than a few extra dollars in dividends in the long run will be how the move to Apple Silicon will transform Apple's ecosystem.
Just as iPhone users can already use iPhone apps - sometimes a bit cumbersome - on an iPad, in future they will also use them on Macs - at least in theory.
As a result, the boundaries between the devices are at least further softened and whoever gets involved is drawn deeper into Apple's golden cage.
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Apple's head of chip development, Johny Srouji, at the presentation of the M1 chip
Photo: - / dpa
There's something else to come
It will be really interesting when Apple has made the switch to Apple Silicon in around two years.
Only then will the group break away from its established designs and try out new shapes.
On the basis of an integrated chip - then it could already be the M3 - even thinner notebooks and smaller PCs would be conceivable.
Above all, however, new functions and capabilities that would not be possible with a computer based on conventional components.
This is exactly what Apple has done with Face ID, for example, on the iPhone.
What kind of technology this could be for Apple's Macs remains pure speculation for the time being.
One can assume for certain that in some laboratory, deep in Apple's headquarters, various such possibilities are already being worked on.
The company with the apple logo always needs a lot of time for such new developments.
In contrast, the competition does not need that much time to adapt such an idea for itself.
One candidate who is well on the way to developing the necessary skills is Huawei.
According to rumors, the company is currently trying to set up its own chip production because it no longer has access to chips with US technology due to US sanctions.
The group has its own operating system, Harmony OS, almost ready for operation.
In a few years, with this combination, the Chinese could be able to create as integrated a system as Apple has just envisioned.
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