In 2020, with a MacBook Air model, the processor was launched M1, Apple’s first chip for its computers. As we know, the novelty represented significant gains in performance, as well as in terms of energy efficiency, given the long battery life of machines with the aforementioned SoCSystem on a chipor system on a chip.”>¹.

A report from The Independent took a dive into Apple’s lab in Munich (Germany), one of the company’s units dedicated to chips around the world. Some of the others are located in countries like Israelin addition to having product development sites in California itself (United States).

The vehicle points out that the very structure of the building looks like a big chip, with employees going to and from rooms constantly. Above, we can see a room designed to test interference between the iPhone’s mobile network connection chip and the device’s processor.

With regard to Apple Silicon, the milestone that the processors represented in terms of integration between hardware and software. For a company that has always valued this aspect so highly (historically in iPhones), achieving this capability on computers was a major achievement.

Furthermore, aspects such as unified memory architecture were very important to achieve greater energy efficiency, with less need for memory to perform tasks. In this way, it is possible to enable a longer battery life for Macs, which means fewer recharges and, to a greater extent, less demand for electrical energy.

Thus, Apple’s new processors end up being more ecological, as they require fewer recharges in the long term. Apple has the goal of zeroing its carbon footprint throughout the production and consumption chain; in 2021, 22% of the company’s footprint corresponded to the use of products by consumers.

This area related to products following they leave the shelves will undoubtedly be the one that will require the most from the company in order to reach the environmental goal, but the chips are already an important step, along with initiatives such as the Charging with Clean Energy feature.

Something interesting that might be inferred from the speeches of Doug Brooks — member of the company’s product marketing team — by The Independent is that Apple Silicon represented a kind of reorientation or reaffirmation in the company’s processor development logic. The idea is that it’s best to start with a mobile chip and then make it more powerful to get it into Macs.

As several generations of iPhones and iPads were released, we saw the incredible capabilities and performance they were offering — as well as innovation in other areas around other technologies that went to the forefront. [chip] — and we had a huge belief in where that might lead Mac. So we ventured into the Apple Silicon transition in 2020, which was really our moment to step up and take advantage of that.

He also brought interesting data: in 10 generations of iPhone, performance has advanced 100 timeswhile the graphics performance of the iPad, in 2020, was 1000 times more advanced than the first model.

In this way, the idea was to leverage this great firepower, increasing it even more, but maintaining the benefits, such as energy efficiency, which led the executive to say that the model has no disadvantages, being “the best line of Mac we ever had” — an unusual line for the company…

In any case, it is remarkable how Apple Silicon actually gave new life to Apple computers, with a unique performance that has been gaining improvements in the new generations. Along with this, we have a sensitive impact on the environment, an area of ​​such importance — especially today.

via AppleInsider