As usual, even in the most remote media it is possible to find a news that speaks of Apple that has presented the computers with its new chip.
The vast majority will read it with the same interest that El Corte Inglés decided to change its management system could cause them. Few will know that the news is more like that that Coca Cola has decided to change the formula of its syrup.
Because what Apple is looking for with the creation of the M1, the next generation of System on a chip (SoC) it has developed, is that its computers are the most powerful in the world.
If you have paid attention to the technical details of the iPhone, you will know that, year after year, the power of chip A that is included in each generation, has grown in power and complexity year after year, without the battery life runs out. When you see it in Apple's presentation, you take it for natural, but once you isolate it from the bombardment of messages, it emerges as a truly unprecedented and virtually unique situation in computing.
Think about it. In the world of personal computers, more powerful chips have always produced more fans, thicker computers, more heat dissipation, more noise… this is what we have been taught. Now Apple arrives, begins to develop its own chip for its smartphones, and year after year the processor doubles the power of the previous one, while the size of the phone remains the same. And if you increase the size of the phone, its performance increases.
Unbearably, year after year, the gross performance of the iPhone chip (which is now in its fourteenth iteration, that is, it is called the A14) has come close to the power offered by the Intel chips… to the point of surpassing it.
Now imagine that instead of subjecting the entire design to the tyranny of iPhone size, you could free it up to occupy the surface of a laptop. And that you could add fans to keep it fresh and it could continue processing at full speed.
When you see it this way, when you know that the phone you are selling has a more powerful chip than most PCs and that it consumes far less battery, you understand that creating a specialized chip for Apple computers was the natural step. , essential, to continue to innovate.
Even if it means, Apple again! detach from what everyone else is doing.
Off the easy road of continuing to buy chips from Intel and endure its development, manufacturing, and pricing issues, Apple has started with computers that require less power (usually) even if the mere fact of putting the M1 chips on them makes them much more powerful.
Apple, for once without putting pressure on itself, has given itself two years to complete the switch to its chips.
One can only begin to imagine the enthusiasm of development teams with the possibilities offered by all the space an iMac has to develop a card, without having to lose it to a battery, or the challenge posed by professional computers (the ones that are really focused on professional performance) to achieve such maximum optimization as to pulverize any attempt at comparison.
Eventually, I believe, the beast will come. A Mac Pro that has already done all the work of creating an expandable system in all directions, but now needs to reconvert - and add compatibility - with graphics cards, expansion systems, etc.
The transition system that Apple knows so well and has implemented so that users experience as little turbulence as possible will make this architectural change boring or uninteresting for many.
No big fireworks (except maybe when the time comes for the Mac Pro - could there be a Mac Pro mini on the horizon?) By simply swapping one card for another, and the world - it seems - will remain the same.
Let's not forget that 95% of people / and I'm generous / don't give a damn about the chip, architecture or milliseconds it takes to open an application.
They just want to turn on the computer and make everything work. That's why they buy a Mac.
And that's what Apple continues to offer, only faster. Too much faster.
