Ending the 15 Year Old Partnership Apple Shifts Mac to Apple Silicon

Apple makes a historic move by breaking up with Intel and shifting Mac to Apple Silicon. Read on to know the details.

Putting an end to the 15-year-old partnership with Intel, in the live-streamed developer conference, Apple finally announced the shift of Mac to its silicon. In the words of Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, “From the beginning, the Mac has always embraced big changes to stay at the forefront of personal computing. Today we’re announcing our transition to Apple silicon, making this a historic day for the Mac. With its powerful features and industry-leading performance, Apple silicon will make the Mac stronger and more capable than ever. I’ve never been more excited about the future of the Mac.”

However, the shift from Intel to Apple’s custom chips will take place gradually as still, a few enticing Intel-based Macs are awaiting release. Moreover, the tech giant has ensured that it will continue to roll out updates and support for the macOS based on Intel. According to Apple, the complete shift from Intel to Apple Silicon in Mac will take almost two years. To begin the transition, Apple is planning to launch the first native chipset based Mac by the year’s end. 

The big tech company is striving hard to make the shift as smooth as possible for both developers and users. Thus, it also introduced macOS Big Sur, the next major macOS release. Here’s what it has to offer. 

What macOS Big Sur has in Store for Users and Developers

In an attempt to make the transition to Apple Silicon as seamless as possible for both developers and users, the tech company is all set to launch macOS Big Sur. It has everything integrated into Xcode 12 to make it easy for developers to get their apps running on the all-new Macs powered by Apple’s chipset. For instance, it has built-in compilers, editors, and debugging tools to assist the developers in the transition process. 

It is not all, and with the Universal 2 application binaries, developers will be able to come up with a single application that combines Mac’s power and performance with the Apple silicon. And, the best part is that the Intel-based Macs will still be supported. Moreover, with the help of this new release from Apple, the developers can smoothly shift their iOS and iPad applications to the Mac without making any modifications. 

For the users, macOS Big Sur comes with Rosetta 2 so that they can run their Mac apps both with and without plug-ins even if they have not updated them. 

Another move of Apple to shift the Mac to Apple Silicon is the launch of a Universal App Quick Start Programme. The program aims at making the transition to Apple Silicon-based Mac as trouble-free as it can be. Below are the complete details about this initiative from the company. 

Universal App Quick Start Program to make the transition effortless for developers

Under the Universal App Quick Start Program Apple provides the required assistance to developers in the form of documentation, forums support, macOS Big Sur’s beta version, Xcode 12, and DTK. The DTK will comprise of a Mac mini with Apple’s A12Z Bionic SoC inside and desktop specs, having 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. It also has a multitude of Mac I/O ports. However, there are certain restrictions on the use of DTK, and it must be sent back to Apple after the program ends. 

To apply for the program, you can visit here. 

Now, a question that pops up is why to shift to Apple Silicon. We dived into the details to find the answers. Below is what makes the Apple Silicon powered Macs a better choice than the earlier ones. 

What does the Apple Silicon-based Mac offer

Apple offers unmatched features and top-notch performance through the soon to come Apple chipset based Mac. Here’s all that you get through it. 

• A single architecture for all Apple platforms, i.e., iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch that makes all of them the best.
• Low power consumption and high-performing GPU to design and play games with the high graphic requirement.
• An opportunity to explore machine learning via technologies like the Neural Engine.
• It offers better performance to users and effortless software development and optimization to developers. 

Are you now excited to get your hands on Apple Silicon Mac? If yes, then stay tuned with us. We will be back soon with more details on its launch. Also, keep reading Innovana Blog for the latest Apple updates and releases from the tech giant.